Noob question, but humour me please as I am learning...

I am trying to install Slackware on an old PC with an EISA Adatec AHA-2740T scsi controller.

I am unable to boot from the CD rom drive, so having read the How-To on the Slackware CD, I created a bootdisk using the adatec.s image. However, when I boot from this I am unable to access my hard drives. Scrolling back through the output, I find the following error:

kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprode -s -k scsi_hostadapter, errno=2

Have I missed some parameters at boot for this image (the docs report that it supports the old aic7xxx devices)?

As a test, I downloaded and created a boot disk using the aic7xxx image from the Slackware 8 version, with all three scsi devices detected and operational. Able to fdisk and install without any problems (encountered other problems (disk space issues etc) which cocked up the install, but these are noob errors and I will persevere).

From this, I can only presume the adaptec.s image is the problem.

Many thanks.

I noticed when I downloaded and burnt the images for Slackware Version 10.0 that some of the scsi boot images were faulty. If I were you I would create the
boot disk from Slackware Version 8.0 and once you are booted up into Slackware change to Version 10.0 Cd's and run setup and install a bare minimum of software ie packages in a, d and k; compile and install the kernel with the correct options and then continue with your install using the pkgtool command. Running EISA scsi controller indicates an early 486. You may not have enough disk space or RAM for you to do a complete install although I started using Slackware on an early 486DX with 20MBytes RAM and 256Mbyte hard disk. I used Slackware Version 3.2 and ran XFree86.

HTH

Thanks johneb47

I double checked my installation yesterday, having reformatted the drives and started from scratch again. I am already using the Version 8 boot disk, and had slightly more success (I had incorrectly installed the bare.i kernel, doh) but still unable to boot to the adaptec.s kernel I installed from the Slack cd. I am getting a different error now, but I neglected to note it (will post when I have), but I was beginning to suspect that I was in the realms of re-compiling the kernel.

With regard to the compilation, what is the actual process(here come the noob questions)?
Do I boot using the version 8 boot disk and then use the two version 10 install disks?
How do I get the the software installed on the hard drive (guessing I have to mount the drives)?
If the kernels supplied are have faulty driver support, will a re-compile work?
Do I need any additional hardware information, or does the compilation process give options to select?

With regard to the hardware, the actual specs are: Compaq 486/33M with P133 overdrive processor, 40Mb Ram, Adaptec AHA2740T scsi host adapter, 2Gb hard drive (device 1, main Linux partition), 1Gb hard drive (device 2, 500Mb Linux partition (mounted as /home during installation) + 500Mb swap partition) and 2x CD rom (device 3), 3Com network card, Compaq AVGA video adapter.

The aim was to get a working Linux installation for experimenting with various game servers (HL, CS and UT2003 primarily), improving my sys admin skills(?) and some development work (just starting the learn C). I am an AIX user at work, and I am able to write KSH scripts and I can use vi, can move around a *nix system, but as a user I have limited admin experience. I was not necessarily fussed about X and a desktop environment, but would try it if the hardware was up to it.

Thanks again.

You're hardware is ok for the job. If you install X don't use GNOME or KDE desktops use something lightweight like windowmaker or xfce. Sounds like you have the smarts to use the system. You can use the Ver8.0 setup and install software from the Ver10.0 CD's. As I said you should have enough space to install all you need. For now I would not install GNOME or KDE files. You will have to use adaptec.s image to use your CDrom Drives. you should be able to mount them during setup. As I said in previous post all packages in a, d and k directories are needed to recompile the kernel. Once you have installed your software just reboot your system. Cd /usr/src/linux and make menuconfig. Select scsi--> Yes to CD Drives: select lowlevel drivers and say Yes to adaptec. exit configmenu and save current cofiguration. make dep make bzImage make install make modules_install

Reboot and that should be it. The Yes to the adaptec module loads this module as part of the kernel so you can use it without having to enable it in the /etc/rc.d/rc.modules file.

NB: If you are using ide drives and atapi cd drives you can boot use the Ver10.0 bare.i image. The above is only necessary if you are using scsi drives or scsi cd drives.

HTH

Thanks again johneb47

No problem with the recompile, relatively straight forward but did take an age on this spec (!!!), and I can see a custom kernel coming along for my low spec box here.

Still unable to boot from the install however. Booting stops at kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k major-block-8,errno=2. Searching thru these forums, I think the problem is related to detection of a sound subsystem. I have no audio devices in the machine, so is there a simple way to prevent this probing (boot parameter or otherwise), or do I need to compile the kernel specifically for this machine with everything manually selected, and no dynamic options (this particular deskpro in EISA bus only, no pci, no usb, etc)?

Still unable to boot from the install however. Booting stops at kmod: failed to exec /sbin/modprobe -s -k major-block-8,errno=2. Searching thru these forums, I think the problem is related to detection of a sound subsystem. I have no audio devices in the machine, so is there a simple way to prevent this probing (boot parameter or otherwise), or do I need to compile the kernel specifically for this machine with everything manually selected, and no dynamic options (this particular deskpro in EISA bus only, no pci, no usb, etc)?

Slackware compiles most of the kernel extensions as modules because they need to have a generic working system and then enable the necessary modules at runtime.
The easiest way to overcome your problems may be to tailor your kernel with no modules. That means you add everything you need to run your box into the kernel. It will result in a larger kernel but it should run on your box. Be sure to disable everything that doesn't apply to your box. You will still need to run 'make modules' and 'make modules+AF8-install' after compiling the kernel to setup the modules directory correctly. This is the only way to bypass the modules in the distribution.

It maybe best to re-evaluate your software needs and settle for a working Slackware Version 8.0 system. Once you have a working system you could bring Version 10.0 online slowly. One problem you maybe facing is that I am unsure whether the 2.6.xx series kernel will work correctly with such old hardware. But that could be one of the things you could try.

HTH

Just to update, got if figured in the end.

Nothing wrong with the compile, but on checking dmesg, I saw that the hard drives / partitions were not being recognized / found. I booted using the floppy and checked lilo.conf. All seemed okay, so ran lilo anyway. Rebooted and voila, all fixed. Don't know if I should have done this after re-compiling, but the end result is a working install.

Thanks for all the help.

Whenever you either compile a new kernel or change liloconf you must run the 'lilo' command as root to get it to recognise the changes.

This 'make install' does this for you automatically but it installs vmlinuz and systemap files in the / (root tree) rather than the /boot directory.