Slack installation

[jbstew32]

I have been a Slack user for some time now. It is just that I have upgraded my computer with a 30GB ATA66 Hard Drive. It connect to a controller on the PCI Bus, and when the Slack install boots, the kernel does not see the card, so I cannot install Linux on it. I just need to know what to type at the boot prompt (or after the fact) to make it see the card with my hard drive.

[ph34r]

From what I have read, you can maybe change the drive to operate at supported spped (33) until you can get Slack installed and configured.

[jbstew32]

But it doesn't see the controller card when the kernel boots for the install anyway, and if I just move the drive to a plain IDE port, it will make a difference. My root partition will become hdb instead of hde. There has to be a parameter or something.

[bdl]

You can either pass arguments to the ramdisk at boot time, or you can just use the ata66.i bootdisk. I personally have used both and either method works. This link (http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~b6506063/hpt366/) details how to install on an ata66 controller, and the formula for passing the proper I/O arguments to the kernel at boot time. Otherwise, just grab the ata66.i bootdisk and it will automagically find and properly initialize your controller / drive.

[bdl]

Originally posted by ph34r:
From what I have read, you can maybe change the drive to operate at supported spped (33) until you can get Slack installed and configured.


All ata66 drives are backwards compatible to the older IDE interface and you can always install / run linux from the drives on the older controllers. The trick is installing while the drive is on the ata66 controller, and its just a matter of passing arguments at boot time until you can either (a) install and load the proper ata66 enabled kernel, or (b) compile your own. I recommend the latter of course, but in a pinch the premade slack kernels will work perfectly. If you have the ability to disable the primary channels in your BIOS, you can change the ata66 device from hde to hda. Either way works, but just remember that LILO will not run on hde.


[This message has been edited by bdl (edited 30 November 2000).]