FC4 won't install on my PC

[tseliot]

Hi, this is mycomputer:
AMD Athlon™ 64 3500+
MSI 480s motherboard (with ATI RADEON® XPRESS 200P chipset)
2 GB DDR-SDRAM
Seagate barracuda 160 Serial ATA (on which I have XP installed )
Maxtor 120gb PATA (this is where I want to install Fedora)
Samsung DVD-reader
TS DVD-writer
memory card reader 9in1
Modem 56K
Lan 10/100BT
NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6200 Turbocache 256 MB PCI-Express 16x
Integrated audio 5.1
PS/2 keyboard and mouse
7 USB 2.0 ports 2 FireWire-IEEE-1394

After booting FC4 DVD and configuring various things (selecting automatic partitioning, packages, etc.) I arrive to the last step: I am asked to press "next" in order to make the installation process begin. Then the mouse pointer freezes and the installer hangs.

I tried to install it using text mode:
Here's what it says:

kernel panic -not syncing: drivers/ide/pci/atiixp.c:129: spin_lock (drivers/ide/ide.c:ffffffff804c1dc0) already locked by drivers/ide/ide-iops.c/1235. (not tainted)

I also tried to disable my serial ATA controller (although I'm trying to install FC4 on my PATA drive). Nothing changes.

Please, help me

[wtg_photos]

could you provide the chipset on the mobo

also is your pata drive primary master?

[wtg_photos]

MSI 480s motherboard (with ATI RADEON® XPRESS 200P chipset)

sorry i did not see it... try to unplug as much usb as you can during install that seemed to help me
i have msi but Nforce4 no problems here
Ati seems to be a little new on the chipset front

[Justbill]

FC4 wouldn't install on my machine either, I finally gave up and installed centOS 4. Its seems real nice, and the best part is it DIDN'T crash on the install (didn't this problem show up durring the testing).
Compaq Presario SR1426NX
2.93 Ghz Pentium 4
512MB PC2-3200 DDR2 SDRAM
160GB 7200RPM Serial ATA hard drive

WHat does the "C" mean in FC4

Justbill

[lyricalstress]

Have a similar setup. Found that manual partioning got me through the initial install the first time I gave up on the autopartioning (VMLinux drivers installed by the autopartioning did not get along with something in my system - appeared to have been my SATA drive). Then resorted to turning off SELinux to install NVIDIA drivers, libg.., etc (I'm not running a server here).

Everything working great now.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ socket 754
Gigabyte K8NS Pro wi NVIDIA NForce 3 250 chipset
1 GB PC2-3200 DDR2 SDRAM
120 GB 7200 Maxtor SATA HD
256 MB EVGA Nvidia 6200 AGP
Belkin Wireless G PCI card

[tseliot]

Have a similar setup. Found that manual partioning got me through the initial install the first time I gave up on the autopartioning (VMLinux drivers installed by the autopartioning did not get along with something in my system - appeared to have been my SATA drive). Then resorted to turning off SELinux to install NVIDIA drivers, libg.., etc (I'm not running a server here).

Everything working great now.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ socket 754
Gigabyte K8NS Pro wi NVIDIA NForce 3 250 chipset
1 GB PC2-3200 DDR2 SDRAM
120 GB 7200 Maxtor SATA HD
256 MB EVGA Nvidia 6200 AGP
Belkin Wireless G PCI card


It didn't work for me :(

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

[tseliot]

as far as centOS 4 is concerned: I tried to install it, it partitioned my harddisk, then the installation process started and (after a while) .... error, it says I don't have enough room in my harddisk. Perhaps 120gb isn't enough. I guess I'm very lucky with (every kind of) Linux

[Javaholic]

I have a laptop that won't let me install FC4 (Fedora Core 4 for the guy that was asking). I'm not sure on all of the specifications, but I'm pretty sure that it has an ATI chipset as well. The error message is just about the same, except it occurs in the initial loading screen after it says "Uniform CD Driver Revision X". I have tried installing Debian, but it also has trouble (but not during the install). I'm quite inexperienced, so I will need detailed instructions. I see that selinux is mentioned, how do I turn that off and what is it?

[lo_oscillator]

i think your problem is a misconfigured kernel configuration. after i had bought a new harddisk, i came across the same error as u with kernels 2.6.10 and 2.6.11 (2.6.9 still worked)

further more i installed kernel 2.6.12-rc6 without any success (same error message).

after looking into the source files i found the mistake:

the problem is probably that you have an msi motherboard, but "Intel PIIXn chipsets support" in "ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support" in section Device Drivers is probably turned on. turn this module support off on boot prompt as this driver is conflicting with "Include IDE/ATA-2 DISK support" (drive already locked by this driver). after installation, be sure to have the Intel chipsets support as a module and not included in the kernel, then problem should be fixed.

all current kernels work fine on my p4 after correcting this!

[tseliot]

i think your problem is a misconfigured kernel configuration. after i had bought a new harddisk, i came across the same error as u with kernels 2.6.10 and 2.6.11 (2.6.9 still worked)

further more i installed kernel 2.6.12-rc6 without any success (same error message).

after looking into the source files i found the mistake:

the problem is probably that you have an msi motherboard, but "Intel PIIXn chipsets support" in "ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support" in section Device Drivers is probably turned on. turn this module support off on boot prompt as this driver is conflicting with "Include IDE/ATA-2 DISK support" (drive already locked by this driver). after installation, be sure to have the Intel chipsets support as a module and not included in the kernel, then problem should be fixed.

all current kernels work fine on my p4 after correcting this!

How can I "turn this module support off on boot prompt" as I can't even install Fedora?

[lo_oscillator]

i've just got another question while looking into the source file atiixp.c mentioned by you: did you try to turn off the internal sound card (you have sort of an ac97, not?) in the bios and install then (text or graphical)? else, try "linux noprobe" and never probe for the sound card during installation. if installation works, then load linux in level 3 (this should work anyway), have a look at the source file atiixp.c and note the name of the module. then configure your kernel appropriate to your system and be sure to have the driver of atiixp.c configured as a module. then install the kernel, reboot and init 5

maybe this could work.

[tseliot]

Thanks for the answer, I'll tell you if this works for me.

P.S. I'm writing from my new Knoppix 4.0 DVD. It's amazing, it supports everything (SATA, PATA, NVIDIA, etc) OUT OF THE BOX. Check it out!

[tseliot]

here's what I get:

kernel panic- not syncing: drivers/ide/pci/atiixp.c:129: spin_lock (drivers/ide.c:u3de668) already locked by drivers/ide/ide-iops.c/1235 (not tainted)

[lo_oscillator]

and if u put "module=CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ATIIXP" on boot prompt and disable internal sound cards, does it work then? i know, live cds as knoppix, suse, etc. are very useful, cause they run for sure (nice for risky configs, etc.)!

[tseliot]

same error.

I put "Linux module=CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ATIIXP". Is this right?

[lo_oscillator]

yes this is right, but i dont know out of my finger how to disable this driver in anaconda. sry, i'm quite busy at the moment with exams but i'll give it a deep try next wednesday.

on my opinion, ur problem lies definitely in the drivers mentioned in the past post and not in pata or sata problems, because both drivers (Include IDE/ATA-2 DISK support and atiixp support) are directly built into the kernel, which ends up in this conflict (one driver locks the drive and the other wants to lock it too, but it's already locked). try to find a way to disable this driver at boot prompt (wiki?) or force it be a module. as i mentioned above i could solve this problem by configuring the kernels pIIx support as a module (as i have an intel chipset), further more i dont know if your installation works without problems after having the driver as a module due to known recognition problems with ati chipsets.

another way would be to make your own installation cd or install from sata disk with a personal initial ramdisk, but this would maybe be too time-consuming (pro for ubuntu!).

greetz and good luck

[tseliot]

I think you're right about the driver. Thanks for your help, I'm studying for my exam too. I'll try to find something useful on the Internet when I have some spare time. If I get Fedora to work I'll let you know.

Good luck for your exams and "see you" next week (I hope so)!

[lo_oscillator]

yep, i wish you good luck, too!
i'm gonna try install next week as well, i'll let you know if it works, and then i try to reproduce the error i had on fedora c3 and will try fix it with prompt arguments as well. i'll let you know.

and ubuntu is not that bad too...

and fc3 neither is...

the release date of fc4 is just bad for my exams...

happy summer!

[alaa_bahrani]

i have a similiar problem...

i'm trying to install fc4 on my machine but it keeps on crashing on setup... all i could read from the output is that it couldn't create/find ramdisk at block 0.

i currently have fc3 running fine.. i also tried installing on a different machine and the cds worked fine.

my machine:
p4 3ghz, intel mb, 512 ddr, ati radeon 9200 128mb, 80gb hdd, lg dvd-rw

[francf]

I have the same error.
Any body, find a fix for that?

[Justbill]

I had type in at the prompt, on the main (first page)
linux resolution1024x760 nofb

and then it installed

Justbill

[alaa_bahrani]

i found the solution in another post in the forums..

at startup prompt type mediacheck it would produce an error, then type linux mediacheck and it would start ok!

[tseliot]

Sorry but it doesn't work for me

[lo_oscillator]

u dont have a media error (at least i hope) but a mainboard support problem. since last week, i managed on installing fc4 without further problems. how were exams?

[lo_oscillator]

are you still at the same point of installation? (kernel broke because of atiixp)

[bazzap]

PMFJI, but I have the same problem. I can confirm that the "garbage" workaround doesn't work for me, nor does a network boot using this iso:

http://people.redhat.com/pjones/i915/booti915.iso

My error message is slightly different though:

Kernel panic - not syncing: drivers/ide/pci/piix.c: 232: spin_lock(drivers/ide/ide.c: c03de668) already locked by drivers/ide/ide-iops.c/1235. (Not tainted)

My system is not new; it's at least 4 years old and is as follows:

MOBO: MSI Computer MS-6385 with Intel 850 chipset, on-board sound disabled
uP: Intel Pentium 4 1300 MHz
RAM: 512 MB
HDD1: Maxtor 6E040L0 40MB primary IDE master partitioned as:
0: 102 MB ext3 /boot
1: 30 MB NTFS (Windows XP Home)
2: 8 MB ext3 /
HDD2: Maxtor 6Y080L0 80 MB primary IDE slave partitioned as:
0: 67 MB NTFS (Windows data)
1: 5 MB FAT32 (windows / linux share)
2: 7 MB ext3 /home
3: 1 MB linux swap
Display: NVIDIA GeForce MX 100/200
DVD: LG DVD-ROM DRD8120B Secondary IDE master
CD-RW: LG GCE-8160B secondary IDE slave
IDE ATA/ATAPI Intel 82801BA IDE controller
Creative Audigy PLatinum sound card
D-Link DFE-530TX PCI fast ethernet card

Any other hardware info you need?

I am a competent software engineer, with experience of C and gcc compiler, but precisely ZERO experience of kernels and device drivers. I am happy to try and fix this myself but have no idea how to proceed from here and any pointers would be gratefully received.

For further info, vanilla FC3 installed without a hitch, but as soon as the first yum update happened, system would hang on Gnome startup. A few days after that, FC4 was released, but I've been stuck ever since.

Many thanks,

Baz

[lo_oscillator]

when you do a yum update in fc3, do a init 3 afterwards and configure your kernel appropriately as tseliot and me were discussing in previous posts and then the kernels will work. installing fc4 i have the same installation error as you, i'll try it with a manipulated installation kernel, i'll let you know..

[bazzap]

Thanks, lo_oscillator, I'll give it a shot and report back. May be a couple of days though. I will search for posts by you and tselliot for the fc3/init 3 thread.

[bazzap]

OK. I'm now back on FC3. As before, the install went without a problem. But now after yum updates the kernel from 2.6.9-1.667 to 2.6.11-1.35_FC3, I get the same kernel panic (the spin_lock one). Since I'm on FC3, am I better off starting a new thread? A cursory search for "spin_lock" in these forums doesn't yield very much. What is it that this kernel doesn't like about my system? When lo_oscillator spoke of "configuring my kernel appropriately", what did you mean? I couldn't work it out from your previous posts.

Thanks!

[lo_oscillator]

Prerequisites: Install the kernel with yum (e.g. kernel 2.6.12.2 or any fedora kernel 2.6.11)
(most of this is from the fedora core 3 release notes)
1. Obtain the kernel-<version>.src.rpm file from one of the
following sources:

o The SRPMS directory on the appropriate "SRPMS" CD iso image

o The FTP site where you got the kernel package

2. Install kernel-<version>.src.rpm (given the default RPM
configuration, the files this package contains will be written to
/usr/src/redhat/)

3. Change directory to /usr/src/redhat/SPECS/, and issue the
following command:

rpmbuild -bp --target=<arch> kernel.spec

(Where <arch> is the desired target architecture, for you i686)

On a default RPM configuration, the kernel tree will be located
in /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/linux-xxx/kernel-xxx/.

4. In resulting tree, the configurations for the specific kernels
shipped in Fedora Core 3 are in the /configs/ directory. For
example, the i686 SMP configuration file is named
/configs/kernel-<version>-i686-smp.config. Issue the following
command to place the desired configuration file in the proper
place for building:

cp <desired-file> ./.config (u can leave this out, but u have to configure the whole kernel then)

5. Issue the following command:

make oldconfig
6. issue the command: make xconfig
7. go to ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support section.
8. Be sure Intel PIIXn chipsets support is not configured as a driver (it would be marked), change it to module
9. Save&exit
10. then issue these commands:
11. make
12. make modules_install
13. make install
then restart linux, be sure to choose the correct kernel (it should be twice in grub menu): 2.6.xx-pre
15. optionally: change your /etc/grub.conf to choose the configured kernel automatically.
14. optionally: on hardware scan, kudzu should ask you whether you want to configure the chipset with the module (the one mentioned): say yes there, now dma should work too.
15. optionally: if u want this module automatically loaded, add it to /etc/modprobe.conf

I dont have any solution for fc4 yet, as this driver is built into the installation kernel and theres no way to configure it... i'm looking for another solution!

i hope this will help u!

[lo_oscillator]

by the way, install the kernel sources with rpm: rpm -Uvh kernel-2.6.xx.src.rpm; do not install it with yum or up2date as it didnt work for me!

[bazzap]

Thanks much! I will give this a try over the weekend (I'm at work ATM) and report back.

I guess the only option for FC4 will be to upgrade from FC3 via yum..? But that's a problem for another day... ;o)

[lo_oscillator]

i dont think this will solve the problem, as an update from fc3 firstly is a very unproper solution, and i'm not sure whether it would work without the same error message. additionally, i wanna be prepared for future releases, i dont wanna install fc3 first and then update for one week.

i will try it with a configured kernel and then load it via grub and install then. another solution would be to change the piix.c file, maybe one could just comment out line 1235 (or similar, where the spin_lock function is called), i want to try this too, but dont know when..

[bazzap]

Worked like a dream. :o) You're a star, sir, thanks!

Baz

[lo_oscillator]

you're welcome! now letz try get working fc4 installation kernel...

[bazzap]

I found this:-

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=159372

Contains a code snippet with a possible fix. I guess one might build a local install kernel, boot from that and then perform a network install? Though is the FC4 kernel that gets installed different from the installation kernel? If it is, I guess one would you still have to go through the above steps to reconfigure it again..?

Alternatively, I have seen posts where people simply removed the second IDE device, and this seemed to get around the problem for them. I suppose one could do this for the install, then replace the device and then reconfigure the kernel as above..? Though that seems like a lot of effort.

I don't think it's something I'm going to get around to trying any time soon - all I wanted was a 2.6 kernel-based LAMP system to "play" with, and I now have that with a fully up-to-date stable FC3. :o) But I would be interested to hear if you attempted it and got any success.

Thanks,

Baz

[tseliot]

are you still at the same point of installation? (kernel broke because of atiixp)

Sorry for being "a little" late. Yes I can't install FC4 yet. Now I'm on Ubuntu64. I gave in. I tried to install FC4 from FC3 (I read the instructions somewhere) but I got kernel panic again (after booting FC3 updated to FC4).

P.S. At least I passed my exams with excellent results :)

[bazzap]

OK. Refering to the bugzilla thread I found on the subject:-

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzill...g.cgi?id=159372

I noticed that they have fixed the FC3 kernel. I downloaded the latest (kernel-2.6.12-1.1372_FC3) and can confirm that this DOES fix my spin_lock issue. :o) The bugzilla thread ends there. I suppose I ought to respond to confirm it fixes the issue and then change it to FC4 as Dave Jones asks. What do you think? This may get us a new FC4 install kernel..?