joekrahn
2006-01-06, 06:07 PM CST
Dell Precision systems have several problems with FC4, but I have found some fixes.
One problem turns out to be that a simple problem reading the hardware clock causes the installer to hang. Running in export mode, I hit Ctrl-Alt-F2 and killed the hung /sbin/hwclock command, then Anaconda resumed installation.
The other big problem is tha aic79xx SCSI controllers. These don't seem to work well in FC4, and the fact that Dell uses an OEM variant makes things worse. I downloaded Adaptecs 2.0.15 driver source, and got it to compile with some minor changes. This seems to work well, but you can still hang the kernel when removing the aic79xx module. This gives you a kernel message "Synchronizing scsi cache for disk ...", followed by a hang. The fix here is to get the sd_mod module removed first.
Also, I ran the install with no PATA or SATA disks, using an external DVD over USB, because I thought there may be some incompatibility issues between the ata_piix and aic79xx drivers.
One problem turns out to be that a simple problem reading the hardware clock causes the installer to hang. Running in export mode, I hit Ctrl-Alt-F2 and killed the hung /sbin/hwclock command, then Anaconda resumed installation.
The other big problem is tha aic79xx SCSI controllers. These don't seem to work well in FC4, and the fact that Dell uses an OEM variant makes things worse. I downloaded Adaptecs 2.0.15 driver source, and got it to compile with some minor changes. This seems to work well, but you can still hang the kernel when removing the aic79xx module. This gives you a kernel message "Synchronizing scsi cache for disk ...", followed by a hang. The fix here is to get the sd_mod module removed first.
Also, I ran the install with no PATA or SATA disks, using an external DVD over USB, because I thought there may be some incompatibility issues between the ata_piix and aic79xx drivers.