what modules do I need, or, do I need any?

oht · 2007-01-04 16:39:28

First I'll give the relevant specs.
NForce 4 chipset, Athlon 64 processor
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS soundcard
Nvidia 6600 GT gpu
my 2 hard drives are both SATA
plextor dvd burner (PATA)

I'm going to be installing Arch soon, and i've been reading through the Installation Guide pretty thoroughly, and the only thing I'm a bit confused on is the settings regarding modules. I think nearly all my hardware is supported by the 2.6 kernel, so do I need to load any modules at all? I know I could just set mod_autoload to yes, but i'd like to speed up boot time as much as possible, and I don't want to run that if in fact I don't need any modules loaded at all. I'm not really sure the scope of kernel modules so I don't know if i'll need them or not. Are there some modules that are almost universally used or necessary? Or are modules only for supporting more obscure hardware that the kernel doesn't support? I've tried examining my current distro start scripts to get an idea of what modules it loads, but the damn things are really hard to follow, so i'm still a bit unsure. I'm not too familiar with how udev works, i know it takes care alot of this stuff. The only thing I could find in my current distro that seemed to be loading a module for the sound card which seemed simple enough, something like, alias snd sndemu10k (<- probably very innacurate, but it was something similar).
So does anyone know if i need to load modules?
If so, which ones? (just a general idea would be fine

the default smiley face looks a bit sinister by the way

STiAT · 2007-01-04 16:54:38

If i can give you an advice, install with the alpha 0.8 version. This will get you less in troubles with your harddrive configuration after you updated the system.

The other specifics: The most relevant things of course will work. At least for the hardware you posted. You could install the nvidia driver for X afterwards, but the nv driver is also quite fine for the beginning.

What you should consider is, lookup if your network and maybe wireless card you have is supported by default. If your network works once, you'll get along, even though when one or the other piece might not work from the beginning.

Overall, there is a lot of hardware already supported by the default kernel built for Arch. You should not get into too much troubles.

// STi

oht · 2007-01-04 16:58:45

My network interface is supported by default (well it has been on every other distribution i've tried). I did plan to install nvidia's driver after getting X up and running.
Thanks for the advice though. You suggest I use the alpha 0.8 iso to install? I hope there are no showstoppers...

STiAT · 2007-01-04 17:28:33

Rarely.

I also still use the 0.7.2 install for some reason (too lazy to get new cdrs).

The reason you should use 0.8 is easy: Alot of things changed, with your configuration you will have at least to upgrade your grub menu.lst for the new kernel and the fstab to get it working, could also be that you need to insert a special kernel parameter (piix) for being able to boot then....

It doesn't make any huge difference if you use 0.7.2 or 0.8.
Just be careful after your first system upgrade with rebooting, read carefully trough the changes...
That's one of the problems of rolling release distributions, though, funny .

You by sure can fix any of those problems (if any occur like kernel panics) with your arch cd (0.7.2 or 0.8), by booting, mounting your harddrives and editing the files again.
Nothing lost, i've had to do similar quite often, since i'm sometimes just too lazy to read ... and one day some arch packager forgot to drop in the note into the install file

// STi

oht · 2007-01-04 17:31:03

hmmm, well I use LILO. I'll try the .8 cd though.

Question, when doing an FTP install (which is what i plan to do), is the latest kernel also downloaded through FTP or is it taken from the CD?

STiAT · 2007-01-04 17:32:44

Well, with a FTP install you'll get 0.8 anyway, no matter which install cd you use, since arch will try to update repos and so on during the install.

Principle it doesn't matter in which bootloader you might need to add some things... the kernel is loaded with or without the parameters, and appropriate modules.

I can't say exactly if you need the ata modules, i never needed it, and have a quite similar hardware configuration as you do (i just never read further since it had no effect... as i said, lazy, and sometimes just read when i'm forced to do so).

// STi

oht · 2007-01-04 17:35:08

Cool thanks for your help

Basu · 2007-01-05 10:43:51

and once your install goes fine get the nvidia drivers if you want Beryl and XGL stuff.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-01-04 16:39:28

what modules do I need, or, do I need any?

#2 2007-01-04 16:54:38

Re: what modules do I need, or, do I need any?

#3 2007-01-04 16:58:45

Re: what modules do I need, or, do I need any?

#4 2007-01-04 17:28:33

Re: what modules do I need, or, do I need any?

#5 2007-01-04 17:31:03

Re: what modules do I need, or, do I need any?

#6 2007-01-04 17:32:44

Re: what modules do I need, or, do I need any?

#7 2007-01-04 17:35:08

Re: what modules do I need, or, do I need any?

#8 2007-01-05 10:43:51

Re: what modules do I need, or, do I need any?

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