Re: Installation problem

[Douglas Tutty <dtutty@porchlight.ca>]

On Thu, Dec 07, 2006 at 10:01:41PM +0800, Wei-Min Gu wrote:
> With a Debian CD, which was made from debian-31r4-i386-netinst.iso,
> I tried to install Debian GNU/Linux on my new PC but failed.
> 
> The installation was stopped since "No partitionable media were found".
> It shows as the following:
> 
> No partitionable media were found.
> Please check that a hard disk is attached to this machine.
> 
> However, my hard disk (IDE) is all right since I can install a
> RedHat system through hard disk method (the same problem if
> through CD-ROM). I guess that my mainboard of Intel 945GZ
> is not well supported by the current version?
> 
> So my question is how can I install Debian on this PC? If there
> is no way to install from CD-ROM, can I do it through hard disk
> method?
> 
 
Hi Wei-Min,

I don't know why you're having a problem since I don't know anything
about your hardware.  It seems that since you can't install from CDROM
on redhat either that its not a debian-specific problem.  So I'll focus
on the work around.  

First, have you a copy of the installation manual for reference?

Did you submit a (failed) installation report and subscribe to the
debian-boot mailing list?

Can you boot a USB stick?  If so, you can make a hd-media USB stick and
install from that (see the installation manual).

Have you tried an Etch daily build?  You may find that the problem has
been fixed already.

Can you get far enough in the install to get a shell on F2?  Can you run
cfdisk on the IDE drive?  Do you have anything at all that can boot and
give you a partitioner?

	If so, you can create a small partition (I prefer at the end of
	the drive) just big enough to hold the hd-media and the
	netinst.iso.

	Now you need to boot that.  If you have a floppy disk, you could
	use a grub-disk.  The grub-disk package includes an image of a
	floppy disk that gives you a default menu.lst but you can also
	access the grub command line.  If you don't have another linux
	box there may be a way to unpack the deb manually and get that
	image, then use the rawwrite programme from the CD to make the
	disk.

	You would then follow along the instructions in the installation
	manual.


If none of this works, let us know what you do have that will boot and
find the drive.

Good luck,

Doug.