Dale Scheetz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Thu, 11 Jun 1998, Enrique Zanardi wrote:
> > On Thu, Jun 11, 1998 at 09:41:03AM -0400, Dale Scheetz wrote: > > > The problem is that the Debian installation kernel tries to be all things > > > to all people. As there are machines that boot from SCSI drives, it was > > > necessary to have all the scsi controlers "built in" to the kernel, hense > > > its large size. > > > We should recommend that everyone, once they have a standard system and > > > can build a kernel, should build a custom kernel for their machine as > > > early as possible. > > > Another solution is the one that slackware provides. They build a "bunch" > > > of kernels, each one for a specific hardware configuration (broad enought > > > to cover a range of hardware, and chosen to keep incopatibly drivers out > > > of the picture {like the wd9000 driver that plonks ethernet cards}) > > I'm working on a better solution that involves using initrd to > > load the required controllers (built as loadable modules). I've tested > > using initrd for lowmem installations and it works flawlessly (just have > > a look at lowmem boot disk in boot-floppies_2.0.7 when I upload it next > > weekend). > I have wondered why we didn't try this once the kernel supported initrd. > To be honest I haven't figured out yet how to do the device selection, > other than going through a list of drivers, trying to insmod each one > until you are successful. Red Hat does this, we might want to look at their code. (Even after the install you end up with both a kernel and an initrd image containing the exact drivers you need in /boot - they mainly use this for SCSI drivers - they might also do PCMCIA SCSI there, but I'm not sure.) They have a script to rebuild the initrd for newly compiled kernels, but I usually just compile the drivers in. > I would love to see your solution for this, even in whatever the current > state is. IIRC, they do some of the device selection via /proc/pci. I believe they do this for ethernet and Video Cards too (to select the right server) - if it's unsuccessful, you are presented with a list. I know UltraPenguin probes the PROM tree for the video cards (again to select a server), because I sent in a patch for the cgfourteen. IMHO, the Debian install should detect as much as possible from /proc/pci (and proc/openprom on the Sparc), and do automatic configuration from this wherever possible. > > Using initrd, our default kernel may be reduced to half its current size, > > as all those different controllers may be built as modules and only the > > required ones will be loaded at boot time. That will save our users a few > > hundred KBs of RAM, and will make building a custom kernel a not so > > needed step. > Yes, this would be a great improvement over the current situation, making > the installation kernel appropriate for a system kernel with no > rebuilding. It would also make new kernel packages available to a wider audience. (At least some of those who compile their own may be less likely to.) Steve [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]