On Tue, Jan 06, 2004 at 11:48:17AM +0000, Joseph Jones wrote:
> I am very much a newbie, I'm at about the level where I'm starting to
> mess with backports and can compile my own kernel as per the
> instructions in the newbiedoc (just).
>
> I've had an nForce 2 mobo for a couple of months new and simply haven't
> gotten around to installing it, since it seemed like such a hassle. I'm
> re-installing Woody soon as well (I broke something in the current
> install) and figured I'd do both tasks at the same time.
>
> How can I do a network install of Woody on an nForce 2 motherboard? I'm
> guessing I would need to compile a kernel with the forcedeth patch. How
> do I do this, if possible, with the 2.4.20 kernel (which is what I
> generally use)? If not possible with the 2.4.20, could I have
> instructions for whichever kernel version it is possible with?
I've only seen a forcedeth patch for the 2.6 kernel. Assuming it works
with 2.4 kernel:
Install kernel-source.
Patch with patch utility ("patch -p1 < forcedet~v19.txt" or current version).
Configure kernel
Compile kernel with make-kpkg
Install
Make sure you have aliases you need in /etc/modutils
update-modules, if needed.
Reboot
For 2.6 kernel, it is /etc/modprobe.d instead of /etc/modutils (see
module-init-tools package).
>
> Also, once I've got Debian installed, what functionality can I achieve
> without installing the god-forsaken drivers from nVidia? Obviously, with
> forcedeth in the kernel I can get network access, but what about sound
> and USB? I've read in the list about some guy using snd_intel8x0 (alsa
> driver), can this be used with esound and OSS?
Alsa drivers work great. With 2.4.23 kernel I'm still using nvnet
module from nVidia, but forcedeth worked fine with 2.6.0 kernel when I
tried it. With kernel versions 2.4.20 and 2.4.22 I've had stability
problems (ramdom crashes/lockups) and I found USB partially
broken. The 2.4.20 kernel patched with nVidia's agpgart patch was more
stable than 2.4.22 kernel. My ramdom crashes come from nVidia drivers
used for integrated nVidia GeForce4 MX GPU so you may not have this
stability problem. Stability is greatly improved by compiling kernel
without IOAPIC and local APIC support. I also have less lockups when
exiting an X session when using kde rather than gdm.
This is based on experience with ASUS A7N8S-VM motherboard in HP
pavilion a23n PC. I installed a second harddrive where linux
partitions reside; the original harddisc still has XP.
Here follows the brute-force installation I used:
Minimum woody installation was done with LordSutch.com ISOLINUX
mini-ISO image (see http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/). That gets you a
base install with 2.2 kernel. To get nForce chipset drivers you need a
2.4 kernel. That came from downloading Adrian Bunk's 2.4 backport from
http://www.fs.tum.de/~bunk/packages/woody/bunk-1.html. (I actually did
this using XP to download the packages, putting them in partition I
share between the two OSs and installed the packages with dpkg.) After
rebooting with 2.4 kernel, I compiled and installed nVidia nvnet
module; slight modifications to nVidia's instructions are
needed. You need to create a symbolic link /urs/src/linux-2.4.xx that
points to your kernel source, and, assuming 2.4.22 kernel, cd to
/usr/src/nforce/nvnet before doing make/make install.
modprobe nvnet
/etc/init.d/networking restart
At this point you would have internet access, and you can complete your
woody net install. What I actually did was a dist-upgrade to sarge and
net install of sarge.
--
Jerome
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