[No top posting[1] and no HTML please ] On Mon, 2009-11-23 at 07:04 -0800, Rigoberto Corujo wrote: > On Sat, 2009-11-21, Frank Lin PIAT <[email protected]> wrote > > On Fri, 2009-11-20 at 11:06 -0800, Rigoberto Corujo wrote: > > > > > > I am a new Debian user and am trying to install 5.0.3 over the > > > network. My server has SATA drives and the installer isn't > > > recognizing them. In other words, "cat /proc/partitions" shows > > > nothing. > > > > > I noticed that the network version of the "initrd.gz" file is missing > > > the ata_piix.ko and libata.ko drivers. These drivers are present in > > > the Debian distribution, however. I tried copying the distribution's > > > ata_piix.ko and libata.ko drivers into the initrd.gz, but they won't > > > load because "insmod" says "Invalid module format". Does anyone know > > > if there's a workaround for this problem? > > > > Which Debian-Installer do you use ? > > Where did you get the .ko modules from ? > > If I install directly from the DVD, which has the loadable kernel > modules, the disks are properly recognized, which leads me to believe > that the BIOS setting isn't the issue.
Agreed. > This is the Debian Installer I used to install over the network: > http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/lenny/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/i386/ > > I also tried taking the libata.ko and ata_piix.ko modules from the > [..] the DVD [..] > > # insmod libata.ko > insmod: error inserting 'libata.ko' : -1 Invalid module format I am not sure why it complains. Interestingly, I never noticed that netboot images and CD images are very different (see below). And that's reasonable: the initrd should contains enough drivers, to be able to fetch the remaining debian-installer .udeb (i.e modules and programs) : +----------+-----+-----+ |DIR(2) | CD | NET | |----------+-----+-----| |acpi | yes | yes | |ata | yes | -- | |base | yes | yes | |block | yes | yes | |cdrom | yes | -- | |char | yes | yes | |hid | yes | yes | |ide | yes | yes | |ieee1394 | yes | yes | |input | yes | yes | |leds | -- | yes | |misc | yes | yes | |mmc | yes | yes | |net | -- | yes | |parport | yes | -- | |pcmcia | yes | yes | |scsi | yes | yes | |serial | yes | yes | |ssb | -- | yes | |thermal | yes | yes | |usb | yes | yes | |video | yes | yes | |virtio | -- | yes | +----------+-----+-----+ (2) DIR: the directories in initrd's /lib/modules/*/kernel/drivers So, the initrd included on a CD/DVD must contains all the IDE, SATA and CD drivers, so it can later fetch extra .udeb from the CD/DVD (the network driver are then read from the cdrom in /pool/main/l/linux-kernel-di-i386-2.6/nic-*) On the other hand, the initrd provided for netbooting must include all the drivers so it can later download the extra .udeb from the network. (the IDE, SATA, CD/DVD drivers are downloaded from http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/linux-kernel-di-i386-2.6/ ) So, to solve your problem, you probably just have to netboot and proceed through Debian-Installer menu. Once the network is configured, D-I will detect the hardware and download the appropriate packages. If I am correct, your disk should be detected nicely before the partitioning stage ! If you still have problem, you can send *me* the logs. To retrieve D-I logs, follow the instruction in this wiki page (screenshots and logs are retrieved the same way): http://wiki.debian.org/ScreenShots#debian-installer-gui Franklin [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#toc -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected]
