I am having quite a bit of trouble getting any distribution at all to run on my machine, most likely due to the fact that it has very non-GNU-friendly hardware. No matter what flavor of Linux I try to use, including live-cd ones, much of my hardware isn't detected, so I can't get anything installed and running at all. On top of that, I have no clue what I'm doing. My objective is to obtain whatever code I need to compile a new kernel (I intend to use Debian), compile it on that machine (which is only capable of running Windows until this project is complete), and get this system to run it.
Problem #1: The mainboard - ASUS P5GD1
- Two of its IDE channels use an ITE8212 controller, which is either not detected or malfunctioning.
- Intel ICH6 SATA controller is not detected by most 2.4 kernels, and I haven't been able to boot far enough to try it out with a
2.6 kernel yet (see next line).
- When I run a 2.6 kernel, it seems to detect the SATA controller, but now it can't find the CD drive, which is on a _standard_ IDE controller. It can't mount the CD, so booting halts right there.
- Marvell Yukon 88E8053 ethernet controller is not detected.
- Integrated "Realtek High Definition Audio" also doesn't work (last on the list).
Problem #2: All my hard drives, including the drive on which I want to install this are on a controller I can't access with any installation CDs (or the like), so I can only use Windows during the building process.
Problem #3: Since I have never really gotten to use Linux before, I have no idea how to accomplish what I'm trying to do here. I can find the source code, but after that I'm lost.
The endgame is to build and compile a kernel that supports all my mainboard's hardware, boot a Debian installer with it, and get the system up and running from the hard drive. What I am hoping for is a detailed walkthrough of all these steps, with the possible exception of the normal installation procedure (once all the hardware is woking properly).
Here's some stuff that looked relevant in the syslog file generated by the debug program on a Debian 3.1r2 disc (using a 2.4 kernel, of course):
...
May 11 21:56:38 hw-detect: Detecting hardware...
May 11 21:56:38 hw-detect: Missing module 'ata_piix'.
May 11 21:56:38 hw-detect: Missing module 'ide-mod'.
May 11 21:56:38 hw-detect: Missing module 'ide-probe-mod'.
May 11 21:56:38 hw-detect: Missing module 'ide-generic'.
May 11 21:56:38 hw-detect: Missing module 'ide-floppy'.
May 11 21:56:38 hw-detect: Loading modules...
May 11 21:56:38 hw-detect: Detected module 'siimage' for 'Integrated Technology Express Inc. IT/ITE8212 Dual channel ATA RAID controller '
May 11 21:56:38 hw-detect: Trying to load module 'siimage'
May 11 21:56:38 kernel: Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
May 11 21:56:38 kernel: ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
...
May 11 21:56:43 hw-detect: Detected discover version 1, installing discover1.
May 11 21:56:43 hw-detect: Detected hotplug support, installing hotplug.
May 11 21:56:43 hw-detect: Missing modules 'ata_piix (Intel Corporation I/O Controller Hub SATA cc=raid), ide-mod (Linux IDE driver), ide-probe-mod (Linux IDE probe driver), ide-generic (Linux IDE support), ide-floppy (Linux IDE floppy)
...
It mentions that last line several times throughout the log. My guess is that those modules weren't included. Then again, it's only a guess...
In the hardware summary file these lines appear:
...
info: /bin/report-hw: discover: ata_piix;;;Intel Corporation;I/O Controller Hub SATA cc=raid;
info: /bin/report-hw: discover: siimage;;;Integrated Technology Express, Inc.;IT/ITE8212 Dual channel ATA RAID controller (PCI version seems to be IT8212, embedded seems to be ITE8212);
...
info: /bin/report-hw: /proc/pci: Bus 2, device 0, function 0:
info: /bin/report-hw: /proc/pci: Ethernet controller: PCI device 11ab:4362 (Galileo Technology Ltd.) (rev 21).
info: /bin/report-hw: /proc/pci: IRQ 17.
info: /bin/report-hw: /proc/pci: Non-prefetchable 64 bit memory at 0xcdefc000 [0xcdefffff].
info: /bin/report-hw: /proc/pci: I/O at 0xc800 [0xc8ff].
info: /bin/report-hw: /proc/pci: Bus 1, device 3, function 0:
info: /bin/report-hw: /proc/pci: Unknown mass storage controller: PCI device 1283:8212 (Integrated Technology Express, Inc.) (rev 19).
info: /bin/report-hw: /proc/pci: IRQ 20.
info: /bin/report-hw: /proc/pci: Master Capable. No bursts. Min Gnt=
8.Max Lat=8.
info: /bin/report-hw: /proc/pci: I/O at 0xb800 [0xb807].
info: /bin/report-hw: /proc/pci: I/O at 0xb400 [0xb403].
info: /bin/report-hw: /proc/pci: I/O at 0xb000 [0xb007].
info: /bin/report-hw: /proc/pci: I/O at 0xa800 [0xa803].
info: /bin/report-hw: /proc/pci: I/O at 0xa400 [0xa40f].
That's all the info I have. Does anyone out there have any idea where to start either fixing the problem, or (preferably) just compiling a new kernel that can support all this?
