On Thu, Aug 08, 2013 at 12:06:23PM -0400, Gary Dale wrote:
On 08/08/13 06:28 AM, Jerome BENOIT wrote:
Hello Gary,
On 08/08/13 11:39, Gary Dale wrote:
The various ide modules (ide-generic, ide-cdrom, etc.) seem to be missing in the Wheezy kernel. However they still compile a 486 kernel so I'm assuming there is some intent to continue to support older hardware.
In my case, I have an old laptop that I could run Squeeze on by including ide-generic in the /etc/initramfstool/modules file. However the same thing doesn't work in Wheezy because there is no ide-generic module.
Googling around, I found one post that suggested it's been superseded by libata but I can't find that either.
Is 486-era hardware still supported in the newer kernels or is this a lost cause?
I guess that it is still supported by the kernel, but not by the kernel deb package as distributed by debian.
You may build your own kernel, and the following link is a good place to start:
http://kernel-handbook.alioth.debian.org
hth,
Jerome
Thanks. This would be a truly bizarre situation - creating a 486
kernel package for people but omitting the basic hardware drivers
for hardware of the that vintage.
The basic difference between the 486 and 686 kernels is support for
PAE. Pentium processors lack PAE but would generally need the IDE
drivers.
In my case, I'm talking about Pentium-MMX @ 200MHz, which is far
less powerful than a Raspberry Pi but still useful. However the
CD-ROM and disk drives of that time need IDE drivers.
It wasn't long after that PAE was added (in the Pentium Pro and
later). Why would anyone make a 486 kernel and not include the
drivers? I could understand, but not agree with, dropping 486
support as some distros have done. But to simply not compile the
drivers seems silly.
Newer kernels, as you've mentioned, use libata to interface with
Parallel ATA devices (which is what most 486-era drives are). AIUI, this
is a new set of code that works both with SATA and PATA drives. Common
code means more people use it, less bit-rot etc. If does, however, come
with the side effect that /dev/hd* is now /dev/sd* (even if it's not a
SCSI disk. I suspect the initial S is now meaningless).
If you need to access a drive that's pre-IDE (so MFM, RLL etc), then
yes, you'll need the old code.
However, the chances are very likely that CONFIG_ATA_GENERIC (aka
ata_generic.ko) is the successor you want.