[plug] Debian install - format for drivers?

[Denis Brown]

Dear PLUG list members,

First of all to John Knight - glad to hear that you got the Broadcom chip
going :-)   Now for my query...

Late last week I asked some questions on this list in regards to getting
Debian / RH / ?? onto an Intellistation which, among other things,
steadfastly insisted that I had a SCSI-connected CD-ROM for the source
media.   That was corrected by disabling the SATA in the BIOS.

But when I try to install Debian from CD #1 of the Debian set, or from the
Lord Sutch mini-CD, I get a "no hard disks" error during the setup.   Sort
of "fair enough" because I have SCSI HDDs and I therefore need to load a
module; aic79xx driver in this case.

I could install from floppies but I think that is a bit Old Hat (tm) these
days.   During either CD installation I get asked if I want to load any
drivers.   I would like to say "yes, aic79xx please!" but if I use a
diskette from the 4-diskette "driver-x.bin" images I get rudely told that
the format is not understood.  Scott Middleton suggested using CD #2 or 3
which had SCSI drivers but I have not been able to lay hands on one yet -
LinuxIT was shut when I called by on Saturday morning :-(

Which brings me to the question (not yet found the answer by surfing the
'net), which is "what is the format of the driver needed at this stage of
a Debian installation?"   Supplementary question would then be, "how do I
go about getting an aic79xx driver in Debian-friendly format?"

Pointers in appropriate directions would be gratefully appreciated :-)

Cheers and TIA,
Denis