James wrote:
> This is from a forum i go to and thought it was a good question?
>
> Need a linux guru to help me with this one.
> I decided to install linux on my an35n ultra system. Wanted a distrib
> that would get me up and running right away, but lighter weight and
> with a bit more learning curve. Decided to try out VectorLinux. Its
> based on slackware.
> My problem is that I have decided to install the OSs on this system on
> a scsi drive. The scsi card is an aha-29160N. Which so happens NOT to
> be detected by the VL install. Someone suggested on the VL forum that
> I need to boot using the Slackware scsi (adaptec.s) floppy and from
> there then load the VL root floppy to start the install. This worked
> perfectly. But, I am stuck with needing to use the Slackware floppy to
> boot root on the scsi drive. VL runs fine ...though lacking some
> hardware support ...it seems like a great distribution, I'm hoping to
> get the boot issue resolved and then see if the missing hardware can
> also be resolved ...which should be no problem ...hopefully.
>
> Now as far as I understand I need to use initrd because I am booting
> from a scsi drive. Not sure why I need a ramdisk image to do this. ??
> But, even if I add that to the lilo.conf, how would VL suddenly
> support my scsi card if it didnt during the install? Do I need to add
> a driver or module (whatever its called in the linux world) for the
> card? Another suggestion I was given is to replace the kernel with the
> kernel from the slackware floppy. ?? I am not at all sure how to do
> that and if it is even a good idea. What worries me further is the
> fact that my promise IDE card is not supported and I would assume that
> it would not be using the slackware kernel. ...but, as you can see, I
> am over my head here.
> Any suggestions?
When you build a kernel you end up with a monolithic kernel and a number
of modular drivers. If you compile the drivers into the monolithic
kernel you don't need an initrd. If you compile a driver as a module you
need to build an initrd that holds the driver and a linuxrc init script
to load it on boot.
To reiterate:
monolithic "vmlinuz" == one big file containing your kernel and all the
drivers that it needs.
modular "initrd" == a filesystem containing kernel modules and a linuxrc
init script to load drivers for your hardware.
<ignoreme future=initramfs>
There's also a new method in 2.6: initramfs. It's a CPIO archive that
gets extracted into a ramfs root disk (that all 2.6 kernels use by
default). The most interesting part about this is that the initramfs is
tagged onto the end of the kernel, so you end up with one large file
without the need for a separate initrd file. Very few folks seem to grok
initramfs, so you'll probably not run into it yet.
</ignoreme>
The slackware scsi (adaptec.s) floppy apparently has the driver you
need. If you use that kernel to install then you still have the problem
of installing that kernel (or another kernel with adaptec driver
support) *before* rebooting. During your install, you _must_ install a
kernel with a driver that can address your block devices needed for
booting your system. The difference is that you're running a different
kernel _now_ than you will be running when you reboot (whatever kernel
VL installs)..
Most distributions have a handful of "install" kernels that are
different than a "production" kernel, usually loaded full of drivers
that you _might_ need vs drivers that you actually need to function. If
VL is like this (I honestly don't know, I don't run VL), you may be
lucky and have VL install a _different_ kernel that it uses on install
that will support your adaptec card.
Yes, you can use the kernel from the slackware floppy. It worked well
enough to install from. You should be able to mount the boot floppy
during the install stages from a shell and copy the kernel (and any
initrd) over. I've done this a number of times in the past. The kernel
may not be optimal, but it should allow you to boot your VL environment
with a compiler to build your own kernel.
-- - Ian C. Blenke <icblenke@nks.net>
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