Package: debian-installer Severity: wishlist I recently had to install a system that had a RAID controller whose corresponding module isn't included in the default kernel, so it has to be compiled manually. I am amazed at how hard this was to do.
First, I had to compile the module for the kernel d-i uses, 2.6.8-1-386. However, the corresponding kernel-headers package appears to have been removed from the archive. I'll not even touch on any possible GPL issues, but it is at the very least very unpractial for those who would like to compile third-party modules matching the ABI of the kernel installed by default. I gather this is a rather common thing to do, so I'd really like to see the kernel-headers package of the d-i kernel stick around in the archive even if newer kernel images are uploaded. Fortunately, I found the necessary packages at <http://snapshot.debian.net>, and was able to compile the module. Having copied the module to a floopy disk, I started the installation. I soon found that d-i unfortunately does not have a "Preload essential modules from floppy" like b-f had, so I figured I'd do it manually. Inserting the module worked just fine, and I got block devices I could continue installing to. Which didn't work so well; after installing the base system the installation as a whole failed due to mkinitrd's inability to find my custom module in /target/lib/modules/2.6.8-1-386. "Well duh!" I thought, and mkfs'ed the partition once more, and after remounting it I created the /target/lib/modules/2.6.8-1-386/local directory and copied the module from the floppy there, before restarting the installation of the base system. However, this for some bizarre reason made the kernel-image's preinst (I think) fail. I wonder if that is a genuine bug in the kernel-images, as they certainly do not ship any /lib/modules/2.6.8-1-386/local subdir so there was no file conflict, but I do not remember the exact error message. In any case, the installation was aborted. After some more thinking, I finally figured out how to make it work. Before starting yet another base system install, I started the following command sequence on the second terminal: until test -d /target/lib/modules/2.6.8-1-386; do :; done; \ mkdir /target/lib/modules/2.6.8-1-386/local; \ cp /floppy/mod.ko /target/lib/modules/2.6.8-1-386/local ..thus exploiting the delay between unpacking and the mkinitrd invocation from the postinst to copy the module in place. This worked just fine, and allowed me to finish the installation and end up with a system booting and functioning perfectly. However, the process was annoyingly clunky, and even if I was able to make it work, I do not think the average user will be very happy about this procedure - and it'll probably grow more and more useful during as new hardware is released during the lifespan of Sarge. So it'd be really great if you could add support for loading third-party modules directly from the installer, like b-f had. Kind regards, -- Tore Anderson -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]