Newbie Install on i386 w/ SATA - boot help?

From: jon salenger (salenger_at_sbcglobal.net)
Date: 09/29/04

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    Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 11:30:48 -0700
To: <debian-user@lists.debian.org>

    Hi,

    I'm doing my first i386 install, and had a few problems (particularly
    booting). I've done my very best to use outside info and not bother anyone
    with dumb newbie questions, but I'm stuck. First, here's what I'm running
    on:

    mobo: Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
    cpu: AMD Athlon XP 2500+ 'Barton'
    hd: Dual Samsung 160GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drives - Model SP1614C
    vid: XFX GeforceFX 5900 128 MB

    I installed 'linux26' with the daily businesscard iso 20040927 from
    cdimage.debian.org. (I'm skipping a lot for brevity's sake‹ if there's
    anything anyone needs to know, I've documented fairly well).

    I tried setting up DM RAID0 using both drives, and did the default
    partitioning scheme.

    IDE5 master (hde) - 160.0 GN SAMSUNG SP1614C
        #1 primary 160.0 GB @ raid
    IDE5 master (hde) - 160.0 GN SAMSUNG SP1614C
        #1 primary 160.0 GB @ raid
    RAID0 device #0 - 320 GB Software RAID device
        #1 primary 318.5 GB \/ @ ext3 /
        #5 logical 512.3 MB @ swap swap

    I got this error while the installer was creating the ext3 filesystem:

    "[!!] Partitioning disks
    Failed to create a file system
    The ext3 file system creation in partition #1 of RAID0 device #1 failed.

    ----------------

    After messing around trying to get RAID to work awhile, I got rid of the
    RAID0 and used one of the SATA drives to partition:

    The following partitions are going to be formatted:
        partition #1 of IDE5 master (hde) as ext3
        partition #5 of IDE5 master (hde) as swap

    I got no errors creating filesystems, and the system rebooted after
    installation.

    I've done this a number of times, switching the installation drive and
    between GRUB/LILO.

    On restart, after initial BIOS, the system hung on the following errors:

    hde/GRUB: Error 2
    hdg/GRUB: Error 21
    hd*/LILO: L 99 99 99 99 99 99 99... (about 5 lines worth)

    I'm assuming from my reading that these are disk recognition errors, and I'm
    going to need to manually config grub or lilo to get the system to boot from
    disk.

    ----------------

    I did some research and found this HOWTO for debian SATA-RAID:
    http://xtronics.com/reference/SATA-RAID-Debian.htm

    It's very good, but the problem is that I can't boot even after following
    its directions for initial installation on hdg.

    So my current partitioning scheme is thus:
    IDE5 (hde) FREE SPACE

    IDE6 (hdg)
    Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
    /dev/hdg1 * 1 31 248967 83 Linux
    /dev/hdg2 32 274 1951897+ 82 Linux swap
    /dev/hdg3 275 19457 154087447+ 83 Linux

    I DLed a KNOPPIX 3.6 iso (had never used KNOPPIX before) to see if I could
    boot from that and follow the rest of the directions on the howto.
    Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I can install things on hdg running
    knoppix (at least that I could figure out so far).

    NOTE: KNOPPIX 3.6 is _very_ nice for a live CD! Wow!

    I did:
    $cat /boot/grub/menu.1st |more
    everything was #commented# out except the following at the bottom of the
    file:

    title. . Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-1-k7
    root. . (hd1,0)
    kernel , /vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-k7 root=/dev/hdg3 ro
    initrd. . /initrd.img-2.6.8-1-k7
    savedefault
    boot

    title. . Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-1-k7
    root. . (hd1,0)
    kernel , /vmlinuz-2.6.8-1-k7 root=/dev/hdg3 ro single
    initrd. . /initrd.img-2.6.8-1-k7
    savedefault
    boot

    I searched around for helpful howtos and didn't find much. I'm a bit nervous
    about mucking around in the menu.1st file blind.

    Anyway, if anyone can help with getting the system to boot (I assume
    manually reconfiguring GRUB), or with helping me find another way (floppy?)
    to boot in order to continue the howto directions, I'd very much appreciate
    it. Pointing to a good howto is plenty. So far I haven't read a helpful GRUB
    configuration howto or manual for what I have going.

    Thanks,

    Jon

    In the meantime, I've got my KNOPPIX on ;P

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