Re: unable to install from CD: failure to mount once kernel installed

• Previous message: Henrique de Moraes Holschuh: "Re: SELinux"
• In reply to: Seth Goodman: "unable to install from CD: failure to mount once kernel installed"
• Next in thread: Seth Goodman: "RE: unable to install from CD: failure to mount once kernel installed"
• Reply: Seth Goodman: "RE: unable to install from CD: failure to mount once kernel installed"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 20:59:51 +0100
To: Debian Users Forum <debian-user@lists.debian.org>

Seth Goodman wrote:
> I burned an ISO of the Sarge netinstall CD using a Windows box and booted a
> new box with this CD. The bootloader was able to read the CD, go through
> all the hardware detection stages, format and partition the hard disk (one
> large partition). When it got to the stage of rebooting with the new kernel
> on the hard drive, it was unable to mount the installation CD so it could
> not go any further. At first I assumed that this was either a bad ISO copy
> or a bad CD drive, but here's what I tried and the results. Each successive
> install did a complete wipe and repartition of the disk to create the
> cleanest possible install.
>
> 1) downloaded and burned additional ISO netinstall images, both the 140MB
> and 40MB versions: same result for three more CD's
>
> 2) put each CD media in the Windows machine CD drive: able to explore
> subdirectories and read files without difficulty
>
> 3) ran netinstall off floppies accepting all defaults: still unable to mount
> CD after otherwise successful install (2.4.x kernel)
>
> 4) ran netinstall off floppies using "expert26" command line option to get
> 2.6 kernel with purportedly better hardware detection ("linux26" command
> line option does not work on Sarge boot floppies): still unable to mount CD
> after otherwise successful install (2.6.8 kernel)
>
> 5) upgraded Sarge to testing in order to get any possible hardware discovery
> updates: still unable to mount CD
>
> 6) upgraded the kernel first to 2.6.11, then to 2.6.12 when it came out:
> still unable to mount the CD
>
> 7) added autofs package (which is really autofs4): still unable to mount CD
>
> 8) downloaded and burned a Knoppix CD ISO, booted Linux box with this CD:
> Knoppix loads fine and the resulting system can mount and explore the
> Knoppix CD
>
> 9) booted the Linux box from the hard disk into the testing Debian distro,
> with 2.6.12 kernel: it could not mount the exact same Knoppix CD that would
> successfully boot Knoppix
>
> I think the last two tests show that it is neither the CD drive nor the
> physical CD media itself. When I try to mount the same Knoppix CD manually
> (specifying ISO9660) after a Debian bootup, dmesg shows a long string of
> seek errors for each successive sector. My newbie guess as to what's going
> on is that the hardware drivers installed by the Debian releases are unable
> to operate the CD drive, but the drivers in the Knoppix 3.9 distro can. Is
> that plausible?
>
> I would love to be able to use the CD drive. Any suggestions for what to
> try next?
>
> The hardware setup is:
>
> IBM 300PL model 6594-A3U
> Pentium III/800
> 384MB RDRAM (Rambus 800MHz)
> 20GB HDD as first IDE master
> 48X Lite-On CDROM as second IDE master
> S3 Savage4 AGP video
>
>
> Here's some additional feedback from the standpoint of a computer-literate
> but Debian first-time installer (with very old and rusty UNIX skills: SunOs,
> pre-Solaris BSD) wishing to get away from Windows.
>
> I read the Sarge installation docs and as much of the Debian Reference
> Manual as I felt applied before doing the installs. One thing that I could
> not accomplish was the fact that the BIOS in this particular machine did not
> allow me to turn off shadowing for either the video BIOS or the main BIOS.
> The Debian docs did say to disable shadowing of the video BIOS, but were
> silent on the main BIOS. The docs, however, did not say what to do if you
> _couldn't_ disable shadowing of these memory regions. Is it possible that
> the video BIOS shadow RAM happens to be where the CD driver or some other
> file system piece loads (and Knoppix is smarter about not using that memory
> region)? I would guess that the shadow RAM function is a one-time
> ROM-to-RAM copy during hardware boot, so reusing that memory region later
> would not be a problem, but I really don't know how this works. Again, I
> would guess that overwriting this memory region after bootup would force the
> cache to be correct for any pieces of it that remained in the cache, but
> that's just a guess. I don't even know if this memory region is cacheable
> or if Debian attempts to use it.
>
> Another detail that was not mentioned in any of the install docs (that I
> could find) was the BIOS setting for Plug-n-Pray OS. This vintage BIOS,
> though upgraded to the latest available for that motherboard, has a setting
> Yes/No for this. I tried installing both ways with no difference in the end
> result, but the Debian manuals should probably list the preferred setting in
> case it makes a difference on any systems or at least a statement that it
> doesn't matter, if that's the general case.
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice.
>
Seth

If the CD works with Knoppix it should work with debian. Boot Knoppix
and do lsmod. This will give you a list of the installed modules. Save
  or copy to a file and boot debian. Do lsmod under debian and see
what's different then modprobe 'modulename' and add it too /etc/modules
for future boots.

HTH

Wackojacko

-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org 
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org

• Previous message: Henrique de Moraes Holschuh: "Re: SELinux"
• In reply to: Seth Goodman: "unable to install from CD: failure to mount once kernel installed"
• Next in thread: Seth Goodman: "RE: unable to install from CD: failure to mount once kernel installed"
• Reply: Seth Goodman: "RE: unable to install from CD: failure to mount once kernel installed"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]