Disk problems

[Rick Stevens]

Bob McClure Jr wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 16, 2004 at 02:53:45PM +0800, bbb at it.net.au wrote:
> 
>>Hello all.
>>I am having infuriating problems with RH9. If some people could suggest
>>actions or other sources of help
>>
>>Thanking you in advance
>>
>>Running P55T2P4 with most recent bios (0207-2 J.2 patch). The machine is
>>not overclocked, merely running a Pentium 200
>>
>>Seagate 40GB hard drive as slave drive on machine
>>
>>On install attempt for RH9, constant lock up on "format" section (always at
>>%11)
>>
>>Investigation reveals problems with mke2fs
>>
>>Have partitioned the disk into 
>>
>>hdd1	ext3		18.6 GB
>>hdd2	vfat (FAT 32)	18.6 GB
>>
>>fdisk reports hdd as having 40.0 GB
>>
>>mke2fs
>>
>>results in success (occasionally)
>>
>>Very often
>>	success in writing inode tables
>>	success in writing superblock and accounting information
>>
>>But the system just freezes, no error messages and keyboard does not respond.
>>
>>Often have screen full of error messages finishing with "Bad EIP Value"
>>I can not capture this message on to disk. The machine has as above, to be
>>reset, the keyboard does not work
>>
>>Occasionally, on completion returns Code (Hex Values) "Segmentation fault".
>>The machine remains operational. If I attempt to rerun mke2fs, the system
>>hangs, but can be reset with the keyboard.
>>
>>e2fsk -v 
>>
>>repeats above scenario with the same frequent errors and lock ups.
>>
>>occasionally resulting in no errors found reporting a clean file system
>>
>>e2fsk -vf
>>
>>Occasioally works through its 5 passes and returns information as expected
>>
>>
>>I can not find fault with the drive, seagate utilities reveals no problem
>>with the disk and it works well in another machine.
>>
>>Barry
> 
> 
> My first guess is a DMA problem.  Try booting with
> 
>   linux ide=nodma

This smells more of an ext3 installer problem.  See Bob's comment
below.

> Also, for your first install, use ext2 partitions instead of the
> default ext3.  You can convert to ext3 after the install.  For more
> clues about installation snags, see
> 
> http://www.rhil.net/docs/faq.html#install_dies

The problem is that certain hardware platforms have problems with the
ext3 file system under the installer's kernel.  The problem does NOT
occur with the production kernel--just the installer.  Try the install
again, but specify ext2 filesystems rather than the default ext3.

Once the install is complete, you can convert to ext3 filesystems by
following the instructions at:

	http://www.rhil.net/docs/ext2-to-ext3.html

> Also, note that most older machines will not boot to a drive on the
> secondary controller (hdc or hdd).  You may have to move it to be a
> slave on the primary controller (hdb).

That is very true.

> Also, on your drives, do not jumper them to CS (Cable Select).  CS is
> evil.  Explicitly jumper them as (MA)ster or (SL)ave.

Amen, Bob.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-      A day for firm decisions!!!   Well, then again, maybe not!    -
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