V.T. Eric Layton Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 I'm very aggravated to find that Zenwalk is using the new libATA device driver system. This absolutely S*CKS! I'm very aggravated. I cannot access my archive partition in Zenwalk because it's above the 15 partition SATA limit. Can you believe this fecal matter? If there's no trick or work-around, my only option to continue to use Zenwalk would be to custom compile my own kernel without the libATA system. That ain't gonna' happen. It's not worth my time.It's the silliest thing... my Zen is installed on /(root) - hda15 and /home - hda16. Even though my /home is above the 15 partition limit, it's still usable somehow. Although, it show as unmounted in Zen. I cannot mount my hda18 archive partition. The BASH error is something like "device does not exist". I checked in /dev. BASH is right. It only goes up to /dev/sdc15(hda15). I tried making a node - /dev/sdc18 b 8 50. Then I got some other silly error while attempting to mount.I wonder if I could install an older kernel into Zen, one that doesn't use libATA. I guess this libATA is the thing of the future. The kernel developers are figuring that ATA is pretty much a thing of the past. Will, it's not on my system. I guess I'm stuck with older versions of distros that don't use this method.Beware libATA! You've been warned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted June 9, 2007 Author Share Posted June 9, 2007 Well, I had a brainstorm... I would grab an older kernel from Kernel.org and compile it on my Zen system. It didn't quite work for some reason. I'm off to try something else now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 Hi Eric . . . Maybe I picked up something useful . . . . try to boot with adding the boot-option "hwprobe=-modules.pata" and let us know if that works. Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted June 9, 2007 Author Share Posted June 9, 2007 Too late, Bruno. I'm already up and running on my custom compiled kernel. Absolutely AMAZING! I did it! Here's how:1) Downloaded an older kernel source from Kernel.org --> 2.6.17.112) Unpack the kernel: # tar -xvf linux-2.6.17.11.tar.bz2 -C /usr/src 3) Create symbolic link: # cd /usr/src# ln -s linux-2.6.17.11 linux 4) Use graphical configuration tool: # make gconfig Make sure you choose IDE drivers for the kernel.5) Save the configuration.6) Begin building the kernel: # make && make modules_install 7) Copy newly created files to /boot: # cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17.11-testing01# cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.17.11-testing01 8) Show the kernel where to find its modules: # depmod 2.6.17.11 9) Modify my menu.lst to reflect the new kernel. 10) Clean up: # make mrproper 11) Change all fstab entries from sd* to hd*.12) Reboot... cross fingers!It WORKED! I can see all my partitions now. I can access my archive partition. YAY! Ain't GNU/Linux COOL! The basic method for doing this was taken from Zenwalk Wiki - HOWTO Compile a Kernel Manually.I'm scaring myself now, Bruno. ;)I think later this weekend I'll recompile the newer kernel and add the IDE drivers and see how that works. :)3:14AM... g'night all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
striker Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 That's what I was talking about since fourteen days in the topic 'Device nodes'. I know some people have thought (not said ) 'striker is crazy, he went bananas'. Obviously I didn't smoke anything else but tobacco. It's the future Eric, if you don't want to loose all your already installed distros (why should you if they work Ok) then you'll have to build your self a new rig like I'm going to do and anticipate on this new 'toy' .My question however is would such a new box with distros containing this new kernel toy be able to see the other boxes partitions - and what about people using samba, nfs you name it ... I smell trouble all over the place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urmas Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 I'm scaring myself now, Bruno. With good reason: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted June 9, 2007 Author Share Posted June 9, 2007 That's what I was talking about since fourteen days in the topic 'Device nodes'. I know some people have thought (not said ) 'striker is crazy, he went bananas'. Obviously I didn't smoke anything else but tobacco. It's the future Eric, if you don't want to loose all your already installed distros (why should you if they work Ok) then you'll have to build your self a new rig like I'm going to do and anticipate on this new 'toy' .My question however is would such a new box with distros containing this new kernel toy be able to see the other boxes partitions - and what about people using samba, nfs you name it ... I smell trouble all over the place. Yes, indeed! You did sound the alarm a couple weeks back. I read and posted on that thread. I just wasn't vigilant enough before downloading and installing Zenwalk to realize that it was using the libATA drivers in the kernel. Now I know better. It's just as well, though... it gave me the opportunity to custom compile my first kernel. That was a pretty awesome feeling when the OS actually booted to MY kernel. NEATO! :)I'll run Zen through the paces with this custom kernel. If all goes well, I'll keep it. I was considering recompiling the newer (2.6.23.1) kernel that came with Zen, but after consideration, I felt that this isn't necessary. I'm using 2.6.17.13 in Slack, and functions fine. This 2.6.17.11 kernel in Zen shouldn't be a problem either, I don't think.In the future, I'll know that if I test a distro with libATA drivers, I'll just have to compile my own kernel to use that distro. With 500Gig of SATA (250GigX2) and 250Gig of IDE on this machine, I'm planning on having a LOT of partitions once I breakdown my RAID configuration and use those SATA drives separately. This is a project for later this fall or winter, though. I don't feel like reinstalling XP at the moment. I have a new PC game on the way... should be here any day now. ;)P.S. *wink* *wink* I still have an IDE0 slave position open for another 250Gig drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruno Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 Well up to the time they come up with tricks to divide one HD up in multiple disks that can each have 15 partitions you can do 2 things:- I recently bought a 300 GB disk divided it in 8 partitions and can install up to 42 distros:5 partitions for 2 main distros + an ultra large swap = total 100 GB1 partition for backup + 1 partition for media of each 50 GB = total 100 GB1 large partition for about 20 to 40 distros in virtualbox = 100 GB- Or you can use Logical Volume Management: LVM ( fedora has it as an option in the installer ) . . . of each distro only the /boot has to be on a "real" partition the others can be LVM and those do not count as one of the 15.Link: LVM howTo Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted June 9, 2007 Author Share Posted June 9, 2007 Well check on this possibility... thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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