Video
Yep, our hardware is pretty much the same. I saw your other post on video troubles, too, but you left it at "I guess I will try a modeline generator.", and when I went to try a modeline generator it worked easily, so I figured you succeeded as well. Check out http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl After getting a modeline from this site, I modified my /etc/X11/xorg.conf until it looked like this (in part):
Code:
Section "Monitor" After installing the latest Xorg as per http://wiki.x.org/wiki/CvsPage (so that my video card would be properly detected), it worked fine at 1680x1050. I used the "#define ProjectRoot /opt/Xorg-cvs-050203", and then just made a symbolic link to /opt/Xorg-cvs-050203/bin/Xorg, so as not to disturb my normal installation. I have yet to get DRI working, though, so my frame rates are pathetic, but at least the 2D is snappier than with the default (1280x1024) VESA driver. I'm also *still* working on sound (PCI ID 8086:2668). Anyhow, on to simply getting the installation to work: I've noticed that I can "Disable Smilies in This Post". I think that was what was giving me trouble in posting the gzipped, uuencoded patch. Here it is again (part 1 of 2, wish me luck): Code:
begin 644 kernel-2.6.x-src.RPM.patch.gz |
And here's part 2 of 2:
Code:
M^?G!KH=$+<E5]Q%H0L=FJM;LC,4HDCY%T*6LA]BZD^*L=%`NNH7%@\7L,-8O |
Now, if you have a machine with a 2.6.x kernel installation, you'll likely be able to cat these two patch parts to uudecode and get a kernel-2.6.x-src.RPM.patch.gz to apply as follows when rebuilding the kernel:
Code:
cd /usr/src/redhat Code:
cd /tmp |
Your profile says you are a newbie Twinkel, but you seem to be a little more advanced than I. I don't understand all the steps you've laid out in your posts. Here is what I've done so far:
I've used the diskboot.img image on the Fedora install disk 1 to create a boot disk to use as a base on my pen drive. I know I need to now add the drivers to the modules.cgz file, but this is where I get a little lost. Where are the drivers that I'm supposed to be adding to the modules file? I understand that I need to recompile the kernel to include the libata patch, but I don't really understand how to do this. I have recompiled kernels before, but I'm not sure how to get the libata patch included in the recompile. You talk about tweaking the kernel spec file and a few other things I don't understand. Sorry, this is all just new to me. Is there any way you could just supply the boot image you used on your pen drive and the final kernel rpm you used to install on your machine right before you rebooted? I appreciate all the info you've given, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to figure out all the steps you've described in your posts on my own. |
This process is definitely advanced. I was surprised I got through it in one piece (especially since I can't even get sound working... can you tell that's bugging me?:( ). Anyway, the patch I've uploaded actually performs the *.config and *.spec file tweaking, as well as drops in the portion of the libata patch that is not included. This is much preferred to performing these processes yourself, but if you wish to do it manually, here's the rundown:
When you successfully cat and uudecode the two patch segments I've provided here, you'll get a kernel-2.6.x-src.RPM.patch.gz which, if ungzipped, contains sections like the following: Code:
diff -urN ./SOURCES/kernel-2.6.10-i586.config ../redhat.new/SOURCES/kernel-2.6.10-i586.config Code:
diff -urN ./SPECS/kernel-2.6.spec ../redhat.new/SPECS/kernel-2.6.spec Code:
zcat modules.cgz | cpio -id Code:
(cd 2.6.9-1.677/i586; \ls) > files.txt Code:
mkdir -p 2.6.10-1.760_FC3_jbp/i586 Code:
Subject: trouble with promise sata378 scsi controller |
trouble with promise sata378 scsi controller
I too have been having problems with this. I have tried many distrobutions and many files from promise. For some reason the clossest i get is mandrake recognizine my SCSI controller, but then it has issues with the intel storage bridge. I would like to put SUSE on this laptop, or even Redhat.
Is there any chance that you could send that boot disk to me? I have a gmail account so the space is not a problem. Thanks a ton, Bic |
Re: trouble with promise sata378 scsi controller
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Oh... here I've found them. I have diskboot-jbp.img (6MB), which is a boot image for a flash drive, and kernel-{,smp-}2.6.10-1.760_FC3_jbp.i686.rpm ({17,16}MB), which are the RPMs that you *must* install before rebooting from the standard installation procedure. Let me know where to send them. |
Promise sata378 scsi controller
please send the files to my e-mail that is posted on here..or here it is too blackbic@gmail.com. how do you install rpms if you do not have linux installed already? That is the only way i know of?? thanks a ton for this, i have literally been working on this for over a month and a half already.
bic |
Re: Promise sata378 scsi controller
Quote:
Until the Fedora guys integrate this new libata stuff, you'll have to manually apply the patch that was posted here, and rebuild the RPM, before installing an updated kernel. |
There have been many posts that raid0 will not work, but it will. At least I've got it working with gentoo, so I assume it will work with most other distributions.
My alienware 7700 is now booting. I followed the instructions in this thread, mostly the config file posted and the instructions at http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=57754 to get a USB drive booting. with a little help from http://fuzzymunchkin.dyndns.org/tdot...fob/index.php3 I made many errors along the way, for instance I built by img file as an isofs and many many times had typos that causes problems. This is probably not complete, but with the information in this thread and elsewhere you might be able to use my example as a guide. I downloaded syslinux/isolinx. tar -zxvf thetar.gz did a make in the directory I then did a sudo unix/syslinux /dev/sda1 This put syslinux. on the usb drive mount the usb drive. mount the gentoo minimul liveCD using mount -o loop (I used the 2005.0 liveCD) then copy everything on the liveCD to the usb drive Move the stuff from out of the isolinux directory into the root directory and nuke the isolinux directory rm isolinux.bin mv isolinux.cfg syslinux.cfg #personalize boot.msg to know that it is working;-) #edit the syslinux.cfg to have an option for you I used label scotts kernel scotts append initrd=scotts.igz root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc looptype=squashfs loop=/livecd.squashfs udev nodevfs cdroot vga=791 dokeymap #This should give you the liveCD on the USB, might be worth trying at this point. If you can't get the USB booting you'll be burning a few CDs #copy the gentoo.igz image to a working direcotyr (/tmp is fine) (this if from either the usb or the liveCD) cp /mnt/cdrom/gentoo.igz /tmp cd /tmp mv gentoo.igz gentoo.img.gz guznip gentoo.img.gz mount -o loop gentoo.img /mnt/loop1 #Now you need to create a new image file, I used dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/gentoo3 bs=512k count=13 /sbin/mke2fs -F /mnt/gentoo3 mount -o loop /mnt/gentoo3 /mnt/loop2/ # now mount it sudo cp -a /mnt/loop1/* /mnt/loop2/ # now copy from the liveCD onto this new img file Use -a or it will be 10 times larger No edit the linuxrc file in you new root image. I used http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=57754 as a guide. By bootstrapCD() I added: findusbmount() { if [ "$#" -gt "0" ] then for x in $* do echo -e "${GOOD}>>${NORMAL} Attempting to mount USB:- ${x}" mount -t vfat -r ${x} /newroot/mnt/cdrom > /dev/null 2>&1 if [ "$?" = '0' ] then # Check for a LiveCD if [ -e /newroot/mnt/cdrom/livecd ] then echo -e "${HILITE}---- USB medium found on ${x}${NORMAL}" mounted="${x}" REAL_ROOT="${x}" break else echo -e "${HILITE}---- ${x} is not a LiveUSBStick; skipping...${NORMAL}" umount /newroot/mnt/cdrom fi fi done if [ "${REAL_ROOT}" != "" ] then echo -e "${GOOD}>>${NORMAL} USB medium found on ${x}" fi fi } bootstrapUSB() { if [ "${CDROOT_DEV}" = '' ] then findusbmount /dev/sd* # Not in /dev/cdroms: try /dev/ide/cd [ "${REAL_ROOT}" = '' ] && findusbmount /newroot/dev/sd* # USB Keychain else # Device specified on command line findusbmount /newroot/${CDROOT_DEV} fi } # This code worked for me, you might have to check different device names. I replaced the bootstrapCD call with echo -n -e "${WARN}>>${NORMAL}${BOLD} About to mount the USB stick" bootstrapUSB if [ ! "$mounted" ]; then echo -n -e "${WARN}>>${NORMAL}${BOLD} USB mount failed, checking for CDRom" bootstrapCD fi Then the key is to get the volumes up and running. I used the code alread in linuxrc, namelye the startvolumes code, I just always call it so put startVolumes just before the line [ "${CDROOT}" -eq '0' ] && startVolumes # now make scotts.igz umount /mnt/loop2/ gzip -9 /mnt/gentoo3 cp /mnt/gentoo3.gz /mnt/pockey/scotts.igz # put it onto your USB device. You also need to make a kernel. For my USB I used the 2.6.10 kernel, and applied the gentoo genpatches (which you need for sqaushfs) and I applied the libata dev patch. I'm prettys sure the lates (2.6.11.5 currently) will work, as I am now booting with it, but I was genting errors with the libata patch and I had read that it didn't work with 2.6.11 only 2.6.10. Once you patch, you can compile it. I used the config file the oeri posted on http://notebookforums.com/archive/in...p/t-50624.html ( http://www2.oeri.ath.cx/2.6.10-config) to get it compiled. This config file bascially has everything in the kernel so no modules. This helped as occasiionally when booting from the USB it would freeze up looking for modules to load. If you do compile modules don't forget to put them in the /lib/modules directory in the root image that you just created above. cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /mnt/pockey/scotts # copy the compressed kernel to the USB drive Boot from the USB. If everything worked and you didn't get a kernel panic because you missed a step (or I missed on here and you were following too closely) or have a typo, or you hardware is different than mine, you should now have your partitions show up /dev/mapper/pdc_xxxxxx ls /dev/mapper If so, the follow the gentoo installed guide and set up gentoo. The next step is to get it booting. This was a pain, as I kept making mistakes. I used the instructions from http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t...en2dmraid.html Originally, I used partition magic 8.0 to change the 160G NTFS partition to a 20G one, then added a 10G / ext3 partion, a big /home partitition a swap partion and another NTFS partion (this can be shared between linux and xp) But this failed to boot, so I used partition magic to add a 50Mb partition in front of the NTFS partitiont, used it for /boot (make sure you make it active, I used PM for this). I did not retry booting from the origing 10G / partition. I made mistakes like not using /dev/ram0, not putting the initrd in the right place (correct name for my grub.conf), using the boot partition when I should be using the root partition, etc. But it finally booted just fine. This was using the 2.6.10 kernel that I had used on the USB device. The next step was to compile a 2.6.11.r5 kernel. After getting all of the options correct, finally, it booted just fine. At one point I was using devfs (even though they said not to, but I didn't feel like recompiling the USB kernel), and so I had to che the ln -s line in the USE_DEVFS_HACK in the linuxrc file the dmraidinitrd used. But it worked. I still don't have the X or the network working in this kernel, but I will shortly. I'm just posting this before I forget what I did and forget to post, so hopefully those out there still trying might be successfull. And a big thanks to everyone who has posted so much help on getiting these portables up and running! |
Hey Twinkel. Glad to see someone was able to get FC3 working with an Alienware system. I myself have an almost identical system to yours. I've got the Alienware MJ-12m 7700 Mobile Workstation. Can't get any distro to load on it though. I read on page 1 that someone got SuSe 9.1 to work with the drivers from Promise. Well i got those drivers and SuSe won't install period. Tried FC2 with it's Sata_promise drivers and the install freezes. FC3, well it's a joke on this machine. lol. Off to see if i can find a distro that'll work.
I'd try your steps involving the kernel re-build, but i've never succesfully been able to build a kernel. |
UPDATE: FC4 WORKS
I have, most recently, installed vanilla Fedora Core 4 without the need to recompile anything. I believe I did have some issues with installation, but these may have been of my own making (DVD was not readable in laptop drive, so had to install over NFS from other machine, booted from USB key (do *not* remove key during installation)). I'm still having some trouble with my sound card, and using LVM stuff absolutely failed (had to partition manually without LVM), but other than that, things seem reasonably stable. The installation locked up at the very end a few times (it took me about 5 attempts to get everything right), so I opted to do an installation other than the 6.8GB "everything", and then just "yum install <whatever>".
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Are you saying that FC4 has support for the SATA 378 chipset? I may have to give that one a shot. Thanks for your reply.
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Well arlight. I'll d/l FC4 and see what i can do. Appreciate it Twinkel.
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