Re: Wrong MB for Linux ???
On Mon, Mar 05, 2007 at 04:32:12PM +0000, Joe wrote:
> Thomas H. George wrote:
> >Without research I purchased the ECS KA3 MVP motherboard AMD Athlon 64
> >AM2 combo from NewEgg.
> >
> >This seems like a very nice MB in many respects but I have encountered
> >two problems.
> >
> >First, Standard CMOS Features does not list my dvdrw and cdrw drives.
> >There are two ide headers on the board labeled ide1 and ide2 and I have
> >two hard drives attached to ide1 and the dvdrw and cdrw drives attached
> >to ide2. Only the hard drives are listed when I access BIOS Standard
> >CMOS Features. On boot up the dvdrw and cdrw drives are shown as being
> >at ODD0 and ODD1. Result: No entries in /dev for hdc and hdd so I can't
> >mount these devices.
> >
>
> No offence intended, but someone has to ask: are you sure the drive
> jumpers are correct? If they aren't, behaviour is undefined, and a
> complete failure to see either is a possibility. Does either drive
> work alone? If you move the cable to ide1 are they seen by the BIOS?
> If you move the other cable to ide2 can the BIOS see the hard drives?
> Do the optical drives work if you use the cable from the hard drives?
> Obviously there will be no boot like this, but we just want to see
> where the trouble is.
OK, Interesting results.
1. Master and Slave settings are correct and always were correct/
2. IDE cable for hard drives disconnected and IDE cable for optical
drives connected to header labeled ide1.
Result: Optical drives listed in Standard CMOS Features as
Channel 0 Master and Channel 0 Slave.
3. IDE cable for hard drives connected to header labeled ide2.
Result: Optical drives listed in Standard CMOS Features but
there is no listing (never was) for Channel 1. As BIOS
continues to load there is a screen message indicating that the
hard drives are now HDD0 and HDD1. Tried to boot up Debian but
attempt failed, kernel panic.
I mentioned but did not desribe any interesting feature of the
motherboard. The following are significant.
1. The BIOS selection of devices for the boot sequence offers a long
list of choices for each of the first, second and third boot devices.
The usual sequence - floppy, cdrom, hard drive - will always boot from
the hard drive as BIOS does not find any cdrom drive. HOWEVER, both the
dvdrw and the cdrw drives are identified in the choice list and can be
used. If the sequence floppy, LITE-ON DVDRW L, Hard Disk is choosen the
system can be booted from a CD in the dvdrw drive. Clearly BIOS knows
of the presence of the optical drives.
2. BIOS also offers a sequence of the hard drives it will try to boot
from. If, before power up, a usb jump drive containing Damn Small Linux
is inserted in a usb port BIOS will add it to the sequence of hard
drives to boot from. It is possible to move any selected drive to the
top of the list so if the usb jump drive is at the top of the list and
no system floppy or CD is present the system will boot to DSL.
3. There are 6 SATA headers. BIOS Standard CMOS Features always shows
Channel 2 Master, Channel 2 Slave, Channel 3 Master and Channel 3 Slave
even if no SATA devices are present.
4. When I had the IDE cables reversed and looked at the sequence of hard
drives to boot from the hard drives were listed as SCSI devices.
None of this information solves my problem.
Tom
2.
>
> I don't believe there will be a change to the IDE protocol now, so a
> failure of the BIOS to see the drives points to jumpers, cable, one of
> the drives or the MB ide2 channel. Another thought: is there a BIOS
> entry to disable ide2?
>
>
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