Re: Pre-bug-raising questions
On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 7:18 PM, Frans Pop <elendil@planet.nl> wrote:
> On Monday 19 January 2009, Mike Grice wrote:
>> So I guess the salient points from all the above are:
>>
>> 1) the debian-installer is not detecting the correct modules for the
>> hdd and net even though theyre present in the udebs
>>
>> 2) the initramfs-tools config on the installed system doesn't load the
>> relevant modules by default
>>
>> 3) the text console doesn't work once the install is finished and the
>> system is up as normal
>
> Just to make sure there are no false expectancies: we are about to upload
> the RC2 release of Debian Installer, which is expected to be the final
> release for Lenny.
>
> The issues you describe here are clearly not bugs, but a new feature. The
> detection/loading of modules is something that should preferably be done
> automatically by the kernel, although it can probably be worked around in
> the installer (if there is a clear way to recognize _when_ the modules
> should be loaded).
I'm not a d-i expert, but I guess the question is valid: who takes
responsibility for picking up hardware pertinent to installation? I
(maybe incorrectly) assumed that the installer 'scanned' then enabled
this as appropriate. If its not the installer, can you let me know
which subsystem is? I'm hoping to get Debian/sparc adopted fully at
work, but I'll not be able to do this unless it's a trivial deviation
from official release to remotely reproduce any such change.
> The "serial console" issue is probably relatively trivial to solve, but
> should still be done very carefully.
I agree with this part. It's really the fault of the LDOM software,
the changing of type of console is a bit silly and creates extra
headache for users and maintainers. I'm happy to have my own
implementation of the changes needed to /etc/inittab or whatever, on a
site basis (if anything generic gets cooked up of course i'll offer it
back).
> Conclusion: the needed changes will NOT be done before the release of
> Lenny. However, there is a slight chance they could be included in a
> later stable update. That mostly depends on whether someone is willing to
> do the work required for that.
I guess my main problem with that is that it rules out Debian for me
until at least Squeeze if I have to make big changes from the default
(which means I will end up on Solaris or can the whole project
entirely). It's a shame, I love Debian and would love to implement
it. If I could get a better understanding of the subsystems that are
responsible for making the decision what modules to probe, I could try
and learn and take a look and feed back the changes. What bit of the
Debian system decides which modules to load? Why does it work for one
driver and not another?
Thanks,
Mike.
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