Re: Right List? First install.
On Wed, Nov 17, 1999 at 03:04:16PM -0500, Bryan Scaringe wrote
> OK,
> If you are trying to install via floppies, you obviously have the
> boot and root disks, and the base system disks (five of them, I think).
> There are no floppies for the "Main Packages".
>
> Let me explain:
> Debian uses "packages" for programs, libraries, etc. One (usually)
> package for each. Now, there should be enough essential system stuff on the
> base system floppies to get a Semi-functional Debian system installed on a
> hard disk. I say semi-functional because it can do little more than install
> the rest of your debian system. More on this later.
>
> There is no "Main Package". What debian is asking for are the Main PackageS
> (plural). In other words, it wants to know where the rest of the packages are
> located, since it is about to bring you to a menu that will let you pick and
> choose which packages to install. There are no floppies for this. Why?
> Because these packages take up the majority of two CDs! Thats quite a few
> floppies.
>
> Really, a "Floppy Install" is kind of a misnomer. Floppies will only get you
> so far, and you've just gone past where you can go with just floppies.
>
> So you have 2 options:
> 1) Net install (using ftp, http, nfs mounted drive, etc.)
> 2) CD install (get a $2.00 CD at www.cheapbytes.com
>
> Now, let's assume you want to do the net install.
> We'll need to get that card working. What can you tell us about it?
> I have a cheap ne2000 clone as well. Is it ISA-PNP, or just ISA? or PCI?
>
> Here's what I did with mine...
> 1) Since the card was ISA-PNP, I needed to find out the ioport and irq of the
> card. Since I had windows on the machine, I went into the system settings
> and discovered it was at IO=0x300, IRQ=10.
>
> 2) From the manual: "Installing Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 For Intel x86 (the document
> I believe you've been using), Section 6.1 shows that you are presented with a
> "boot:" prompt. i had to enter (I believe):
> linux ether=10,0x300,eth0
> Replace 10 with your IRQ, 0x300 with your IO address (but don't forget the
> 0x (zero-x) in front). Leave the eth0. This tells the kernel it should
> find an ethernet card at IO address 0x300, IRQ 10, and that it should be
> designated as the first card (eth0, eth1, eth2, etc.)
>
I believe that you remember incorrectly. The NE2000 drivers (ISA and PCI) are
not built into the installation kernel, but must be loaded as modules during
the "Configure Device Driver Modules" step.
For NE2000 PCI cards, you should just have to select the "ne2k-pci" driver
from the list of Networking Modules; no parameters should be required.
For NE2000 ISA cards, and NE2000 PCI cards the the ne2k-pci driver can't
detect, you should select the "ne" driver and provide as options:
io=0x300,irq=10
substituting the card's actual base IO address and IRQ (the IRQ is probably
not required, but if you know it you should supply it).
Finally, a few cards that claim to be NE2000 compatible aren't really; I
seem to recall encountering both "Lance" and "RTL8139" cards that claimed
on the packaging to be NE2000-compatible; if all else fails, can you read
the chip names off of any VLSI chips on your network card? Unfortunately,
they are sometimes covered with black texta or "Certified by Novell"
stickers.
You really do want to get the network card going to make the installation
tolerable; if God, or whoever is in charge of hardware on your Net, gave
you a NIC it would be foolish not to use it if you possibly can.
John P.
--
huiac@camtech.net.au
john@huiac.apana.org.au
"Oh - I - you know - my job is to fear everything." - Bill Gates in Denmark
Reply to: