One problem I haven't managed to figure out is how you install Linux
onto a box that might have new or strange hardware. Until you find
appropriate drivers, devices will not work properly or just not seem
to exist at all. Is there some sort of tutorial on how to get strange
devices working? Preferably it'd explains how drivers work in general
under Linux - currently either Linux will install and work fine out of
the box, or getting it going is a mystery that involves a lot of head
banging.

Case in point: the motherboard on my existing box (ASUS A8V-E)
blew up. I got the local shop to install a new motherboard
(ASRock ALiveNF6G-VSTA), and the kernel on my box's original
IDE boot disk came up just fine. The problems began when it
tried to mount the two SATA drives that hold /usr/local, /home,
and a big data directory.

The BIOS sees the SATA drives, but the kernel doesn't. The old
motherboard had a VIA chip set, while the new one has the nVidia
nForce 430 chip set. Perhaps my installation (Slack 10.2, kernel
2.6.13) doesn't have a proper driver - I've heard I need one called
sata_nv, while all I can find in /lib/modules/2.6.13/kernel/driver/scsi
are dpt_i2o.ko, ipr.ko, sata_sis.ko, and sata_xs4.ko.

Anyway, I really want to recover the contents of those SATA drives
(not to mention continue using them), so it's obviously time for me
to penetrate the mysteries of Linux hardware and driver setup. Can
anyone point me where I need to go for education?

aTdHvAaNnKcSe...

--
/~\ cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
\ / I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
X Top-posted messages will probably be ignored. See RFC1855.
/ \ HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored. Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!

I demand that Charlie Gibbs may or may not have written...

[snip]
> The BIOS sees the SATA drives, but the kernel doesn't. The old motherboard
> had a VIA chip set, while the new one has the nVidia nForce 430 chip set.
> Perhaps my installation (Slack 10.2, kernel 2.6.13) doesn't have a proper
> driver - I've heard I need one called sata_nv, while all I can find in
> /lib/modules/2.6.13/kernel/driver/scsi are dpt_i2o.ko, ipr.ko, sata_sis.ko,
> and sata_xs4.ko.

In that case, I think that all that can reasonably be done is for you to
upgrade your kernel or - probably the better option - use this as an
opportunity to upgrade the whole installation.

You *really* don't want to be using any release which no longer has security
support; OTOH, I have no idea whether Slack 10.2 is still supported. (Though
apparently Debian sarge security support will be ended in a few months'
time.)

[snip]
--
| Darren Salt | linux or ds at | nr. Ashington, | Toon
| RISC OS, Linux | youmustbejoking,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | Army
| <URL:http://www.youmustbejoking.demon.co.uk/progs.packages.html>

This place has everything.

On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:52:44 +0000, Darren Salt wrote:

> I demand that Charlie Gibbs may or may not have written...
>
> [snip]
>> The BIOS sees the SATA drives, but the kernel doesn't. The old motherboard
>> had a VIA chip set, while the new one has the nVidia nForce 430 chip set.
>> Perhaps my installation (Slack 10.2, kernel 2.6.13) doesn't have a proper
>> driver - I've heard I need one called sata_nv, while all I can find in
>> /lib/modules/2.6.13/kernel/driver/scsi are dpt_i2o.ko, ipr.ko, sata_sis.ko,
>> and sata_xs4.ko.
>
> In that case, I think that all that can reasonably be done is for you to
> upgrade your kernel or - probably the better option - use this as an
> opportunity to upgrade the whole installation.

Slackware-12.0 works well enough on those motherboards but if you use a
USB printer you would be better advised to install Debian. Slack "loses"
/dev/usb/lp as soon as you send a job to the printer.