Hard Drive Install Problems

[Xeijin]

Hi All,

I've spent about an hour browsing through threads about Hard Drive installs but I'm still confused.

Here are my system specs.

Processor: AMD Opteron 148
Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo4-F
RAM: 1GB
IDE Hard Drives - 3x Seagate 40GB [RAID 0] SEPERATE ARRAY
SATA Hard Drives - 2x Seagate Barracuda 160GB [RAID 0] SEPERATE ARRAY
Graphics Card: ATI RADEON x800GTO²

I have Windows XP installed and working fine already. The first RAID Array is partitioned into SEVEN seperate drives for various purposes. I used Partition Magic 8 to format one of them in the Ext3 filesystem format specifically for linux. The second RAID Array consists of two 160GB SATA drives primarily for storage.

I copied the Linux ISOs to the Ext3 Partition with the original filenames and the SHA1 sum file. I used Ext2 IFS to copy the files inside Windows (Ext2 IFS is compatible with Ext3 as well). The files have been verified.

I then burned the first disc to a CD-RW, restarted and booted from the CD. At the install screen I typed:

linux askmethod

The installation then proceeded to the blue screen. I chose the necessary options.

The problem begins when I am prompted to find the location of the ISOs. I am given two options:

/dev/hda1
/dev/sda1

I am not sure but I am guessing that hda1 is my IDE RAID Array and sda1 is my SATA RAID Array. However when I choose hda1 I am told that the ISO files could not be found, the same is for sda1. If I press F2 I can see all of the other hd partitions as well as the floppy and others. However if I try to choose any of these I am repetedly prompted for a driver disk. I have tried to use the driver disk with my RAID drivers on but nothing happens.

I have tried putting the files into a folder and telling the installer where to find them but this does not work. I have heard that there have been problems with nForce RAID as it is Software not hardware RAID so I'm not really sure what the problem is.

Any help would be much appreciated.

//Xeijin

[JEO]

Try booting from the FC5 cd and type linux rescue, you need to see if dmraid will work with your controller.

try:

dmraid -v -ay

and see what it says.

Also look at whats in /dev/mapper

ls /dev/mapper

if dmraid works the partitions will appear in there.

[ccrvic]

IDE Hard Drives - 3x Seagate 40GB [RAID 0] SEPERATE ARRAY
SATA Hard Drives - 2x Seagate Barracuda 160GB [RAID 0] SEPERATE ARRAY

How are you creating these arrays? Is this a hardware RAID card?

I used Partition Magic 8 to format one of them in the Ext3 filesystem format specifically for linux.

Don't do this. The installer is quite capable of sorting out its own partitions. You can only serve to confuse things by second-guessing it.

I then burned the first disc to a CD-RW, restarted and booted from the CD. At the install screen I typed:

linux askmethod

Well forgive me for being a luddite, but I think you'll find life easier if you just burn the CDs. It's not like CD-Rs cost anything any more...

The problem begins when I am prompted to find the location of the ISOs. I am given two options:

/dev/hda1
/dev/sda1

I am not sure but I am guessing that hda1 is my IDE RAID Array and sda1 is my SATA RAID Array.

You might be right - but IME hardware RAID is often reported as /dev/sdx, regardless of the underlying device type. I would worry about that.

However if I try to choose any of these I am repetedly prompted for a driver disk.

That's likely.

I have tried to use the driver disk with my RAID drivers on but nothing happens.

*Which* driver disk? A disk full of Windows drivers, perchance?

I have heard that there have been problems with nForce RAID as it is Software not hardware RAID so I'm not really sure what the problem is.

You need to determine the exact nature of your RAID array. If it is a software RAID, then just use Linux's software RAID for your installation - it's very good, and you won't have to dibble about with (possibly proprietary) drivers.

Vic.

[Xeijin]

JEO and ccrvic, thanks for your replies.

@JEO: I did the 'dmraid -v -ay', it shows mounted nvidia volumes with lots of letters at the end. I then did 'ls /dev/mapper' and all of my 8 Partitions appeared. So I'm guessing that dmraid does support my software raid controller. I'm just not sure what to do from here on (sorry I'm new to linux).

@ccrvic:

I believe they are software (fake) RAID arrays as they are created by the nVRAID controller on my motherboard.

I only formatted the partition as ext3 with partition magic because the installation guide states that the ISO files for the harddrive install must be located on an ext2, ext3 or vfat volume. Having no idea what vfat was I chose the ext3 volume hence the formatting with partition magic.

Well Its partly because I'm a tight git, partly because today its sunday and tomorrow its bank holiday monday so I have nowhere to buy anymore discs and partly because a harddrive install is slightly faster. I was also thinking it might help me get a bit more used to linux (e..g the use of commandline etc etc.)

Well its definitely software but your right thats not really the problem.

Yes I assume so, Its a floppy disk containing the RAID drivers I used during the installation of Windows XP Professional.

I'm 99% sure its software RAID as I did a bit of reading up about the RAID issues with linux and a few scattered forum posts have confirmed that the nforce chipset uses software RAID. I am assuming that the Linux Software RAID is the 'dmraid' command?

Thankyou both for your help, much appreciated.

//Xeijin

[Xeijin]

Anyone got any other ideas? I tried running Anaconda after doing dmraid and ls commands but all it does is make the prompt disappear and then nothing I can type stuff but it does nothing...

[Xeijin]

I've managed to get Anaconda to respond to me, but when I type it in it says no install method specified how do I specify an install method what argument do I need to use?

[Xeijin]

Well I found out how to make anaconda install but it still dosent work I'm pretty much stumped now. I burned a new disc to a CD-R just to be sure, the ISOs pass the SHA1SUM check. I then burned it at the absolute slowest speed my burner does (8x, 1,200kb/s) first as a simulation and then for real and then verified the disc at the same speed. Nero said that the data was fine and the disc had no errors. Then I perform a media check and guess what? Fedora says the disc is corrupt. I don't understand how it can be corrupt if it passed SHA1 and Nero's data verification check as well as the burning simulation?? The new disc STILL hangs at the black screen with the X cursor I have no idea what to do anymore.

[JEO]

You said you have an AMD Opteron processor, are you using the 64 bit version of Fedora? The 32 bit version can freeze on 64 bit processors.

[Xeijin]

Yeah I'm using the x86_64 binary, the main reason I wanted to use fedora in the first place -- 64-bit support.

[JEO]

Could there be an issue with X not supporting your video card, keyboard, or mouse? Maybe you could try a different video card as a test?

[Xeijin]

Unfortunately I don't have another Video Card at hand, However it does seem to detect it alright when probing, it shows the name and everything.

I've done a bit of experimenting and basically I let it go into the X thing, I could move the cursor but nothing would appear as usual. So I did CTRL + ALT + Backspace and it terminated X. Then I used ALT + F3 to switch to the shell command then I typed: anaconda --method=hd the X server started again and this time it popped up with a GUI dialog box (coloured and everything with a button) that said incorrect install method then it closed down X.

I dont think its the mouse since I can move the cursor in X just nothing loads up, and I dont think its the keyboard since I can use that to terminate X and switch to the shell. I'm kind of stuck for ideas now but I hope that helped.

[JEO]

If you just boot the installation cd and don't try to set the install method to hd does the graphical menu appear?

[Xeijin]

By that do you mean if I just proceed as normal: boot the cd, press enter, go through prompts?

If I do that I end up with that same problem. I just have the X cursor on a black screen, I can move the X cursor around but nothing happens, No HD activity no CDROM Activity just blank.

[JEO]

You could also investigate the failing cdrom mediacheck problem. If you think the disk is good and the drive is good maybe there is a memory or dma problem using the linux cdrom driver. If your cdrom is connected to the ide port you could try adding ide=nodma to the linux command line and see if the mediacheck passes. Also if you are overclocking turn that off too.

[Xeijin]

My system is not overclocked at all so I'm sure thats not the problem.

I will try memtest86 a bit later today and see if thats the problem.

Well some news, it seems that the ide=nodma works as the media check passed this is what I typed at the boot prompt:

 linux mediacheck ide=nodma

The media check seemed to go a bit faster, and after 100% it told me that the media was fine to use, result

I then chose the continue option to see if it would let me get into the GUI no such luck

However, upon messing around with the ALT buttons I found a bit of info (note I'm not posting the whole thing, only the bits that look interesting as I'm copying these out by hand.)

Pressing ALT + F4 Gives me:

<4>program anaconda is using a deprecated SCSI loctl, please convert it to SG_IO
<4>program anaconda is using a deprecated SCSI loctl, please convert it to SG_IO

Note that that line is repeated twice.

Pressing ALT + F3 gives me:

10:14:53 ERROR: failed loading mousedev module

10:14:56 INFO: Starting graphical installation
10:14:56 INFO: anaconda floppy device fd0

There is nothing after the last info about the floppy. Leading me to believe that it could possibly be a floppy drive problem?