I installed Slackware v.11 (-current from 9/11/06) on a Dell
Inspiron 6400 laptop with Intel Core Duo processor and an
internal SATA hard disk drive. I picked the sata.i kernel
both for the installation and for running the installed
system; the kernel version is 2.4.33.3. I skipped
installing LILO since booting on this drive is already
managed by LILO installed by Xandros 4. The Slackware
installation proceeded without error, and the system files
are all there on sda8; I can view them from Xandros.
However, I can't boot this installation.

I added the following stanza for Slackware to Xandros'
lilo.conf:

image=/disks/welcome_2/boot/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.33.3
label=Slackware_11_on_sda8
root=/dev/sda8
read-only

When I try to boot Slackware from the Xandros LILO menu, the
system quickly crashes with a kernel panic. The last three
boot messages before the crash are:

VFS: Cannot open root device "808" or 08:08
Please append a correct "root" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:08

I also tried the following stanza:

image=/disks/welcome_2/boot/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.33.3
label=Slackware_11_on_sda8
vga=791
append="root=/dev/sda8 "

This stanza is completely analogous to the LILO stanza for
the Slackware derivative Zenwalk 3.0 that's also installed
on the same drive (on sda6), and that stanza allows me to
boot Zenwalk just fine. The Zenwalk kernel is their default
sata kernel; the version is 2.6.17.11. But the Slackware
install again crashes with a kernel panic with this second
Slackware stanza.

There is one thing that struck me as very odd during the
installation: the Slackware installer consistently
identified/labelled the partitions on the internal SATA
drive as hdaX rather than sdaX, as would be correct. By
contrast, the kernel ("sata" v.2.6.17.1) used by the Zenwalk
installer (which is a slightly streamlined Slackware
installer) identified/labelled the partitions correctly as sdaX.

E.g. when inquiring which partition to choose for the /
(root) partition and in the section used to construct
/etc/fstab, the installer referred to all partitions on the
SATA drive as hdaX, and the fstab generated by the installer
looks as follows:

/dev/hda7 swap swap defaults
0 0
/dev/hda8 / reiserfs defaults
1 1
/dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5 reiserfs defaults
1 2
/dev/hda6 /mnt/hda6 reiserfs defaults
1 2
/dev/hda2 /mnt/hda2 ntfs ro
1 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto
noauto,owner,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner
0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620
0 0
proc /proc proc defaults
0 0

Also, among the boot messages are the lines:

hda Hitachi ....... [that's the internal SATA drive]
Partition check:
hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 < hda5 hda6 hda7 hda8 > hda4

All of this looks wrong: there are no hdaX partitions (I'd
entered the mount points as /mnt/hdaX, simply to be
consistent with this labeling scheme).

This laptop consistently identifies the internal SATA drive
as sda, and when I modify the line "root=/dev/sda8" in
lilo.conf to "root=/dev/hda8", I get the following error
when I then run the command lilo: "Fatal: Illegal 'root='
specification: /dev/hda8".

What's wrong and how can I fix it? Did I pick the wrong
kernel, or does the 2.4.33 kernel have trouble with SATA drives?

Robert

On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:34:43 -0400, Robert Glueck wrote:

> I installed Slackware v.11 (-current from 9/11/06) on a Dell
> Inspiron 6400 laptop with Intel Core Duo processor and an
> internal SATA hard disk drive. I picked the sata.i kernel
> both for the installation and for running the installed
> system; the kernel version is 2.4.33.3.
<snip>
>
> I added the following stanza for Slackware to Xandros'
> lilo.conf:
>
> image=/disks/welcome_2/boot/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.33.3
> label=Slackware_11_on_sda8
> root=/dev/sda8
> read-only

That looks like the generic kernel to me, not the sata kernel you
mentioned earlier. Replace with the correct kernel, or build an
appropriate initrd. For 2.6.x kernels, I think the module you need is
ata_piix. I don't know which module for the 2.4.x kernel, but the newer
2.6.x kernel worked better for me with similar hardware (Dell Latitude
D610).
<snip>
Note: comments inline.

--
Douglas Mayne

Robert Glueck yazdi:
....
> What's wrong and how can I fix it? Did I pick the wrong
> kernel, or does the 2.4.33 kernel have trouble with SATA drives?
There are two different sata modules used in 2.4.x series, one
identifies the drives as hda and the other as sda.

If you are reluctant to use 2.4.x kernel with Slackware, you may try
installing grub, that way you wouldn't have the naming problem with the
boot manager.

Or you could try using 2.6.x kernel with Slackware, all you have to do
is boot with huge26.s during installation, choose that kernel from
cdrom for kernel installation and then install the related
linux-modules package from extra after installation.

- dfisek

Douglas Mayne wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:34:43 -0400, Robert Glueck wrote:
>
>> I installed Slackware v.11 (-current from 9/11/06) on a Dell
>> Inspiron 6400 laptop with Intel Core Duo processor and an
>> internal SATA hard disk drive. I picked the sata.i kernel
>> both for the installation and for running the installed
>> system; the kernel version is 2.4.33.3.
> <snip>
>> I added the following stanza for Slackware to Xandros'
>> lilo.conf:
>>
>> image=/disks/welcome_2/boot/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.33.3
>> label=Slackware_11_on_sda8
>> root=/dev/sda8
>> read-only
>
> That looks like the generic kernel to me, not the sata kernel you
> mentioned earlier. Replace with the correct kernel, or build an
> appropriate initrd. For 2.6.x kernels, I think the module you need is
> ata_piix. I don't know which module for the 2.4.x kernel, but the newer
> 2.6.x kernel worked better for me with similar hardware (Dell Latitude
> D610).
> <snip>
> Note: comments inline.
>

Well, what can I say? :-) At the beginning of the
installation I picked the "default" installation kernel
which was called "sata.i". After all the packages were
installed, I was asked to "Choose Linux Kernel", and here I
picked the highlighted choice which was
"/cdrom/kernels/sata.i/bzImage", assuming that this was the
same kernel that I picked as the installation kernel.

There is only one "sata" kernel in the /cdrom/kernels/
directory, i.e. "sata.i", and the file
/cdrom/kernels/SATA-SUPPORT.TXT says that this kernel has
SATA support built into it. After making the above choices,
the vmlinuz-ide-2.4.33.3 kernel is what I found installed on
my system. Obviously, this kernel is not working for me.

Robert

On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 17:34:00 -0400, Robert Glueck <rglk@web.de> wrote:

>There is only one "sata" kernel in the /cdrom/kernels/
>directory, i.e. "sata.i", and the file
>/cdrom/kernels/SATA-SUPPORT.TXT says that this kernel has
>SATA support built into it.

$ grep SATA /boot/config-ide-2.4.33.3
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE_SATA is not set
CONFIG_SCSI_SATA=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_AHCI=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_SVW=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_NV=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_QSTOR=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_PROMISE=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_SX4=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_SIL=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_SIS=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_ULI=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_VIA=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_VITESSE=y

slack-11: things have changed

Grant.
--
http://bugsplatter.mine.nu/

dfisek@gmail.com wrote:
> Robert Glueck yazdi:
> ...
>> What's wrong and how can I fix it? Did I pick the wrong
>> kernel, or does the 2.4.33 kernel have trouble with SATA drives?
> There are two different sata modules used in 2.4.x series, one
> identifies the drives as hda and the other as sda.
>
> If you are reluctant to use 2.4.x kernel with Slackware, you may try
> installing grub, that way you wouldn't have the naming problem with the
> boot manager.
>
> Or you could try using 2.6.x kernel with Slackware, all you have to do
> is boot with huge26.s during installation, choose that kernel from
> cdrom for kernel installation and then install the related
> linux-modules package from extra after installation.
>
> - dfisek
>

I don't particularly care whether I use a 2.4.x or 2.6.x
kernel, I just want a kernel that works. Although I have to
say that this laptop is a very recent model, issued only
about four months ago, and I need to rely on wireless
networking with hardware that only runs with a Windows
driver via ndiswrapper. My own experience has been that
older kernels and older versions of ndiswrapper poorly
support many recent wireless chipsets. Also, I would prefer
running a kernel with SMP support. Finally, I'd also prefer
to stay with the LILO installed by Xandros.

If I have to opt for the huge26.s kernel, would that entail
installing Slackware all over again? Or is there a way of
merely replacing the present kernel with the new kernel?

Also, would that new kernel support a dual-core processor (SMP)?

Finally, which related linux-modules package would I have to
install from extra after installing the new kernel?

Robert

Grant wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 17:34:00 -0400, Robert Glueck <rglk@web.de> wrote:
>
>> There is only one "sata" kernel in the /cdrom/kernels/
>> directory, i.e. "sata.i", and the file
>> /cdrom/kernels/SATA-SUPPORT.TXT says that this kernel has
>> SATA support built into it.
>
> $ grep SATA /boot/config-ide-2.4.33.3
> # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE_SATA is not set
> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA=y
> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_AHCI=y
> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_SVW=y
> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_NV=y
> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_QSTOR=y
> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_PROMISE=y
> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_SX4=y
> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_SIL=y
> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_SIS=y
> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_ULI=y
> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_VIA=y
> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_VITESSE=y
>
> slack-11: things have changed
>
> Grant.

Grant, what does this output say? Does it say that all
these SATA support modules are built into the
vmlinuz-ide-2.4.33.3 kernel that I installed? If that is so
why then am I running into this problem of presumed lack of
SATA support with this kernel on my system?

Robert

On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 18:35:33 -0400, Robert Glueck <rglk@web.de> wrote:

>Grant wrote:
>> On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 17:34:00 -0400, Robert Glueck <rglk@web.de> wrote:
>>
>>> There is only one "sata" kernel in the /cdrom/kernels/
>>> directory, i.e. "sata.i", and the file
>>> /cdrom/kernels/SATA-SUPPORT.TXT says that this kernel has
>>> SATA support built into it.
>>
>> $ grep SATA /boot/config-ide-2.4.33.3
>> # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE_SATA is not set
>> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA=y
>> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_AHCI=y
>> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_SVW=y
>> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_NV=y
>> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_QSTOR=y
>> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_PROMISE=y
>> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_SX4=y
>> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_SIL=y
>> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_SIS=y
>> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_ULI=y
>> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_VIA=y
>> CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_VITESSE=y
>>
>> slack-11: things have changed
>>
>> Grant.
>
>Grant, what does this output say? Does it say that all
>these SATA support modules are built into the
>vmlinuz-ide-2.4.33.3 kernel that I installed?

Yes

> If that is so
>why then am I running into this problem of presumed lack of
>SATA support with this kernel on my system?

If you have a very new mobo, you might need 2.6 kernel for SATA support,
recent discussions on lkml concluded that there cannot be another merge
of SATA code backported to 2.4 series as there's now too much divergence.

Therefore the new mobos and chipsets will only be supported by 2.6 series
kernel.

Grant.
--
http://bugsplatter.mine.nu/

On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 17:34:00 -0400, Robert Glueck wrote:

> Douglas Mayne wrote:
>> On Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:34:43 -0400, Robert Glueck wrote:
>>
>>> I installed Slackware v.11 (-current from 9/11/06) on a Dell
>>> Inspiron 6400 laptop with Intel Core Duo processor and an
>>> internal SATA hard disk drive. I picked the sata.i kernel
>>> both for the installation and for running the installed
>>> system; the kernel version is 2.4.33.3.
>> <snip>
>>> I added the following stanza for Slackware to Xandros'
>>> lilo.conf:
>>>
>>> image=/disks/welcome_2/boot/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.33.3
>>> label=Slackware_11_on_sda8
>>> root=/dev/sda8
>>> read-only
>>
>> That looks like the generic kernel to me, not the sata kernel you
>> mentioned earlier. Replace with the correct kernel, or build an
>> appropriate initrd. For 2.6.x kernels, I think the module you need is
>> ata_piix. I don't know which module for the 2.4.x kernel, but the newer
>> 2.6.x kernel worked better for me with similar hardware (Dell Latitude
>> D610).
>> <snip>
>> Note: comments inline.
>>
>
> Well, what can I say? :-) At the beginning of the
> installation I picked the "default" installation kernel
> which was called "sata.i". After all the packages were
> installed, I was asked to "Choose Linux Kernel", and here I
> picked the highlighted choice which was
> "/cdrom/kernels/sata.i/bzImage", assuming that this was the
> same kernel that I picked as the installation kernel.
>
> There is only one "sata" kernel in the /cdrom/kernels/
> directory, i.e. "sata.i", and the file
> /cdrom/kernels/SATA-SUPPORT.TXT says that this kernel has
> SATA support built into it. After making the above choices,
> the vmlinuz-ide-2.4.33.3 kernel is what I found installed on
> my system. Obviously, this kernel is not working for me.
>
> Robert
>
I may have initially given you bad advice, due to recent changes in how
the Slackware kernel is being configured by default. For older 2.6.x
kernels, I think your laptop needs the ahci and ata_piix modules to work.
For newer kernels, such as
http://www.slackware.at/data/slackwa...nux-2.6.17.13/

The kernel might work "out of the box" (based on looking at the config
file.)

Sorry for my earlier mistake.

--
Douglas Mayne

On 2006-09-18, Robert Glueck <rglk@web.de> wrote:
>
> If I have to opt for the huge26.s kernel, would that entail
> installing Slackware all over again? Or is there a way of
> merely replacing the present kernel with the new kernel?


Boot into your existing system (with the installer disk if need be -
there's information on how to do so when the cd boots) and install
the following:
extra/linux-smp-2.6.17.13/kernel-generic-smp-2.6.17.13-i686-1.tgz
extra/linux-smp-2.6.17.13/kernel-modules-smp-2.6.17.13-i686-1.tgz
If you are using ReiserFS as your root filesystem, you will need to
make an initrd, as that support is included as a module in this
kernel.

> Also, would that new kernel support a dual-core processor (SMP)?


See above.


> Finally, which related linux-modules package would I have to
> install from extra after installing the new kernel?


See above.


In closing, I would prefer to build a custom kernel if I were in
your situation, but that's entirely up to you. It doesn't have to
be a complicated procedure - install the kernel-source-2.6.17.13
package, copy this file
extra/source/linux-smp-2.6.17.13/config-generic-smp-2.6.17.13
to $KERNEL_SOURCE_DIR/.config and do 'make menuconfig' to add
ReiserFS support statically. The rest is routine...

RW

--

http://rlworkman.net