network install over nVidia nForce 3 ethernet interface
Hello,
My question concerns the correct course of action when installing
Sarge on a computer whose only way to connect to the internet is
through an nVidia nForce 3 ethernet interface which needs the driver
provided by nVidia at
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_nforce_amd64_1.0-0292
without having to burn 14 CDs.
It is a script called NFORCE-Linux-x86_64-1.0-0292-pkg1.run that's
supposed to install the driver, given that you have a basic system
installed and a 2.4 or 2.6 kernel and the sources of said kernel
installed.
I have tried to install a basic system and then worry about the driver
later, but the installation didn't work. I set up the partitions,
everything going smooth, until reboot. After reboot I got flooded with
messages like
nv_sata : Primary device mounted
nv_sata : Primary device mounted
nv_sata : Secondary device mounted
nv_sata : Secondary device mounted
nv_sata : Secondary device unmounted
nv_sata : Secondary device unmounted
nv_sata : Primary device unmounted
nv_sata : Primary device unmounted
Or maybe it was "loaded" instead of "mounted"... I forgot. Anyway,
something like that.
Thousands of these messages flying by so fast you could barely see them.
I rebooted, trying to redo the install with another kernel (in this
case the 2.6 I gave the linux26 command at boot) and aside from the
red screen that was annoying but otherwise didn't seem to mean much, I
retried the installation except that now the installer will just stop
for long periods of time while doing various things (inexplicably,
since it didn't do it the first time) with no hard disk or cdrom
access. It just sits there, and then after like 15 minutes it picks
back up and continues...
For example now I am staring at a screen "Starting partitioning tool"
and the little progress indicator is at 55% and it ain't moving and
there seems to be no activity. 15 minutes ago it was at 33 or
something, and not moving, then it jumped to 55 and now it's
sitting... Oh , there it goes, now it's at 72... and sitting...
Normally this should be almost instantaneous.
Should I just try another build of the netinstall CD or (and this
would really be sweet) is there any way to get a hold of a netinstall
CD with the forcedeth driver corresponding to the particular kernel ON
IT already...?
A man can dream can't he?
Oh by the way, in the meantime, grub and the master boot sector got
all messed up somewhere along the way, and so I can't even boot into
my windows partition I had installed for recovery purposes... :-) now
I lost my windows partition too.
Great.
Alex.
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