Re: Debian stable & SATA drive
On Thu, Jun 08, 2006 at 06:51:57PM -0500, Owen Heisler wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-06-07 at 05:38 -0600, Paul E Condon wrote:
> > On Tue, Jun 06, 2006 at 09:53:15PM -0500, Owen Heisler wrote:
> > > On Tue, 2006-06-06 at 09:43 +0100, George Borisov wrote:
> > > > Owen Heisler wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Why doesn't Debian detect the drive? More importantly, what can I do to
> > > > > make it detect it? I have tried all (only two) of the parameters for
> > > > > the sata_via (or via_sata) module.
> > > >
> > > > If so, you might need to use the Etch (testing) installer, rather than
> > > > the Sarge one (stable.) I have installed Sarge on a SATA machine before,
> > > > but some people here have reported problems. (There were several threads
> > > > on this in the last few months.)
> > >
> > > Okay, I managed to get this image downloaded after about 6 hours (dialup
> > > is blazingly fast!):
> > > http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/etch_di_beta2/amd64/iso-cd/debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso
> > >
> > > ...and it worked! But I want to use Debian stable. This simplest "fix"
> > > for this would be to wait until the applicable change makes it to Debian
> > > stable. I would like to know how long that will be, or what revision of
> > > stable would include the change. I am new to Debian and do not fully
> > > understand the way development occurs, so I don't even know if it is
> > > possible to answer this question. Will it be the next release
> > > (Etch/stable)? Sarge was released in June of 2005, and releases take
> > > 2-3 years (right?), so Etch won't be released until 2007... but maybe a
> > > revision will fix the problem.
> > >
> >
> > Look at
> > http://www.debian.org/releases/
> > for lots of official information.
> >
> > I, personally, run Sarge/Stable. If you want stability then wait. As
> > long as you don't mindlessly upgrade every few days *your* system *is*
> > stable. But if you know that there are packages that you would like
> > to use, but have not yet installed, the answer is more complicated.
> >
> > Look for a 'back port' of the package that you especially needed to
> > get your system working. If you can find such, you can run a slightly
> > un-Stable version of Stable, by installing Sarge and then installing
> > that back-port. (Back-ports are not official parts of Stable, but they
> > are configured during build to work with Stable.) A problem with
> > stable software is that it generally works best with older hardware.
>
> This doesn't really answer my question; maybe you misunderstood (didn't
> understand my babbling). I just want to know how long it will be
> (date/release/revision) until Debian stable will work with the SATA in
> my system. As you can see above, the testing-amd64-netinst image worked
> for me. I am guessing that, since this image is "Etch", that it will be
> after Etch is released that "Debian stable" will work for me (because it
> will be Etch, then). If that is true, is there any answer to when Etch
> will be released? Is it "any time now", as I have seen mentioned here
> or, like I said before, 2-3 years after the previous release (after June
> 2007)?
>
> Thanks.
>
I think another post indicated that there is a back port that enables
SATA for Sarge. If there is such a back port, then it is unlikely that
the same software will actually be made part of Sarge. Debian places
high value on stability. If a critical problem for some, but not all,
users is solved by a back port, it is no longer critical and can be
deferred until release of Etch.
So... , when will Etch be released as the new Stable? For this
question, you will not get an authoritative answer. Sorry, that is
the way Debian is. No one will commit to a date and keep to that
commitment by releasing software that is not yet ready. Before a
release of a next version, there is often a 'freeze' of new features
while a list of known bugs is whittled down to an acceptable few.
This freeze has, to my knowledge, not been established for Etch, so
release within the next few days would surprise me very much.
My first answer was an attempt to quiet your apparent fears of
the unknown release date. I think you have a running system now,
using Etch. If you are happy with it, use it and be happy. But be
cautious about upgrading within Etch. Install apt-listbugs package.
It will warn you about bugs that have already been reported.
If you are concerned about it not being officially Stable, I think you
can install Sarge with back ported SATA. But this would not be really
a Stable system, because back ports are not part of the official
release. And, it would be a lot of work, because the apt-get system
doesn't really support the opposite of upgrade cleanly. If you need
SATA for your boot disk, beware.
I advise that you learn the system that you have installed and
running. It will become Stable somewhere in the middle of the learning
process.
--
Paul E Condon
pecondon@mesanetworks.net
Reply to: