Re: rh 7.0 install problems

["John C. Dreyer" <dreyerjc email uc edu>]

Hi!

I also have a Dell system, and I had the same trouble with RHL6.1.  I
thought by getting a newer version (7.0) that the problem would get solved,
but it did not.  I had to do some serious research to figure out what the
problem was.  On my system, Red Hat was not recognizing any of my hard disks
because Dell PC's come with Promise Technology's Ultra 66 IDE controllers.
Apparently RH has a problem with Ultra 33 and 66.  There is a HowTo at
http://www.europe.redhat.com/documentation/mini-HOWTO/Ultra-DMA-1.php3 that
is specifically about a work around.

I had to tweak a few things here and there from that HowTo to get the
installation to finally work.  Use the HowTo if you want to follow what I
did.  I apologize if I am giving you too many details, but I could have used
some basic help like this a long time ago!  Here is what I did/suggest:

1.  Boot your system with the RH installation CD.
2.  Before entering any information about your hardware, press CTRL-ALT-F2
(I think that is the hotkey sequence to get you to a BASH prompt.)  (If this
does not get you to a bash prompt, enter all the information up to the last
screen before you get the error -- then try the sequence again.)
3.  At the BASH prompt, type:  cat /proc/pci
4.  Use SHIFT-Page up to get to the Promise Technology information.  There
should be 5 or so lines (depending on how many HD's you have, I think) that
look something like this:

    I/O at 0x10c0 [0x10c1].
    I/O at 0x10b4 [0x10b5].
    I/O at 0x10d5 [0x10d6].
    I/O at something...

5.  Write down the first two or four lines.  If you read the HowTo, it will
make sense why you need two or four -- it has to do with how many channels
you are using on the controller.
6.  Reboot the system with the installation CD again.
7.  Get to the BASH prompt again.
8.  Type in:  linux ide2=0x10c0 [0x10c1],0x10b6 [0x10b7]     (If you note,
you have to add 2 to the second line numbers for whatever reason.)
9.  If you hit ALT-F1 (or CTRL-ALT-F1) you should get back to the installati
on screens.
10.  Continue through the installations process -- you *should not* have any
problems with the installation.

NOTE:  Once you have completed the installation and reboot, you MUST boot in
text mode and re-type linux ide2=blah blah until you patch the kernel.  I
haven't figured out how to do that yet -- I am very new to Unix/Linux.  If
you have any problems or questions, please feel free to write me directly!

Hope all this helps!

  John


vijay singh <vijju_s hotmail com> wrote in message
news:LAW2-F20ibfvTqPKGCq000014f8 hotmail com   
> Hello, I have a Dell system which had FreeBSD 4.2 installed. I am trying
to
> replace it with RH Linux 7.0. I boot from the CD and the installation
aborts
> very early complaining that "no device found to create the filesystem on".
I
> have noticed that there are a few warnings and error messages during
bootup,
> but I can't read them as they just zip by and the installation screen
comes
> up. What should I do? Do I need to use fdisk and delete the FreeBSD slice
> (it takes up all of the hard disk space right now, but i thought linux
would
> just overwrite it)? Or should I select text or custom intall and do things
> differently?
>
> Any help is appreciated.
> regards
> vijay
>
>
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