Re: RH9 boots only from a floppy diskette

[0 <fruitless orange net>]

sting sting wrote:

> Hello ,
>
> I had installed RH9 on a new Pentium-4 machine(2.4Ghz) and with a new 
> Maxtor disk
> ;I have P4 Titan Series Motherboard  (12ME-8SIMLHP-3201)
>
> I choose to use the default GRUB loader;
>
> now , when I boot ,  get "syste disk error " ; but I can boot
> from a floppy;
> During booting from the floppy , there appears some dma errors
> on screen but the boot process completes OK.
> I get dma errors like :
>
> dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x21
> kernel: hda: status error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete 
> DataRequest }
>
>
> below is a snapshot of my kernel messages (from /var/log/messages)
>
> Does anybody know what the problem can be ?
>
>
> the errors I get are:
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: Partition check:
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel:  hda:<4>hda: dma_timer_expiry: dma status 
> == 0x21
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM  kernel: hda: timeout waiting for DMA
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: hda: timeout waiting for DMA
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: hda: (__ide_dma_test_irq) called while not 
> waiting
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: hda: status error: status=0x58 { 
> DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel:
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: hda: drive not ready for command
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel:  hda1 hda2 hda3
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: hda: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x21
> Sep 23 09:35:03 RAM sysctl: kernel.core_uses_pid = 1
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: hda: timeout waiting for DMA
> Sep 23 09:35:03 RAM network: Setting network parameters:  succeeded
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: hda: timeout waiting for DMA
> Sep 23 09:35:03 RAM logger: punching nameserver 194.90.1.5 through the 
> firewall
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: hda: (__ide_dma_test_irq) called while not 
> waiting
> Sep 23 09:35:03 RAM network: Bringing up loopback interface:  succeeded
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: hda: status error: status=0x58 { 
> DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel:
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: hda: drive not ready for command
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, 
> MD_SB_DISKS=27
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: md: autorun ...
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: md: ... autorun DONE.
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 
> buckets, 32Kbytes
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: TCP: Hash tables configured (established 
> 32768 bind 65536)
> Sep 23 09:35:07 RAM kernel: Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for 
> Linux NET4.0.
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAMkernel: Freeing initrd memory: 147k freed
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: Journalled Block Device driver loaded
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: hda: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x21
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: hda: timeout waiting for DMA
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: hda: timeout waiting for DMA
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: hda: (__ide_dma_test_irq) called while not 
> waiting
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM apmd[2680]: Charge: * * * (-1% unknown)
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: hda: status error: status=0x58 { 
> DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel:
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: hda: drive not ready for command
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: hda: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x21
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: hda: timeout waiting for DMA
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: hda: timeout waiting for DMA
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: hda: (__ide_dma_test_irq) called while not 
> waiting
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: hda: status error: status=0x58 { 
> DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel:
> Sep 23 09:35:08 RAM kernel: hda: drive not ready for command
>
> regards,
> sting
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online 
> http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Redhat-install-list mailing list
> Redhat-install-list redhat com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-install-list
> To Unsubscribe Go To ABOVE URL or send a message to:
> redhat-install-list-request redhat com
> Subject: unsubscribe
There are plenty of serial offenders that could be causing boot failure. 
Possibly looks like your DMA isn't working. If you can actually boot 
with the floppy, try adding configuring boot options in your grub.conf. 
You put the options at the end of the kernel line.

A list of some boot options can be found here:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/install-guide/ch-bootopts.html

The usual suspects to try are:

ide=nodma
noapic
apm=off

You can try them seperately to diagnose the problem. Could be caused by 
any of these. If that doesn't work ask Rick...

Stu C