Wont install files...

[digby]

Just for sake of expiriment: When you boot off the Mandrake install CD and get to the menu where it asks for you to press enter or F1, press F1 and type: "linux noapic nolapic". That was the only way I could get it to install on my nForce2 machine, though I'm not using any sort of RAID.

 

One other thing... is your BIOS updated to the latest version? I have heard that doing that has helped several people with nForce chipsets.

[Gowator]

When you say you can boot into knoppix with the RAID devices do you mean just boot or can you actually see the RAID devices and browse them ?

 

Looking on the internet it says that drivers exist for the card.... Promise fastrack 100 tx2 here http://www.promise.com/support/download/do...ory=driver&os=3

2.2 To install the FastTrak Series Linux Driver into a NEW SYSTEM

 1.) Start the Red Hat Linux Installation with CD-ROM booting.

 2.) At the "Welcome to Red Hat Linux ..." installation screen, a prompt
     labeled "boot:" will appear at the bottom of the screen.

 3.) Please append parameters (see Note 1 below) at the "boot:" prompt,
     then press the Enter key.

 4.) At the "Devices" dialog box, insert the FastTrak Driver Disk in the
     floppy drive and then select "OK" or "Yes" to continue install.

 5.) Enable "Configure advanced boot loader options" box at Boot Loader
     Configuration menu, and type kernel parameters (see NOTE 2 below)
     in the General kernel parameters field.

 6.) Continue with the installation as normal.

 7.) If the installer occur warning message about "The kernel was unable
     to re-read the partition table on /dev/sd(x), (Device or resource
     busy)...", Please do not click skip, just click Ignore bottom to
     continue the install.

 8.) Press Ctrl-Alt-F2 when installation at the "Congratulations" menu.

 9.) Insert the FastTrak Driver Disk floppy, Issue commands to load FastTrak
     driver.
 # umount /tmp/fd0	(Just in case if RedHat forgot this)

 # chroot /mnt/sysimage
               # mount /dev/fd0 /mnt	
(If USB Floppy, Please choose USB floppy device such as /dev/sdb)
               # cd /mnt
               # sh setup-ft
                   
 10.) Choose your selection here, after FastTrak driver setup successful.
 # cd /
               # umount /mnt
               # exit

 11.) Please press Ctrl-Alt-F7 and click "Exit" button to finish installation.


[NOTE]

  Linux Kernels 2.4.x misidentiy Promise ATA-RAID controllers as simple
IDE controllers. This results in the built-in Linux IDE driver trying to
handle the controller and can prevent the proper FastTrak ATA RAID driver
from loading.
  Follow the installation instructions AND the parameter commands referred
to below section. This status we called "IDE issue".

[MooseMuffin]

digby: Yes my bios is updated to the latest. That other suggestion sounds good, I'll give that a try when I get back from work.

 

gowator: I mean that I can boot knoppix with the raid array, I can see my drive, but cant read it. Says something about not being able to mount such and such. That information and driver will likely be helpful once I get mandrake running, but I'm not trying to install to that drive anyway so I dont really mind if its not detected during installation. The raid drives are ntfs anyway, so I'm not sure if i care that they're detected at all actually.

 

When I get back from work I'll be armed with a proper cable and these two suggestions. Hopefully progress will be made. Thanks.

[Gowator]

Hence Id unplug the RAID card; install MDK on the 10GB disk stick the driver in and then plug the drives back in

 

Linux Kernels 2.4.x misidentiy Promise ATA-RAID controllers as simple

IDE controllers. This results in the built-in Linux IDE driver trying to

handle the controller and can prevent the proper FastTrak ATA RAID driver

from loading.

 

Or it might give the same error youre getting.

My DVD gives the cable error everytime but it doesnt hang.

 

This is the way Id try anyway

[MooseMuffin]

Based on the previous suggestion of clearing up hardware issues before software issues, tell me what you think of this.

 

I got a new 80 conductor ide cable to replace the 40 conductor one, and hopefully getting the drive running in dma mode and perhaps clearing up a problem or two. When attached to the new cable, the bios wont detect the hard drive... If use the same cable to attach a cd drive, it works fine, so its not the cable. And when I reattached the 40 conductor cable, the drive was detected again, so its not the drive either... So they both work, but not combined. I wasnt aware it was possible for a drive to be incompatable with a ide cable.

[Ixthusdan]

Yes, old drives will not work on new cables. Also, if you mix the drives, the new one will slow down to the old one's speed! I was thinking that when I resurrect an old drive, I use a manufacturer's utility to low-level format it before doing anything with it. Was it a Maxtor? You can download Max Blast from their web sight.

[MooseMuffin]

Ugg, its not even that old. Its an samsung drive that transfers at ata66 speed, which requires an 80 conductor cable. Is there anything that isnt wrong with my computer? gah

[Ixthusdan]

Ugg, its not even that old. Its an samsung drive that transfers at ata66 speed, which requires an 80 conductor cable. Is there anything that isnt wrong with my computer? gah

:D

 

I have a bench full of old parts that I occassionally throw together to experiment with. That's when I remember that this video card had an odd problem, that hard drive dumped before I reformatted it, that board was freaky, etc.

[MooseMuffin]

Well, I've decided that my system just flat out hates this drive/this drive is messed up. So, until I come across another hard drive, my linux venture (does this even count as a linux venture?) will come to a close. Thanks to everyone for your help, I'll be back some day with attempt 2 and a new set of problems to dump on you.

Edited June 9, 2004 by MooseMuffin