HowTo get SERIAL ATA Support in DSL 0.9.1!


Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: HowTo get SERIAL ATA Support in DSL 0.9.1!
started by: tronik

Posted by tronik on Dec. 26 2004,17:03
OK! I decided enough was enough, and I couldn't wait for the John and roberts to update the kernel to 2.4.27 for SATA support. I decided to remaster DSL myself...Here's a rough idea of how it was done...

I got the latest knoppix, which runs on 2.4.27 (and 2.6.x, i dunno) but the 2.4.27 is the one I wanted so I could have SATA Support in DSL, granted its read-only still (because they're NTFS drives, and 'captive NTFS' sucks!), but thats better than nothing since i have lots of data stored on these SATA drives. If you need SATA support and they're drives other than NTFS format you should be able to read/write to them flawlessly like any other drive.

So I got the latest knoppix, and stole their 2.4.27 kernel! (minirt24 and linux24) and replaced the old minirt24 and linux24 from DSL with them (i  use a USB stick for DSL) on the USB stick.

This provided me with the kernel, and miniroot necessary for 2.4.27.

The next step was remastering DSL. meo has written a good faq on doing that, so if you want to do that, thats how you do it. In fact, if you want to do this, as far as i know, you need to remaster.

The next thing that has to happen is the System.map-2.4.26 (System.map) in the stock DSL KNOPPIX image must be replaced with a 2.4.27 system map.
This is done during the remastering process. Once you've built your source image directory, simply replace the 2.4.26 system map with a System.map-2.4.27 from the latest KNOPPIX release.

The last thing that has to happen for a 2.4.27 kernel, before completing the remastering process, is that you must replace the 2.4.26 modules, with 2.4.27 modules. That way your DSL will boot just like normal.  Now, there are some size constraints here that I think in effect break the DSL size scheme (currently, as this was my first remastering attempt, and it happened flawlessly, i did not want to jinx it by trying to save face for space. I'll go back and make the size adjustments later, if i want to stay within DSL size restraints)

So you've replaced the 2.4.26 directory with a 2.4.27, and the modules therein...And you've deleted the 2.4.26 modules/directory from your source image directory...

Now finish your remaster by compressing the image, and replacing the old DSL KNOPPIX image with the knew one, and in fact you have DSL0.9.1 (or whatever you're using) running flawlessly on a 2.4.27 kernel, and all the benefits therein...

Like I said, i think i noticed the size of the image had gone up a meg or two, but im sure you can in your infinite wisdom find something you dont need during remastering if you really must put this image on a business-card DSL size cd.

But for what its worth, DSL runs  great on a 2.4.27 kernel. It's not like its a big change! But i'm enjoying access to my drives.

If someone else does this, i'd like to know if they have any problems...I'm not sure if this breaks anything (other than the size restraints, thus far).


p.s. I did all of this from within windows, and didn't have to reboot once! Yay!

Posted by aveline on Mar. 02 2005,11:11
Quote
I got the latest knoppix, which runs on 2.4.27 (and 2.6.x, i dunno) but the 2.4.27 is the one I wanted so I could have SATA Support in DSL, granted its read-only still (because they're NTFS drives, and 'captive NTFS' sucks!), but thats better than nothing since i have lots of data stored on these SATA drives.


Elaborate please?

Quote
I'm not sure if this breaks anything (other than the size restraints, thus far).


why would a SATA hdd have "size constraints" in linux?    I gather too even dsl 0.9.3 does not have built-in support or drivers or modules for SATA?  Did some googling but  keep findin conflicting reports about SATA's compatability on linux too....if you know of any links I might have missed about these issues could you post them?  I even searched this forum & found a few things but again some of the info seems to conflict w/others info elsewhere on the net.

aveline

Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 02 2005,17:54
He means that his new customized DSL 0.9.1 distro is now larger than the DSL base distro limit of 50MB.  So it won't fit on a 50MB business-card CD-R disk.

It is possible to get SATA support for SOME controllers with DSL 0.9.x but for good SATA support, you need to run linux kernel version 2.4.27 or higher and the current version of DSL uses linux kernel 2.4.26

Posted by tronik on Mar. 02 2005,19:28
Quote
why would a SATA hdd have "size constraints" in linux?    I gather too even dsl 0.9.3 does not have built-in support or drivers or modules for SATA?


Right, it runs on 2.4.26 and doesn't have support for many controllers...mine doesn't work in 2.4.26, but some of my friends SATA controllers do work (SaidinUnleashed's works)

Quote

Did some googling but  keep findin conflicting reports about SATA's compatability on linux too....if you know of any links I might have missed about these issues could you post them?


Serial ATA support is now pretty universal, as far as OSOS's go. I mean its like any other controller support, if the chipset is supported then its going to work, just compile support for it in...

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