10.0 CE installation gives up on HDD detection

[Ip5]

hi,

 

this is my first Linux experience, sad thing: I can't even get it to boot :-(

 

ok, I'm trying a dual boot install next to Win98SE,

 

HDD are IBM DJNA 351520 (primary master), IBM DTLA 305040 (primary slave) both FAT 32. There's a free partition on the first drive intended for Linux.

 

Problem: when Mandrake setup comes to hard drive detection, it says "can't read partition table hda" and will return to this screen if I refuse to have the partition deleted.

 

further messages: "found a DOS partition on /dev/hda/section0" and "unknown device sr0 caller is fsedit/usr/bin/perl-install/fsedit.pm:68"

 

both drives are jumpered correctly (no CS) and defragmented.

 

I also tried noapic acpi=off ide=nodma just to be sure, with exactly the same result.

 

 

Please, what could I do now?

 

 

 

Hardware: Asus P3BF, Elsa Erazor III, Adaptec AHA2940, etc..

[Ixthusdan]

There is an odd installation issue. Try booting with the second cd and then put the first cd in when requested to "Try another cd?". Everything worked for me like that.

[Ip5]

sorry, won't help..

 

should I try to "fix" the partition table (never realized that it should be broken..) or will this get me into trouble with my other OS?

 

I realize that sr0 has something to do SCSI should I investigate there??

 

Thanks!

[polemicz]

There is a diskdrake problem with some harddrives. I ran into a similar problem trying to install 10.0. It is unable to read my hdb partition table (saying it is an EZ Drive). I've never had problems with any other installation with many distros. I filed a bug report and got back a reply asking me to check an alt1 install (2.4 kernel). Unfortunately I can not boot off of cd1, which is where alt1 is.

Unless you need/want all the latest 2.6 stuff you should try 9.2. I find it very solid.

[Gowator]

IP5

What exactly is connected to the AHA2940 ???

 

try being a bit more descrptive about what you have in terms of the hardware and which version of mandrake, where you got it from etc.

 

there are 1001 things it might be and a few clues'll help us.

(Welcome to the board BTW :D)

 

 

Do you have a spare drive without ANYTHING on.....

Since its your 1st linux experience then play safe as possible.

 

Id recommend unplugging the drive with windows on, then you cant wreck it. Making it dual boot later by adding the winBlows disk backis REALLY easy....

 

 

Make sure you have no compact flash/usb disks etc. connected !!!!!

[scoopy]

(saying it is an EZ Drive)

That was the source of many problems for me a couple of years ago with both Windows and Linux. I had to get rid of it for me to be able to install Mandrake 8.0. From what I remember, it can be difficult to remove and is totally unnecessary. I may still have the instructions filed somewhere if you can't find via google.

Edited March 12, 2004 by scoopy

[Ip5]

WOW!! alt1 installation (using the 2.4 kernel) did the trick! thanks a lot for your replies!!!

 

I can confirm this 10.0 CE diskdrake bug. It didn't bother me that both drives are not on the compatible hardware list... I also remember I had to use EZ-drive (or some other tool) to make them work with 98SE.

 

now that the drive is properly formated could I try and update the kernel???

 

just for the curious: AHA2940 is connected to a TEAC CD-R56-S and I used Mandrake 10.0 CE from official ftp servers

 

next thing shall be to get a Terratec EWS64XL soundcard up and running, but I'm prepared for some trouble here... ;-)