problem using setup with huge26.s to support XFS and SATA
 

I have tried (full and selective) install using setup with huge26.s, to support XFS partition on sata2 drive. In the install the make bootdisk failed, and, indeed, the disks are not bootable. But I was able to make an elementary lilo setup to floppy. That reported as a failure also, but it worked. When I got to pick a kernel the pick list indicated huge26.s but I got a 2.4 series kernel in fact. Moreover, the mouse isn't working on gpm nor is the Marvell 88E1116 nic. The chipset is nVidia GeForce 6100 and nForce 430, the audio (low priority with me) is Realtek ALC883.
Questions: 1) How do I get the huge26 kernel to be the one that setup installs, or how to install it "by hand"?
2) How to get its modules functional, hoping that among these will be support for my hardware.
3) I do have the nVidia drivers on another partition, but I don't want to do that until I have the kernel issue and the ethernet resolved.
Appreciate any and all help.

What error did you get when you tried to install Lilo?


1 and 2 should go hand in hand:

Boot from your CD and give "huge26.s" as boot option. Select and install packages. You will be asked what kernel to install, huge26.s should be automatically highlighted if you booted with it. When you are given questions about Lilo you should probably install it in the MBR of your harddisk -- choose expert setup here, start with an empty Lilo config, add your Linux partition (the one / root folder is located on), then choose to install it from menu.
You could switch to a second console (Ctrl+2 I think, Ctrl+1 to switch back to the installer) to install the modules after all the setup is complete. Type return to activate it. Now mount the CD/DVD with the /extras folder (if the CD-ROM is still locked switch to console 1 and exit the installer to unlock it).
Move to the folder where the modules are (not 100% sure, do a "ls" to see the available folders): "cd /cdrom/extra/linux-2.6.17.13". Now install the modules: "installpkg kernel-modules-2.6.17.13*tgz".

Reboot.

After rebooting go to /etc/rc.d and make rc.modules point to rc.modules-2.6.17.13 instead of rc.modules-2.4.33.

EDIT: If there are any errors please be more specific about them. Try to post the complete error message and describe the steps you did before (for example what was your input in the Lilo part of the installation?). Else it's some sort of mind reading ;)

If you are using XFS your only safe option for installing lilo is to the MBR.

More specifically, I did choose floppy over MBR because I had installed XP on the sata drive. I have a partition I added to /etc/fstab in setup which is on a small ext3fs partition I boot Slackware 9.1 (ext2 system) and also Debian sarge (XFS), with the lilo config pointing to /dev/hdc as the boot MBR drive. That works fine; I can get into (but no drivers) the prior systems. I did a complete install to /dev/sda8, the XFS partition on the sata drive from the cd 1 and cd2. I have not been able to find any modules for 2.6.17 on either cd 1 on under extras on cd2.
The installation did indeed highlight the huge26.s kernel to install; but actually installed the 2.4.33. I'll give it another try tonight and take notes on all messages. I am inclined to set the drive with the Debian distro as first boot priority and then install to its MBR. (Currently occupied by a not so functional grub.) I am uneasy about installing MBR of sata disk as I don't know if this makes XP disappear. XP installed itself (user gets precious little in the way of choices!) to dual boot with existing W98 on /dev/hdb, which shows when it has boot priority. I
very much appreciate your comments. You've already cleared up some parts of what I need to know.

My impression was that 2.4.33 was installed anyway, but the vmlinuz, config and System.map in /boot are instead 2.6.17.13 or at least they were it on my machine (EDIT: of course only if you choose to install that kernel during setup what you wrote you did). I cannot tell on which CD the modules are (I have a custom-DVD), but download them from the net if you have any problems with your media, they might be on CD 3: ftp://slackware.cs.utah.edu/pub/slac...inux-2.6.17.13 You will probably want the modules and the source package from there.

I don't think installing Lilo to MBR should be a problem, but you have to add Windows to the Lilo config file of course, I guess not both but only the XP on hda1 (which should offer you a menu at the start to boot XP or 98, right?). Search here on lq.org or in the documentation, you don't need to be a wizard to add this (sorry, I have switched to Grub myself, so I cannot give you an example.

Got over some of the errors!
 

Discovered some things of general interest with setup and this release:
1) huge26.s is > 3MB -- in the bz image. Way too big to go onto a normal floppy. Oops. And so, the setup script idiotically fails to note the write error from cp, that the drive is out of space, when making a bootdisk (as advised.) Moreover, the drive is marked as failing for the rest of the setup, so lilo fails to write to it as well. I got around this by ignoring the bootdisk invitation after full install, and making a simple lilo.conf (expert, to floppy, with this kernel and XP only). Then I gave the network command (actually, before setup, but I didn't need network to install, just trying to scan for hardware) and found that my on board Marvell nic could look like a de4x5, near enough to get going. I then mounted the second iso and installed the kernel modules using installpkg from the command line on a second VC. I edited the simlink in /etc/rc.d/ to point to the rc.modules for 2.6.17.13 and then rebooted. I can indeed get a ping out of my nameserver (Bellsouth), so the network interface is looking up.
2) Before this happy time, though, I decided that I could, after all, go with 2.4 kernel and sata.i to get to my partition, and go with ext2 yet again. So I partitioned a 48MB for /boot and a 19GB for /, and tried a sata.i install. Woe! Although I tried this twice, and checked carefully that it had /dev/sda8 as / and /dev/sda7 as /boot, it tried to install packages to /dev/sda7, and ran out of space almost immediately. But it didn't let a little "destination full" error slow it down! I had to SIGINT the setup. (at least I didn't have to kill it from another VC!) Amazing. So, I wonder about the setup for sata.i. This was onto a sata 2 drive, with these partitions as extended. Only the XP partition, /dev/sda1, is primary. None are marked bootable.
TO do, still: get a lilo installed onto /dev/sda's MBR. I'll use floppy until I can get lilo to start XP successfully. Also, I got the drivers from NVIDIA, but need to install them for full video capabilities. One thing I like about Slackware, compared to the few other distros I've tried, is that it has multiple ways to win, and doesn't assume that you have X running out of the gate. But the good ol' framebuffer device got me going just fine.
Thanks, all, for helpful ideas, and I hope this info about the bootdisk gotchas and sata.i install help others.
ALCstu

Well, I used the huge26.s for installation too. Because it supports the most hardware and has various file system support (like the XFS) compiled in.
But after reboot I installed the kernel-generic-2.6.17.13-i486-1.tgz package with all the corresponding headers, modules, and source packages.
Actually I used the smp version of that since I have a P4 with HT.
Both are found on 2nd CD under /extra/linux-2.6.17.13 and /extra/linux-smp-2.6.17.13.
The only downside of the generic kernel is that it doesn't have XFS support so one must do the mkinitrd.
My corresponding section from lilo.conf is (replace device names with the ones corresponding to your hardware setup):