Re: Floppy installer fails to load modules
On Mon, 2004-02-09 at 14:02, David Clymer wrote:
> On Sun, 2004-02-08 at 22:24, Jack Carroll wrote:
> > On Sun, Feb 08, 2004 at 04:15:07PM -0500, David Clymer wrote:
> >
> > > > This sounds like a problem with the installation instructions. Has
> > > > anybody successfully done an install from floppies on a system that needs
> > > > modules to be loaded? Do I need to build a custom kernel and install that
> > > > on a rescue floppy?
> > > >
> > >
> > > I've tried before and had similar problems with loading modules from
> > > floppies. I would suggest 2 things:
> > >
> > > 1. try a different install kernel (type F3 at the CD boot prompt)
> > > 2. build a custom kernel and copy it over linux.bin on the boot floppy
> > >
> > > most likely, if you are going to be booting off a SCSI controller for
> > > which the install kernel doesnt have a driver compiled in, you are going
> > > to have problems, and will have to compile a custom kernel. The "load
> > > modules from floppy" option often isnt really useful - loading modules
> > > usually can be put off until after you've got a base debian install and
> > > can more easily configure your system to support whatever hardware you
> > > like.
> >
> > The manuals and some of the messages from the installer differ on
> > that point.
> > The key observation seems to be that the installer insists on laying
> > out partitions before it even attempts to get further installation software
> > from either the CD or the net, and it also needs to load modules to use the
> > network boards. That being the case, it needs modules right then, and the
> > floppies are the only place it could get them.
>
clarification:
> Granted, if doing a netinstall, you've got to have support for a network
> card, but you dont for fancy SCSI/RAID controllers, video card, sound,
You dont for ADDITIONAL SCSI/RAID controllers. If your only disk
controller is un supported, the best option IMHO is to compile a custom
kernel, make an install disk.
> etc. In the past, I've done a minimal install on a small disk with a
> single partition (intended for my / file system), compiled a kernel
> supporting the controllers I needed, then booted into single-user mode,
> moved files from my /usr partition to the newly available disk, edited
> /etc/fstab, rebooted -thats the kind of thing I'm talking about.
-davidc
Reply to: