On Fri, May 19, 2006 at 10:36:02AM +0100, Bob wrote: > Andrew Sackville-West wrote: > > [snipped...] > > >most likely you don't have the right modules loaded. can you insmod > >them from the busybox shell and then try init 6 (also, I think you > >only need init 2 in debian, but you can check that by looking at > >/etc/rc2.d). > > It was from a fresh netinstall with the Debian installer, I haven't got > a clue what insmod ism let alone what to do with it...? >
sorry. I assumed too much. insmod a command that inserts a module into the kernel. Sometimes a particular module is not loaded when needed and has to be manually loaded to get the kernel to recognize a piece of hardware (see below). > >Of course, reading back over this, my suggestion assumes you've got > >modules on a readable disk and I bet you don't... > > You're assuming I know anything about modules... > A module is essentially a piece of the kernel that (typically) drives a piece of hardware. Sometimes they work alone, sometimes theywork in concert with other modules to get something to work. Linux uses one of two methods to control hardware: you can either compile the code for the particular piece of hardware directly into the kernel to ensure that it is available at boot time, or you can compile it into a module that is inserted into the kernel as needed. Usually what happens is the kernel is compiled with a fairly minimal amount of hardware drivers included... just enough to get the thing up and running, then other modules are inserted to drive other hardware. These modules (someone will correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think I've got the gist of it) that are needed to get a kernel up far enough to read your disks etc are placed in what is called an initial ram-disk or initrd. This initrd is loaded into memory early in the boot to give the kernel access to any hardware that is not already included in the kernel. (I'm way past my knowledge level here... someone help). WHat I think has happened in your situation is that the modules needed to see your hard-disks is neither in your kernel nor accessible from the initrd. So, when the kernel boots, it can't see your harddisks and consquently can't run, and drops you into the busybox shell so that you can, theoretically, fix it. > >you could boot from a live-cd (knoppix) and chroot into your system > >and rebuild the initrd to include the proper modules in the initrd. I > >think its dpkg-reconfigure yaird or initrd-yaird. Others will know > >this. > > I think I might just down load a DVD image and try installing from > that... > You're certainly welcome to do that, and no-one will fault you for it. There is an opportunity here, though, if you are inclined, to learn a little of what is going on under the hood. If you have a bootable cd (like a live-cd such as knoppix), or if the net-installer has the right tools (I don't know) you can fix it with out going through the whole reinstall process. The idea is to get a kernel booted with one of these methods, and then rebuild the initrd so that it has what you need in it to get the system to boot properly. There are others here who are VASTLY more qualified to help you with this. Hopefully someone will chime in. (hear me begging here? :) So the procedure *I* would follow, is get that thing booted with one of the methods I mentioned above. run lsmod to see which modules you are using to see those harddrives. Then chroot (change root) into the root directory of your current installation. mount /dev/sda1 /mnt (this assumes you're root is at /dev/sda1 and is seen by the current system) then chroot /mnt then dpkg-reconfigure yaird (might be initrd-yaird or initrd) this command will rebuild the initial ramdisk. hopefully, it will pickup what you need and put it in that initrd and you're good to go. I apologise for not knowing more about this. Reinstalling will likely be MUCH easier if this is all new to you. hope this helps A
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