HD Install :: Installing on SATA disk

I have been using DSL for some years now on an epos project. The beauty is that I can do complete installations (ready to go) from a usb stick. The supplier is shipping only SATA based hardware now, and I cant seem to get DSL loaded to run from the sata HD. With sata support on the boot line, the installation goes normally until just before the Grub install, with complaints about libata and then via_sata, no such modules. If I let it go thru the grub install, it will then not boot. The question is, can DSL be installed successfully on sata, or is sata support just for access to same. I'm not sure what to do next.

Did you try lilo?

I haven't tested SATA yet, but I find that it's kind of odd that grub install would try to load those modules when they should already be in memory, but maybe it does need them.

Can you verify if they are already in memory? (i.e. `lsmod|grep ata `) If they are already loaded and grub still spits out that error, you could manually copy over those 2 modules from the initrd (libata and I assume you meant sata_via) into /ramdisk (iirc you might also have to remove the symlinks from /lib/modules/`uname -r`/modules.* and copy over the actual files from /KNOPPIX to /ramdisk and then run depmod)

Thanks for the reply.
I tried lilo on one occasion as I retried the load, but the subsequent boot said loading grub then error 15. Seems pointless to dilute the problem with that one at the mo.
The lsmod command shows libata and sata_via (you presumed right) are loaded in memory. I did think about copying the appropriate items, but I'm not sure where they are (precisely). I cant find anything like libata and the only ref to sata_via is in /proc/sys. Could you possibly enlighten me, as I dont seem to know what I'm looking for? If you can be bothered, could you step me thru the necessary stages?
Many thanks

Quote

I tried lilo on one occasion as I retried the load, but the subsequent boot said loading grub then error 15. Seems pointless to dilute the problem with that one at the mo.

I guess lilo couldn't install either, as it (usually) will overwrite whatever's previously there. Were there any errors/warnings when doing the lilo install? I'm assuming the rest of your steps to install DSL is fine though, except for this sata problem.

The location of the initrd depends on your setup, but it should be something like /cdrom/boot/isolinux/minirt24.gz on a livecd. Since you indicated an liveusb frugal, perhaps it is in another location. If this is the case, try running `find /cdrom | grep minirt `. If that still doesn't find it, look in /mnt/sdXx (after mounting the device).

Mounting the initrd to /mnt/m

Code Sample

mkdir /mnt/m
cp /cdrom/boot/isolinux/minirt24.gz /tmp
cd /tmp
gunzip /tmp/minirt24.gz
sudo mount -o loop minirt24 /mnt/m
cd /mnt/m

Copy your modules to somewhere in /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/ (maybe scsi/)

Update the modules stuff: with `sudo depmod`

I followed your instructions, then did dsl-hdinstall, I presume that's correct. There was no mention of libata etc, so I presumed all was OK. When I reboot I get..
Grub loading, please wait... then Error 15.
Do you think this is a grub or a sata issue? Can you assist me further? How close are you to the deveopment chain? With sata disks so proliferate now, do you think this issue is likely to be addressed in upcoming releases? Sorry for all the questions, but DSL has been a godsend in the past.

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