On Sat, Sep 25, 2004 at 05:27:27PM -0400, David Witbrodt wrote:
> I am about to install Linux for the first time in the next week or two,
> as soon as I finish backing up my old hard drive.
>
> I received a WD 160 GB hard drive as a gift earlier this year, but have
> not found a chance to install it until now. I assumed I could just plug
> it in, but when I began reading about it I realized that my old PC
> (circa 2000) cannot handle IDE drives larger than 137 GB. Further
> reading helped me understand that buying a newer IDE controller would
> allow me to use the big drive.
>
> I plan a multiboot system with Windows XP (and maybe a couple of other
> OSes), and I have on-hand all of the drivers and docs I need to make
> that work. Unfortunately, I am still unclear about how to allow Debian
> to support the IDE controller.
Linux autodetects nearly anything. Non-hardware things like PPPoE (IIRC
this is used by DSL) can be trickier. Also, there are Linux-hostile
hardware vendors out there; be very careful near wireless LAN cards,
modems, and 3D-accelerated graphics cards. (ATI refuses to support
Linux, NVidia officially supports Linux but the drivers aren't open
source.)
> First, several retailers listed Debian as a distro for which there is
> Rocket 133SB support. But the Highpoint website itself provides no such
> support, except for source code for the drivers (which hopefully
> compiles and functions for Debian). Unfortunately, I am a newbie and
> have no idea (at this time) how to take advantage of those sources.
> Even if I did, I don't have an installed Linux with which to compile
> them.
Don't usually bother with the manufacturor's website. Almost everyone
seems to have been brainwashed into thinking "Red Hat is Linux; Debian
doesn't exist".
Almost all DSFG-free GPL-compatible drivers come with the kernel;
non-kernel drivers are contraversial, obscure, proprietary, non (beer)
free, very new, or some combination of the above.
> Second, when reading about "stable" Debian I seemed to find that the
> kernel doesn't quite support large LBA48 hard drives, an issue quite
> aside from support for the controller card. Unfortunately, I had
> already downloaded and burned 3.0r2 CDs of disk 1 and disk 5 (bf2.4),
> thinking those would be all I needed. Being a newbie, I thought
> sticking with "stable" would be a better idea until I become more
> familiar with how Linux works.
Sarge will be stable Real Soon Now.
Woody was frozen in 2001/2. Still gets security updates, but no new
programs.
> After discovering the LBA48 road block, I searched around a little and
> found the HILUX website -- an update for "stable" with a kernel (2.4.26)
> which should support LBA48. It was just after I downloaded and burned
> that mini-CD that it occurred to me that the Rocket 133SB controller
> might not be supported. When I went looking for info about that, I
> arrived at my current state of confusion.
>
> I would rather install from CD, since I am a total newbie (with Linux)
> and doubt I could make my DSL connection work if it did not autodetect.
> But just in case, I downloaded a Sarge netinst CD a couple of weeks
> ago. (Since then, I have simply been finishing the backup job on the
> old drive before I start playing around inside the case -- I have other
> new hardware to install besides the Rocket controller.)
Try it and see. The worst that could happen is the install won't
succeed.
Do use sarge though. The Woody installer ('boot-floppies') is nearly
impossible to use.
> If any Debian users out there have comments or advice before I begin my
> big experiment (I look forward to it, even if I do have lots of
> problems!), please speak up. I will be beginning in the next week or
> two -- as soon as I have a couple of days off from work after I finish
> backing up -- so there is still time for me to learn the right way
> before I learn the HARD way!
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