Previous chapters taught the mechanics of reconfiguring the kernel;
the payoff comes in this chapter where you can find all the most
common kinds of changes people need to make to their kernels, with
specific instructions on how to do so.
The Linux kernel supports a wide range of different disk types.
This section shows how to configure the kernel so that it supports most of
the more common types of disk controllers.
To use a USB storage device (commonly referred to as USB "flash"
device, or an external USB disk drive) USB support must be first working
properly. Refer to the recipe in the section called “USB” for how to do
this.
A USB storage device can be identified by using the
lsusb
program. If the following command sequence
produces the results shown, a USB storage device is present on the
system:
$
/usr/sbin/lsusb -v | grep Storage
bInterfaceClass 8 Mass Storage
Enable it as follows.
-
A USB Storage device is in reality a USB SCSI device that talks over a
USB connection. Because of this, the SCSI subsystem must be enabled:
Device Drivers
SCSI Device Support
[*] SCSI Device Support
-
Also in the SCSI system, the "SCSI disk support" must be enabled in
order for the device to be mounted properly:
Device Drivers
SCSI Device Support
[*] SCSI disk support
-
Enable USB Storage support:
Device Drivers
USB Support
[M] USB Mass Storage support
A number of specific USB storage devices are listed as separate
configuration items, as they do not follow the standard USB
specification and require special code. If you have one of these
devices, please enable support for them.
IDE disks are the most common type of PC disks. The device that enables
them to work properly is an IDE disk controller. To determine if you have
a IDE disk controller on the system, use the
lspci
command in the following manner:
[13]
$
/usr/sbin/lspci | grep IDE
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB (ICH5) SATA Controller (rev 02)
Note that your response will probably not be identical; what is
important is that the command shows some an IDE Controller (the first
device in the previous example.) If you find only SATA controllers, please
see the section called “Serial ATA (SATA)”.
Enable PCI support for the kernel:
Bus options (PCI, PCMCIA, EISA, MCA, ISA)
[*] PCI Support
Enable the IDE subsystem, and IDE support:
Device Drivers
[*] ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support
[*] Enhanced IDE/MFM/RLL disk/cdrom/tape/floppy support
In the ATA system, the specific type of IDE controller that you have must
be enabled in order for it to work properly. To provide a good backup
in case you choose the wrong type, select the "generic" IDE controller:
Device Drivers
ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support
[*] generic/default IDE chipset support
Enable the different PCI IDE controllers:
Device Drivers
ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support
[*] PCI IDE chipset support
This opens up a lengthy submenu of the different IDE controller types.
Select the proper one based on the name of the device you found in the
lspci step.
SATA is a type of disk controller that is the successor to the IDE disk
controller.
To determine if you have a SATA disk controller on the system, run the
following command:
$
/usr/sbin/lspci | grep SATA
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB (ICH5) SATA Controller (rev 02)
Note that your response will probably not be identical; what is
important is that the command shows some SATA devices.
SATA disks use a kernel library called
libata
that handles most of the
SATA-specific functionality. That library uses the SCSI layer to talk
to the block layer, so many different kernel options need to be enabled
in order for SATA disks to work properly.
Enable PCI support for the kernel:
Bus options (PCI, PCMCIA, EISA, MCA, ISA)
[*] PCI Support
Enable the SCSI subsystem:
Device Drivers
SCSI Device Support
[*] SCSI Device Support
Also in the SCSI system, the "SCSI disk support" option must be enabled in
order for the device to be mounted properly:
Device Drivers
SCSI Device Support
[*] SCSI disk support
The SATA options are under the "SCSI low-level drivers" section:
Device Drivers
SCSI Device Support
SCSI low-level drivers
[*] Serial ATA (SATA) support
In that section, enable the specific SATA controller type that you have.
Look at the output of the previously mentioned
lspci
command for a list of the types of SATA controllers that are present on
your system. For example, most motherboards from Intel require the PIIX/ICH
SATA driver (as the previous example showed.)
Device Drivers
SCSI Device Support
SCSI low-level drivers
[*] Serial ATA (SATA) support
[*] Intel PIIX/ICH SATA support
Burning a CD-ROM is very simple on Linux. If your kernel can support
reading from a CD-ROM, it can also support burning a CD-ROM. There are
two ways to enable CD-ROM support in Linux, one for IDE drives and one for
SCSI and SATA drives.
IDE CD-ROM drives are controlled by the same IDE controller as your main IDE
disk drives. Make sure the IDE controller is properly supported as
described in the section called “IDE Disks”. If it is properly supported,
then only one other configuration item need to be selected:
Device Drivers
[*] ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support
[*] Enhanced IDE/MFM/RLL disk/cdrom/tape/floppy support
[M] Include IDE/ATAPI CDROM support
SCSI and SATA CD-ROM drives
SATA and SCSI CD-ROM drives are controlled by the same controller as your
main disk drives. Make sure the SATA or SCSI controller is properly
supported. For SATA disks, see the section called “Serial ATA (SATA)”.
To support SATA or SCSI CD-ROM drives, the SCSI CD-ROM driver must be
enabled:
Device Drivers
SCSI Device Support
[*] SCSI CDROM support
Once that is enabled, the SATA or SCSI CD-ROM drive should work properly.
