[gentoo-dev] More on: Install problem with new box. help please.

[gentoo-dev] More on: Install problem with new box. help please.

[Wayne Ringling]

 I think I have figured out that I need to load a device driver for the
FastTrak 100 raid.  But unlike other distro's that allow a driver disk to be
used in the boot process, gentoo dosen't that I can see.  Is there a way to
load a driver for a device that is not already in the distro.  Or is there
another way I can install this system?

Wayne

Re: [gentoo-dev] More on: Install problem with new box. help please.

[Tom von Schwerdtner]

> 
>  I think I have figured out that I need to load a device driver for the
> FastTrak 100 raid.  But unlike other distro's that allow a driver disk
> to be used in the boot process, gentoo dosen't that I can see.  Is
> there a way to load a driver for a device that is not already in the
> distro.  Or is there another way I can install this system?

I did part of the 1.0--rc6-r11 install by booting to a second drive, 
dialing up with ppp (since the cd had no ppp support) and chrooting to the 
gentoo drive.

So long as you have a kernel that has all the capabilities you need on 
another drive, you can format the gentoo drives, copy over the base from 
the gentoo cd, and chroot to the gentoo disks to complete the install.

I am no expert here, but from the way my install went, I dont think I ever 
really _had_ to boot from the cd since I had a debian system (and a boot 
disk for it) on my second drive.

HTH,

-Tom

RE: [gentoo-dev] More on: Install problem with new box. help please.

[Wayne Ringling]

 My problem is that I don't have an existing system to use.  This is a new
box totally.

Wayne

>I did part of the 1.0--rc6-r11 install by booting to a second drive,
>dialing up with ppp (since the cd had no ppp support) and chrooting to the
>gentoo drive.

>So long as you have a kernel that has all the capabilities you need on
>another drive, you can format the gentoo drives, copy over the base from
>the gentoo cd, and chroot to the gentoo disks to complete the install.

>I am no expert here, but from the way my install went, I dont think I ever
>really _had_ to boot from the cd since I had a debian system (and a boot
>disk for it) on my second drive.

>HTH,

>-Tom

RE: [gentoo-dev] More on: Install problem with new box. help please.

[Tom von Schwerdtner]

> 
>  My problem is that I don't have an existing system to use.  This is a
>  new
> box totally.

Ah, I see...

Do you have another distro laying around that you could use for a very 
minimum install?

Anyone know anything about options you can pass to the ISO-Linux kernel at 
boot-time?  Maybe to tell the kernel that it needs to load some drivers 
from a floppy?

-Tom

Re: [gentoo-dev] More on: Install problem with new box. help please.

[Karl Trygve Kalleberg]

On Mon, 24 Sep 2001 19:15:25 -0400
"Wayne Ringling" <wayne@tbnets.com> wrote:

> 
>  I think I have figured out that I need to load a device driver for the
> FastTrak 100 raid.  But unlike other distro's that allow a driver disk to be
> used in the boot process, gentoo dosen't that I can see.  Is there a way to
> load a driver for a device that is not already in the distro.  Or is there
> another way I can install this system?

<selfish>
Which driver would that be ? I have an FT100 controller that I cannot utilize on my linux system currently. Is this a binary FT100 driver ? If so, is it for the 2.2 or 2.4 kernel ?
</selfish>

The simplest way of loading a driver on a completely new system would probably be to put the driver binary (compiled against 2.4.4-ac8, iirc) on a floppy (the installation image kernel support FAT), mount the floppy on /mnt/floppy (you might need to make the dir) and insmod it manually.

Kind regards,

Karl T