I appreciate any advice on tackling this problem. So far it has "devoured"
12-16 hours of my time with nothing to show for my efforts.
I have spent most of the weekend attempting to install Red Hat Linux 7.2
onto one of my PCs. I'm installing from CDs that came with the book "Red
Hat Linux 7.2 Bible". (NOTE - Just to rule out a problem with the CD, I
also downloaded the ISO images from a Red Hat mirror site and made another
install CD - same problem occurs.)
When I go through the installation (text or graphic mode), I am never able
to get past the "partition the disk" step. In some cases the screen simply
"freezes" when I click the NEXT button. Other times the screen goes black
and nothing else ever happens.
From reading the postings here (and from previous "tech support"
experience) I know that the first reply to a problem is usually requesting
more information. In an attempt to avoid that step I'm providing what I've
done already and what I know.
System Specs:
Celeron 566, 64 MB Ram, pcchips motherboard (www.pccships.com), two hard
drives, two cd-rom drives, one 10/100 NIC
Hard Drives:
Disk 1 - Maxtor 4K040H2 "40" GB (38182 MB)
Disk 2 - Seagate ST310212A "10" GB (9768 MB)
CD-ROMSs:
52X and 16x-10x-40x
Previous Use: My son's computer. Had Windows 98 installed. Ran fine,
connected to home network, worked with Internet, etc.
Sequence of Events: Bought my kid a new computer and decided to make his
old one a pure Linux box. After removing the files I wanted, I booted up
with the Red Hat CD and chose "automatic partitioning" and then the "remove
all partitions on this system" option. Upon clicking NEXT, the system
reported an error message of "The partition table on /tmp/hda is
inconsistent..." I chose ignore and the system froze.
The boot up screen indicated an AMI BIOS date of sometime in
1995. Thinking I maybe needed a BIOS upgrade I found the correct version
for my system and flashed the BIOS. I'm now booting up with a BIOS version
of Feb 13, 2001. (I flashed it with 2K1120S.ROM)
However, that did not fix the problem either.
Since then I've booted up with a Windows 98 floppy and used fdisk in a
variety of manners. I have:
1) removed all partitions and tried the Red Hat install - still froze
2) made each drive a single partition & formatted them (and verified they
worked) - still had the same problem when attempting the install
3) used a third party program (Ranish Partition Manager - part.exe) and
still no luck.
4) Attempted a different Linux distro (Mandrake 8.2) and experienced the
same difficulty - could not get past the partitioning step.
Occassionally, after a reboot, I notice that the Linux partitions appear to
be created. I attempt to resume the install but it still freezes up.
I even disconnected the second drive - didn't work.
[UPDATE] - I also removed both hard drives and tried with a third drive
(Maxtor 90680D4 - 6.8 GB) - same problem occurs. This is now leading me to
believe my overall problem may be BIOS related and not have anything to do
with the partition table.
I've primarily using the "server" install option, but I've also tried it
with the "workstation" install. I didn't really believe that would make a
difference but I wanted to rule it out as well.
For "partitioning options", I've attempted it in all manners: auto
partitioning, disk druid and manual.
Here's all the information I have. I believe the problem may be related to
the "unused" partition reported by Ranish - however, I do not know how to
make it go away. [fdisk (DOS version) only shows the Primary partition, as
does the Findpart program]
----- Results of Ranish "part -p" and "part -d 2 -p" Query -----
Ranish Partition Manager Version 2.40.00 February 08, 2001
File Starting Ending Partition
# Type Row System Type Cyl Head Sect Cyl Head Sect Size [KB]
0 MBR Master Boot Record 0 0 1 0 0 1 0
1 Pri Unused 0 0 2 0 0 63 31
2 >Pri 1 Windows FAT-32 LBA 0 1 1 4,866 254 63 39,094,146
3 Pri Unused 4,867 0 1 4,867 164 63 5,197
Ranish Partition Manager Version 2.40.00 February 08, 2001
File Starting Ending Partition
# Type Row System Type Cyl Head Sect Cyl Head Sect Size [KB]
0 MBR Master Boot Record 0 0 1 0 0 1 0
1 Pri Unused 0 0 2 0 0 63 31
2 Pri 1 Windows FAT-32 LBA 0 1 1 1,244 254 63 10,000,431
3 Pri Unused 1,245 0 1 1,245 74 63 2,362
----- Results of Findpart -----
Findpart, version 4.21.
Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 2002.
OS: DOS 8.00 Partition tables:
Disk: 1 Cylinders: 4867 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 38178
-PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB -Start CHS- --End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1*0C 63 78188292 38177 0 1 1 4866*254 63 OK OK
Disk: 2 Cylinders: 1245 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 9766
-PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB -Start CHS- --End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1 0C 63 20000862 9766 0 1 1 1244*254 63 OK OK
----- Results of BIOS Identification -----
AMIBIOS Motherboard Manufacturer Identification
Version 1.2 (02/07/2001) Copyright 2000 American Megatrends, Inc.
This file has recorded information useful in identifying the manufacturer
of this motherboard. The information is listed below:
An AMIBIOS ID String Was Detected:
62-0405-009999-00101111-071595-000000
-- ---- ------ ------
| | | |
| | | Chipset/BIOS Info
| | Manufacturer ID
| Version Information
Processor & BIOS ROM Information
The Manufacturer Code Detected (9999) Does Not Have A Database Entry.
The Following AMIBIOS Project Tag Was Found: _TG_M748LMRT
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