Bug#38073: need help installing
[BTW, please CC emails of your problem to the 38073@bugs.debian.org
address as I am doing here... that way, the conversation is all put in
the log.]
>>I assume you have read
>><URL:http://www.debian.org/releases/slink/i386/ch-rescue-boot.en.html>
>>and <URL:http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/BootPrompt-HOWTO.html>?
>
>many times!
Ah....
>>> architecture: i386
>>> model: Gateway Performance 500 (PIII-500)
>>> memory: 128M
>>>
>>> hdd: Western Digital Expert AC313500, EIDE, 13.5GB
>>> drive parameters (printed on drive label): LBA 26520480
>>> c,h,s = 26310, 16, 63 ???
>>> hdd controller: Ultra ATA/66
>>
>>Hmm.. this is a pretty new machine. What is an 'Ultra ATA/66' ? Never
>>heard of that.
>
>I don't know squat about controllers, but here is a link to what I have.
>
>http://www.promise.com/Products/idecards/u66.htm
Well, from what I know about linux IDE controllers, that should work
fine, even if not explicitly mentioned (some of the high-end features
may not be supported, I don't know).
>> * what does the kernel say when booting? Does it detect your IDE
>> controller?
>
>Ok, the relevant messages I saw when I stated hda=16383,16,63 (also tried
>with 26310,16,63):
>
>hda: no response {status 0xff }
>hda: non-IDE drive, CHS=16383,16,63
>hda: drive not ready for command
>ide0: reset timed-out, status=0xff
Oh...
>> * is DOS/Windows able to boot?
>
>DOS and Windows work fine.
>
>> * do you have expansion cards in your system, such as sound cards or
>> internal modems? Often, it makes sense to remove any
>> non-essential cards, since they can confuse Linux sometimes.
>
>
>internal modem, onboard sound, hdd controller, and voodoo banshee gfx card.
>I could try without the modem.
Yes... an IRQ conflict could definately be the problem. Unintentional
IRQ sharing might explain why you can't get any responses from the IDE
controller.
>>Oh, um, this is probably not good. You probably need to have a
>>partition below cylinder 1024 in order to boot. See the Large disk
>>HOWTO at the LDP site.
>
>I've been confused about this point. I've also read somewhere that windows
>doesn't like to be not on the first partition. And so it's best to keep
>windows first and put linux at the end.
I've never heard this.
The fact is, most BIOS requires that the partition you are booting
from be below the 1024 cylinder border.
>So now I'd like to get a separate hard drive just for linux, like a cheap
>2-4GB drive. This way I'd feel more comfortable messing around with linux
>and wouldn't need to worry about losing my windows stuff. It seems like
>things will be much easier that way. So my question would be, can I use an
>ULTRA ATA/66 hdd? Should I worry that ATA/66 is not listed on the hardware
>compatability howto at
>
>http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO-7.html
I'm not sure I would worry about that... It's possible that the
problem is that the controller isn't supported.
I'm pretty sure the problem is either an IRQ conflict, or else the
plug-and-play features of the controller (from their web page) are
causing problems for Linux. In that case, you probably ought to
configure the IDE card to not use plug-n-play (see your manuals on
how).
>If that works I should still be able to mount my windows drive, all 13GB of
>it from linux, right?
Yes...
--
.....Adam Di Carlo....adam@onShore.com.....<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>
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