Re: Kernel 2.6

>>>>> "mehillman" == mehillman <mehillman@comcast.net> writes:

> Status update: The manual install of Debian did not work. I lost
> mouse and keyboard support and could not get XWindows to start. The
> process was lengthy and complicated, but it really makes you see
> everything under the hood and appreciate all of the work that goes
> into building an operating system. Debian was limited to
> kernel-2.4.18.

How did you boot? kernel-2.4.18 is too old, won't give you network
support. Did you pass the right `flavor=bf2.4' argument to the system
when booting? Default Debian installation assumes a 2.2 kernel. I
recompiled myself a kernel which I used for installing Debian. Just
substitute your self-made vmlinuz for the Debian install's boot.bin
file.

For getting ethernet work, you need some kernel around 2.4.21. Also
make sure to enable all the usb-things (USB support, USB HID etc).
Don't enable EHCI-support, it hangs on my system. If your kernel has
USB HID support, USB-keyboard and mouse will work by default
(hot-pluggable!), without any intervention. You don't need any hotplug
daemon etc (remember to not compile anything as modules, everything must
be part of the kernel).

You might want to get yourself DVDs of the next version of Debian,
Debian Sarge. It's currently labled "testing" (as apposed to "stable"),
but the installer is very much more modern, and comes with more recent
kernels. It also has detailed information about booting from USB-stick,
via PXE etc. in the installation manual.

David

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