I have recently installed Etch onto my computer, an ST20G5 from shuttle. I am using a SATA HD, which is on a ULI SATA controller. I am able to install to the hard-drive after I load the module manually in the installer via modprobe. Everything installs fine, but I have a problem on boot:
When the initrd image tries to pivot_root, kernel panic happens because it can't read the root fs correctly, and I think it is because the SATA module isnt loaded by the initrd. Also the module sata_uli is not in the /etc/modules directory. I have tried just placing the module from the installer in /etc/modules so it would load on boot, but it since it can't find the fs to begin with, this is useless, as the initrd loads modules from the image. So, I have an un-bootable installation that needs an updated initrd image. How would I go about creating this image? Also, I do have a working installation on a PATA drive in the same system, so would it be feasible to make it there, since the hardware is the same? If so, and I were able to create a good initrd from within my existing installation, how would I make sure it loads from the SATA drive, and not the PATA drive? I don't mind booting to the PATA drive to make the system boot correctly, but information on how to make an initrd image for a foreign computer, or how to take an existing initrd image from a foreign computer and update it would be wonderful. Thanks for any help anyone may provide, I would really love to get the PATA drive out of use.