SATA disk drivers missing from Debian 5.0.3 network installer
Rigoberto Corujo
Hi,
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?
Thank you.
Rigoberto |
Frank Lin PIAT
> Hi,
>
> 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.
You might want to try configure your SATA controller in "Compatible"
mode in the BIOS (instead of "AHCI")
>
> 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?
Is Debian-Installer booting ? (the initrd in D-I includes all the
sensible drivers. BTW, on installed systems, the initrd is built with
'MODULES=most' in initramfs.conf, by default)
Which Debian-Installer do you use ?
Where did you get the .ko modules from ?
Franklin
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Rigoberto Corujo
Hi Frank,
Thank you for your response. I am familiar with the BIOS option you are referring to because I've had to set it before on the HP ProLiant DL1XX servers, but this is an HP BL2x220c G5 blade and no such option exists.
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.
This is the Debian Installer I used to install over the network.
I also tried taking the libata.ko and ata_piix.ko modules from the "initrd.gz" that comes with the Debian 5.0.3 DVD 1 under the "install.386" directory and loading them when the Debian Network Installer was sitting at the shell prompt, but I got. # insmod libata.ko
insmod: error inserting 'libata.ko' : -1 Invalid module format
The problem is that I will be doing all my installs over the network so I need for the Debian installer to recognize the SATA disks.
Thank you.
|
Frank Lin PIAT
On Mon, 2009-11-23 at 07:04 -0800, Rigoberto Corujo wrote:
> On Sat, 2009-11-21, Frank Lin PIAT <fp...@klabs.be> 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
Rigoberto Corujo
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