Driver disk questions

[Jay Cliburn]

Jay Cliburn wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 07, 2006 at 08:38:28AM +0100, Paul Howarth wrote:
>> However, it is possible to manually load the driver if all you have is
>> the .ko file. See for example:
>>
>> http://www.keffective.com/mvsata/
> 
> Thanks for this.  I ran across it early in my information search, but I 
> didn't realize its significance until just now with your comment.  I'll 
> try this method this evening when I get home.

The method in the referenced link works, at least for me.  I had to copy 
libata.ko and sata_via.ko to a floppy, then follow the procedure in the 
link and modprobe libata and sata_via from the floppy.  This enabled the 
kernel to see my sata drive long enough to install FC5.  (Also tried it 
with FC6T2 and it worked.)

Unfortunately, on the reboot following installation I encountered a 
kernel panic very early on when /dev/VolGroup00 couldn't be found.  This 
happened for both FC5 and FC6T2.

At least, however, I was able to verify that my sata_via patch does in 
fact cause the vt8237a controller to be recognized by the kernel, so I 
submitted the patch to linux-scsi at vger.kernel.org.

Thanks again for the tip, Paul.

Jay