Debian install problems

[Robert A. Klahn]

> Is this weird that the partition check shows a different set of numbers, 
> 1023/64/63?

Yes. How old is this BIOS anyways? Pre 1996?  It might be that this system is so old, that it will never boot off the CDROM.

Im just guessing here, but I think we are still having floppy issues. I cant explain why you were not able to read the CDROM using dd, but I dont think you were going to be able to get as far as you did without a working CDROM. The floppy is a different matter.

If you have another, CDROM, bootable machine available, the path of least resistance might be to install the drive in a CDROM bootable machine, and then switch the hard drive. Yea, I know, not really removable media, but it will get you to a running system, and we can diag any CDROM or Floppy issues once you have a running system.

Im also kinda wondering at this point if you are not having CPU or Memory issues. Given that you cant boot off the CDROM, figuring this out would also be easier with a bootable HD.

Good Luck.

Bob.



On Fri, 15 Feb 2002 11:14:40 -0700
Eric Richardson <eric.richardson@milagrosoft.com> wrote:

> Robert A. Klahn wrote:
> 
> > Eric:
> > 
> > I think your problems might be more hardware than software. I think your IDE hard drive, or perhaps the CDROM drive, is suspect.
> > 
> > The first thing I would do is boot off the rescue floppy and see if I can read the hard disk and CD-ROM without issue.
> > 
> > 1) boot off the rescue floppy and get to a root shell prompt.....
> > 2) Read the entire hard disk (this will take quite a while, depending upon the size of the drive):
> >      dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/null bs=64k
> > 3) dd will either read the entire hard disk without issue, or will barf with an I/O error.
> > 4) do the same for the CD-ROM drive. Put in a cd, DONT MOUNT IT, and repeat number 2, just with "if=/dev/hdc", or hdb, or whereever your drive is.
> 
> 
> The dd program copied all the blocks from input to output. The cd at 
> /dev/hdb just didn't seem to do anything.
> 
> Here is some info from boot up.
> hda: ST32140A ATA Disk
> ide0 at Ox1f0-0x1f7 0x3f6 on irq 14
> hda: ST32140A 2015m x/128kb Cache CHS=4095/16/163
> Partition check
> hda: [PTBL][1023/64/63] hda1 hda2:
> 
> Just wondering. There are some BOS settings for the ide devices.
> Do I need to set the BIOS like the 4095/16/163?
> Is this weird that the partition check shows a different set of numbers, 
> 1023/64/63?
> 
>  
> > Its also possible that your floppy set is bad. Floppys are notoriously poor media. You may want to try recreating them.
> 
> The floppy was bad when I tried this morning. I made a new one and the 
> system did install(at least I was able to complete all the steps) but on 
> boot it just printed the following.
> 
> L 40 40 40 40 ... forever until I hit the reset switch
> 
>  
> > I also think there is a BIOS upgrade to permit booting off the CDROM drive. This would be your best choice, if possible, as CDROM is much more reliable.
> 
> 
> This sounds like a good idea but is this firmware update capable or does the chip 
> have to be replaced. This is a pretty old system also. 
> 
> 
> 
> > Bob.
> > 
> > On Thu, 14 Feb 2002 15:25:10 -0700
> > Eric Richardson <eric.richardson@milagrosoft.com> wrote:
> > 
> > 
> >>Hi,
> >>
> >>I'm having a lot of problems with a debian 2.2 install.
> 
> 
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-- 
Robert A. Klahn
rklahn@acm.org
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"Hope has two beautiful daughters: Anger and Courage. Anger at the way
things are, and Courage to struggle to create things as they should be." -
St. Augustine