Re: Debian stable & SATA drive
On Thu, 2006-06-08 at 18:53 -0600, Paul E Condon wrote:
> 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)?
>
> 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.
This is the answer I expected! :)
> 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.
I have a running system using Debian stable. I want to use stable, but
am planning on changing my hard drive configuration to include SATA.
Sarge will detect drives on only half of the ports (two, but I need
three), but Etch will. So I either use Etch/testing instead, wait for
Etch/stable to be released, or use some other alternative (but I am new
to Debian, so don't prefer this). I will probably just wait for Etch to
be released.
This answers my questions; thanks for your help.
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