Uh-oh, FC3 install boot from CDROM error on new machine

[Scot L. Harris]

On Mon, 2005-03-14 at 19:51, Jess Anderson wrote:

> >>isolinux disk error 80 AX=4280 drive 9F
> >>press any key to try again
> 
> >>Suggestions on where to go from here would be most welcome.
> 
> (In all of the following, everything I tried resulted in the
>  same error message as above.)
> 

Not a good sign.  :(

> >Three possibilities come to mind.
> 
> >First try to find out which SATA controller chip set you have

> The Southbridge chipset is VIA VT8237. The BIOS can for sure
> see the drives because it reports the right stuff for the
> drive on SATA channel 0. 
> 

That means the board is seeing the drives. 

> >If you can find out which SATA controller you have you should
> >be able to google or find out if Linux supports that chipset.
> 
> There's the rub, near as I can tell. Google led me to a mailing
> list called VIArena, and since early 2003 through last year
> there are messages bemoaning that VIA has not provided linux
> drivers for the VT8237 chipset. The onboard sound and ethernet
> controllers are also in that chip, though I have spare PCI
> cards for those functions, push come to shove.
> 
> So apparently it will have to be a third-party driver to
> support SATA, if indeed there is one that works. VIA
> Technology's own web site was unhelpful. If anyone has found
> such a beast, please let me know.
> 

You might check over on the developers list.  They may have drivers in
development that support your chip set.

> >Second you might try installing using a nodma option. Have seen
> >many problems during install where dma caused problems.  You
> >can specify this as an option during install.
> 
> I tried a number of options: noprobe, nodma, noapci -- all had
> the same result as above.
> 

Had to try that one.  Was hoping this would work.

> >And you might grab a copy of knoppix or one of the other live
> >CD versions of linux and try booting that. Those don't need
> >hard drives to boot to a running linux system. This will let
> >you know what parts of your system are compatible. And if you
> >get it booted you should be able to try and see the harddrive
> >and format it using the live CD.
> 
> That's something to consider, certainly. And in general a live
> CD is useful to have around. In the meantime, accustomed as I
> am to throwing money at problems, I've ordered a regular Ultra
> 133 ATA drive, which I'm fairly certain will at least get me
> to the next problem, which could turn out to be video card
> drivers, since it's a medium high-end card: Radeon 9800PRO,
> AGP 8x, 128MB DDR.
> 

Yes, a rescue CD has saved me several times.

> In the meantime, I can try to boot the hard disk from my
> Win2K box via USB. I try not to get caught up in resentment
> over the total domination of Microsoft, but it seems to me
> the hardware people could do themselves a significant favor
> by more adequately recognizing the Linux market. Of course,
> y'all know that already... <sigh>

That is one of the problems going the linux root with very new hardware.

The ASUS P5GD2 deluxe board I have been working on for the last month
required special driver for the on board ethernet.  I still don't have
the on board wireless working.  The Linuxant driverloader caused the
system to hang.  And I have not found a native driver for the Marvell
chip set.


-- 
Scot L. Harris
webid at cfl.rr.com

A couple more shots of whiskey, women 'round here start looking good.

		[something about a 10 being a 4 after a six-pack?  Ed.]