Newbie Install on i386 w/ SATA - boot help?
Hi,
I'm doing my first i386 install, and had a few problems (particularly
booting). I've done my very best to use outside info and not bother anyone
with dumb newbie questions, but I'm stuck. First, here's what I'm running
on:
mobo: Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
cpu: AMD Athlon XP 2500+ 'Barton'
hd: Dual Samsung 160GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drives - Model SP1614C
vid: XFX GeforceFX 5900 128 MB
I installed 'linux26' with the daily businesscard iso 20040927 from
cdimage.debian.org. (I'm skipping a lot for brevity's sake? if there's
anything anyone needs to know, I've documented fairly well).
I tried setting up DM RAID0 using both drives, and did the default
partitioning scheme.
IDE5 master (hde) - 160.0 GN SAMSUNG SP1614C
#1 primary 160.0 GB @ raid
IDE5 master (hde) - 160.0 GN SAMSUNG SP1614C
#1 primary 160.0 GB @ raid
RAID0 device #0 - 320 GB Software RAID device
#1 primary 318.5 GB \/ @ ext3 /
#5 logical 512.3 MB @ swap swap
I got this error while the installer was creating the ext3 filesystem:
"[!!] Partitioning disks
Failed to create a file system
The ext3 file system creation in partition #1 of RAID0 device #1 failed.
----------------
After messing around trying to get RAID to work awhile, I got rid of the
RAID0 and used one of the SATA drives to partition:
The following partitions are going to be formatted:
partition #1 of IDE5 master (hde) as ext3
partition #5 of IDE5 master (hde) as swap
I got no errors creating filesystems, and the system rebooted after
installation.
I've done this a number of times, switching the installation drive and
between GRUB/LILO.
On restart, after initial BIOS, the system hung on the following errors:
hde/GRUB: Error 2
hdg/GRUB: Error 21
hd*/LILO: L 99 99 99 99 99 99 99... (about 5 lines worth)
I'm assuming from my reading that these are disk recognition errors, and I'm
going to need to manually config grub or lilo to get the system to boot from
disk.
----------------
I did some research and found this HOWTO for debian SATA-RAID:
http://xtronics.com/reference/SATA-RAID-Debian.htm
It's very good, but the problem is that I can't boot even after following
its directions for initial installation on hdg.
So my current partitioning scheme is thus:
IDE5 (hde) FREE SPACE
IDE6 (hdg)
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdg1 * 1 31 248967 83 Linux
/dev/hdg2 32 274 1951897+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hdg3 275 19457 154087447+ 83 Linux
I DLed a KNOPPIX 3.6 iso (had never used KNOPPIX before) to see if I could
boot from that and follow the rest of the directions on the howto.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I can install things on hdg running
knoppix (at least that I could figure out so far).
NOTE: KNOPPIX 3.6 is _very_ nice for a live CD! Wow!
I did:
$cat /boot/grub/menu.1st |more
everything was #commented# out except the following at the bottom of the
file:
title. . Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-1-k7
root. . (hd1,0)
kernel , /vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-k7 root=/dev/hdg3 ro
initrd. . /initrd.img-2.6.8-1-k7
savedefault
boot
title. . Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-1-k7
root. . (hd1,0)
kernel , /vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-k7 root=/dev/hdg3 ro single
initrd. . /initrd.img-2.6.8-1-k7
savedefault
boot
I searched around for helpful howtos and didn't find much. I'm a bit nervous
about mucking around in the menu.1st file blind.
Anyway, if anyone can help with getting the system to boot (I assume
manually reconfiguring GRUB), or with helping me find another way (floppy?)
to boot in order to continue the howto directions, I'd very much appreciate
it. Pointing to a good howto is plenty. So far I haven't read a helpful GRUB
configuration howto or manual for what I have going.
Thanks,
Jon
In the meantime, I've got my KNOPPIX on ;P
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