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Help installing Mandrake Linux


Guest njordan
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Guest njordan

Hello I need help installing Mandrake Linux 9.1. Can anyone help PLEASE.

 

Here is my problem explained in stages:

 

1) During installation I come to a point where I am prompted "Which disc/scsi driver should I try" below was a long list for me to choose.

 

My Selection

 

3w - XXXX ( 3ware Storage Controller Linux Driver)

 

2) Then I got a pop up that said "Found 3w - XXXX ( 3ware Storage Controller Linux Driver) disk/scsi interfaces"

 

3) Then another pop up appears and asks "Do you have another one"

 

My Selection

 

No

 

4) Then it asks me again "Do you have any disk/scsi interfaces?"

 

My Selection

No

 

5) Then I get an error which says "An error occured - no valid devices were found on which to create new filesystems. Please check your hardware for the cause of this problem"

 

My Selection

 

OK

 

6) Then Linux takes me back to stage 1) noted above and the same thing keeps happening. I can't move pass this stage to continue instalation. Also I try to select other options in the list from stage 1) - nothing works. :(

 

Please note here is what my BIOS contains:

 

->Drive Configuration

- SATA Primary Drive ....Hard Drive (model# : ST3120026AS, Drive Type: Auto, capacity: 120GB)

- SATA Secondary Drive ....Hard Drive (model# : ST3120026AS, Drive Type: Auto, capacity: 120GB)

-Both Drives have these seetings as shown below:

- Primary Master Drive....OFF

- Primary Slave Drive......OFF

- Secondary Master Drive....CD-ROM Device

- Secondary Slave Drive....OFF

- IDE Drive UDMA......OFF

 

 

Here are all the specs for my Computer:

 

DELL OptiPlex GX270

Pentium 4 Processor 3.00HGz, 800FSB, 512K Cache, Intel Gigabit NIC

 

Memory

1.0GB DDR Non-ECC SDRAM, 333MHz,(2 DIMMs)

 

Boot Hard Drives

120GB SATA, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with Data Burst Cache

 

Additional Hard Drive

120GB SATA, 7200 RPM Hard Drive with Data Burst Cache

 

 

This is a new computer and I do not know what is the problem. Can anyone PLEASE help me. :(

 

Thank You

njordan

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2 questions:

 

  • Are these downloaded and burnt CDs? If so, have you checked the md5sum of the disks?

 

[*] Do you have Disk 3?

Everywhere I searched there weren't any solutions that I could see except that without Disk 3, it would not install and with Disk 3, it would.

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I have read where some people are having trouble with serial ata. That may be your problem. It may not be able to see the drives to install. Do a google/linux search and see what you can find. I would start with: "mandrake 9.1" sata. That should get you started anyway.

 

:D :D :D :D

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I think the NO's are right becuase its using the serial ATA ...

However: Are you sure the 3Ware controller is the right one? In the manual?? Look for chipset on mobo? etc.

 

However;

The install tends to do LOTS of screwy things if it detects 'exotic HW'

I was playing at a new install last night and I got to making a FAT16 partition.... (Its not for me).

I got some error cos it couldn't find the module for vfat and it just left me in circles ... Its not the first time either...

 

You could try expert mode. You need the 3Ware drivers on a floppy (I think).

 

 

Another way (if all else fails) is to stick in an OLD IDE drive and install a minimal booting system from there.

 

If your new to Mandrake/Linux I'd recommend going as far as getting the graphic display (X) and a window manager.

Make sure you have urpmi because you can install the rest later.

Make sure you create a single partition for this or it will get complicated later. (i.e. everything under / on hda1)

 

 

Once you install and it should be under 5GB you can move it across to a serial ATA drive. If you create the same size partition as / with the same size.

Leave it completely empty, no file system etc.

the after you can use dd to copy the filesystem from hda1 to hd(x)1.

It must be the same size or bigger, if its bigger it will waste the extra space so make it the same.

 

You can then unplug your non serial drive and when it boots the serial ATA should be hda1.

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Check out the discussion on this thread:

 

http://www.linuxcompatible.org/forums/view...topic.php?t=508

 

Bottom line is that the 2.4 kernels won't do sata without a patch. Suse 8.2 has it patched but the current mandrake and redhat do not. Don't know if mdk 9.2 will have this patched or not, but the 2.6 kernel coming out this spring should have it all ironed out.

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Guest njordan

:)

Thank You to everyone that helped me solve my problem. Im going to install SuSE 8.2 which supports SATA. I will make a post when I have successfuly installed SuSE. Thanks again EVERYBODY!!! :D

 

-njordan

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Are you saying that the only way to solve your prob is to install SuSE? :? Are you sure? Or is that the easy way? Not that you shouldn't choose the easy way.....I'm just curious if it can be done in ML, but it's just that it's a pain, and with SuSE it's easy. :)

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