can't install on asus a7n8x

[Per Bothner]

I rather optimistically bought an Asus a7n8x Deluxe
motherboard (with the Nvidia nForce2 chipset), along with
an Athlon XP 2600+, and tried to install Severn2.  Multiple
times.  Each time it got partway into installing packages and
then a kernel panic or freeze.

I had hoped it would work, since I read (mis-read?) that
the a7n8x runs on RH 9 without patches.  But that doesn't
seem to be the case either - each time I try to do a
gcc boostrap (on a different partition than the one I
tried to install Severn2 on), gcc fails in a different way.

My guess is some disk-related problem, such as DMA.
(I have moved a jumper to disable SATA, so the kernel would
not timeout for the non-existent drives.)  Any suggestions?

[This is a re-port.  The previous posting has spent almost
to 24 hours awaiting "moderator approval", so I decided I
needed to subscribe.]
-- 
	--Per Bothner
per(a)bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/

[Alan Cox]

>  I had hoped it would work, since I read (mis-read?) that
>  the a7n8x runs on RH 9 without patches.  But that doesn't
>  seem to be the case either - each time I try to do a
>  gcc boostrap (on a different partition than the one I 
The supported bits should work. Tried memtest86 and checked the hw ?

[Per Bothner]

Alan Cox wrote:
> >I had hoped it would work, since I read (mis-read?) that
> >the a7n8x runs on RH 9 without patches.  But that doesn't
> >seem to be the case either - each time I try to do a
> >gcc boostrap (on a different partition than the one I
>  
>  
>  The supported bits should work. Tried memtest86 and checked the hw ? 
I downloaded memtest86 and ran it.  (I had problems with the
sources, but the binary ran fine.)

It reports memory error.s  This is a fairly new DDR 3200 512MB
module, which I haven't used before (because the older motherboards
couldn't handle it), but it may be too late to return it (to Fry's).

So I'm trying to pass badram to the kernel, first to the existing
RH9 installation (which worked fine with an older MB and memory).
So far, so good.  If the gcc bootstrap completes ok (with xemacs
and Mozilla also running), then I'll again try installing Servern2.
I assume it's just a matter of typing
   linux badram=0xef800000,0xef800000
to the boot floppy's command line.  (I'm doing an install from disk.)
-- 
	--Per Bothner
per(a)bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/

[Xose Vazquez Perez]

Per Bothner wrote:

>  I downloaded memtest86 and ran it.  (I had problems with the
>  sources, but the binary ran fine.) 
CD1 of Fedora 0.94 has memtest86 test putting 'memtest86' at
the "boot:" prompt.

>  It reports memory error.s  This is a fairly new DDR 3200 512MB
>  module, which I haven't used before (because the older motherboards
>  couldn't handle it), but it may be too late to return it (to Fry's). 
Usually memory modules get life time warranty, consulte it.

-- 
S moking C rack O ften

[Per Bothner]

Xose Vazquez Perez wrote:

>  Usually memory modules get life time warranty, consulte it. 
Fry's replaced the memory without charge, and that seems to have
fixed it.  After replacing the memory, I installed 0.94 without
problem, and I've done a gcc boostrap and test.  (The latter
didn't show the speed-up I expected, but it is possible I need
a faster disk than the old UDMA/33 disk in there now.)

I had tried using the old memory and specifying badram=, but
that didn't help.  However, I'm not 100% sure that was just
because of the bad memory.  It lools like the disc1 I downloaded
from mirrors.kernel.org was corrupted (it didn't match the
MD5SUM, even when downloading it to a completely different
machine).  Plus I have suspicions of the cd drive.

Anyway, 0.94 seems to be running well.  I've found a couple
of bugs that I'll report on bugzilla.  (X11 doesn't recognize
the serial mouse that it did recognize during installation;
rdhat-config-services hangs if you start-stop-start vsftpd.)
-- 
	--Per Bothner
per(a)bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/

[Robert L Cochran]

Are you sure you applied ALL the motherboard drivers for that board, 
especially BIOS updates?

What kernel messages are you getting exactly?

Bob

Per Bothner wrote:

>  I rather optimistically bought an Asus a7n8x Deluxe
>  motherboard (with the Nvidia nForce2 chipset), along with
>  an Athlon XP 2600+, and tried to install Severn2.  Multiple
>  times.  Each time it got partway into installing packages and
>  then a kernel panic or freeze.
>  
>  I had hoped it would work, since I read (mis-read?) that
>  the a7n8x runs on RH 9 without patches.  But that doesn't
>  seem to be the case either - each time I try to do a
>  gcc boostrap (on a different partition than the one I
>  tried to install Severn2 on), gcc fails in a different way.
>  
>  My guess is some disk-related problem, such as DMA.
>  (I have moved a jumper to disable SATA, so the kernel would
>  not timeout for the non-existent drives.)  Any suggestions?
>  
>  [This is a re-port.  The previous posting has spent almost
>  to 24 hours awaiting "moderator approval", so I decided I
>  needed to subscribe.] 
-- 
Bob Cochran
Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
http://greenbeltcomputer.biz/

[Bryan Hepworth]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Per Bothner" <per(a)bothner.com&gt;
To: <fedora-test-list(a)redhat.com&gt;
Sent: Sunday, September 28, 2003 6:30 PM
Subject: can't install on asus a7n8x


>  I rather optimistically bought an Asus a7n8x Deluxe
>  motherboard (with the Nvidia nForce2 chipset), along with
>  an Athlon XP 2600+, and tried to install Severn2.  Multiple
>  times.  Each time it got partway into installing packages and
>  then a kernel panic or freeze.
>
>  I had hoped it would work, since I read (mis-read?) that
>  the a7n8x runs on RH 9 without patches.  But that doesn't
>  seem to be the case either - each time I try to do a
>  gcc boostrap (on a different partition than the one I
>  tried to install Severn2 on), gcc fails in a different way.
>
>  My guess is some disk-related problem, such as DMA.
>  (I have moved a jumper to disable SATA, so the kernel would
>  not timeout for the non-existent drives.)  Any suggestions?
>  
Hi Per

I use this board in my mailserver at work and it's been seamless since day
one. Admitedly it is RedHat 9 and I haven't disabled the SATA. I have
encountered bad asus boards though, the last one being a faulty AGP slot
with a bad pin. So checking the hardware as Alan suggested is a sensible
idea.

Bryan

[Ron Bellomo]

On Sun, 28 Sep 2003 10:30:21 -0700
Per Bothner <per(a)bothner.com&gt; wrote:

>  I rather optimistically bought an Asus a7n8x Deluxe
>  motherboard (with the Nvidia nForce2 chipset), along with
>  an Athlon XP 2600+, and tried to install Severn2.  Multiple
>  times.  Each time it got partway into installing packages and
>  then a kernel panic or freeze.
>  
>  I had hoped it would work, since I read (mis-read?) that
>  the a7n8x runs on RH 9 without patches.  But that doesn't
>  seem to be the case either - each time I try to do a
>  gcc boostrap (on a different partition than the one I
>  tried to install Severn2 on), gcc fails in a different way.
>  
>  My guess is some disk-related problem, such as DMA.
>  (I have moved a jumper to disable SATA, so the kernel would
>  not timeout for the non-existent drives.)  Any suggestions?
>  
>  [This is a re-port.  The previous posting has spent almost
>  to 24 hours awaiting "moderator approval", so I decided I
>  needed to subscribe.]
>  -- 
>  	--Per Bothner
>  per(a)bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  --
>  fedora-test-list mailing list
>  fedora-test-list(a)redhat.com
>  http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-test-list 

I have seen motherboards that get the RH installer to display kernel panics during the
intial boot from CD when trying to install. On at least one system, turning off power
management option in the BIOS allowed the installation to proceed. After installation,
re-enabling the power management worked fine.

I don't know if this is the issue you are dealing with but it is something to try.
 Good luck!

[Ivo Sarak]

	Hello,

	I heard it first time that RH9 is not capable to run on Asus a7n8x
Deluxe. I type this email on of these and Severn + updates are running
just fine on second box.
I see no DMA issues and even the SATA is enabled.

	Regards,
Ivo Sa"rak.


On Sun, 28 Sep 2003, Per Bothner wrote:

>  I rather optimistically bought an Asus a7n8x Deluxe
>  motherboard (with the Nvidia nForce2 chipset), along with
>  an Athlon XP 2600+, and tried to install Severn2.  Multiple
>  times.  Each time it got partway into installing packages and
>  then a kernel panic or freeze.
>
>  I had hoped it would work, since I read (mis-read?) that
>  the a7n8x runs on RH 9 without patches.  But that doesn't
>  seem to be the case either - each time I try to do a
>  gcc boostrap (on a different partition than the one I
>  tried to install Severn2 on), gcc fails in a different way.
>
>  My guess is some disk-related problem, such as DMA.
>  (I have moved a jumper to disable SATA, so the kernel would
>  not timeout for the non-existent drives.)  Any suggestions?
>
>  [This is a re-port.  The previous posting has spent almost
>  to 24 hours awaiting "moderator approval", so I decided I
>  needed to subscribe.]
>  --
>  	--Per Bothner
>  per(a)bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/
>
>
>
>
>  --
>  fedora-test-list mailing list
>  fedora-test-list(a)redhat.com
>  http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-test-list
>

[Xose Vazquez Perez]

Ivo Sarak wrote:
>  	Hello,
>  
>  	I heard it first time that RH9 is not capable to run on Asus a7n8x
>  Deluxe. I type this email on of these and Severn + updates are running
>  just fine on second box.
>  I see no DMA issues and even the SATA is enabled. 
Sometimes hardware is buggy and a BIOS upgrade helps to
resolve it. Some times doesn't, and HW manufacturers release
new HW free of bugs. They look like same harware(with same name, model...)
but they are diferent revisions. dmidecode gets this and more.

Sometime LiNUX kernel has a bug ;-)
-- 
S moking C rack O ften

[Dale Kosan]

Subject: can't install on asus a7n8x


>  I rather optimistically bought an Asus a7n8x Deluxe
>  motherboard (with the Nvidia nForce2 chipset), along with
>  an Athlon XP 2600+, and tried to install Severn2.  Multiple
>  times.  Each time it got partway into installing packages and
>  then a kernel panic or freeze. 
I have the same board here and it works great, 9 and severn beta #2. One
question though, I downloaded the iso's that were modified on September 24
but it still shows up as the old beta 93 not 94, what gives? Do I have the
latest or not?