Technical help for Julie

Mon Feb 27 18:18:51 MST 2006

On 2/27/06, Eric Shubes <plug at shubes.net> wrote:
>
> Mike Schwartz wrote:
> > I am "re-" trying this post, (Feb 26 about 11:46 pm) since
> > the 823.5 KB attachment was too big.
> > I will try to upload it to some place on the net,
> > via ftp or something, (pending advice -- please
> > reply either via the list or e-mail to offer advice).
> > In the meantime, here is the text of the message,
> > without the attachment:
> >
> > From: [...]
> > Date: Feb 23, 2006 12:55 AM
> > Subject: Technical help for Julie
> >  [...]
>
> This is a request for some technical help.
> >
> > I have been trying to help Julie, who has been
> > running Linux (Fedora Core 3, with kernel 2.6)
> > on a PC since (circa a year ago) she got fed up
> > with MS windows.
> > Cc: Julie: <Julie11459 at gmail.com <mailto:Julie11459 at gmail.com>>
> >        Fred Taylor
> >        Ray Esparza
> > Recently Julie has had problems and can not boot.
> > One day I spent hours, even with a Rescue CD
> > and a set of "Fedora Core 4" install/upgrade CD's.
> > We even tried installing on a new (blank) Hard
> > Drive and it still crashed, even when booting
> > from the CD.
> > Ray Esparza suggested that there might be some
> > problem (hardware? firmware?) with the controller
> > for the hard disk drive.  (Any ideas?)
> >
> > The mistakes we were making might well be very
> > dumb "newbie" errors.  Anyway, we have not
> > figured it out, "so far".
> >
> > However at one point it did get further than before,
> > and we got an 823.5 KB text file, "anacdump.txt".
> > That file is attached to this post on PLUG -- in
> > case that might help.
> > This way, perhaps someone could diagnose the
> > problem, or offer some "advice"
> > without having to travel to Julie's house.
> >    I may be able to attend the install fest Feb. 25,
> > but probably would not be able to get there until
> > late in the day.
> > Thanks,
> > --
> > Mike Schwartz
> > Glendale  AZ
> > schwartz at acm.org
> > Mike.L.Schwartz at gmail.com
> >
> After examining the system log, I'm inclined to agree with Ray's
> assessment. The IDE controller seems to find the HDD and CDrom ok:
> <6>SIS5513: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:02.5
> <6>SIS5513: chipset revision 208
> <6>SIS5513: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
> <6>SIS5513: SiS735 ATA 100 (2nd gen) controller
> <6>    ide0: BM-DMA at 0xff00-0xff07, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
> <6>    ide1: BM-DMA at 0xff08-0xff0f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA
> <7>Probing IDE interface ide0...
> <4>hda: Maxtor 6Y060L0, ATA DISK drive
> <4>ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
> <7>Probing IDE interface ide1...
> <4>hdd: CD-RW IDE5224, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
> <4>ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
> <6>hda: max request size: 128KiB
> <6>hda: 120103200 sectors (61492 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63,
> UDMA(100)
> <6>hda: cache flushes supported
> <6> hda: hda1 hda2
> <6>hdd: ATAPI 52X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
> <6>Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
>
> It's curious to me why there's a slave (hdd) with no master (hdc), but
> that doesn't appear to be a problem. Given that there are only two ide
> drives, I'd make them both masters (hda, hdc).
>
> Further down the log, we have
> <7>ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
> <4>Unable to load NLS charset utf8
> <4>Unable to load NLS charset utf8
> <7>ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
> <7>ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
> <4>Unable to load NLS charset utf8
> <4>Unable to load NLS charset utf8
> <7>ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
> <7>ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
> <4>Unable to load NLS charset utf8
> <4>Unable to load NLS charset utf8
> <7>ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
> <4>Unable to identify CD-ROM format.
>
> I honestly don't know if this a problem or not. Maybe someone else can
> explain what's going on here. Shortly thereafter, stuff really hits the
> fan:
> <4>hdd: command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
> <4>hdd: command error: error=0x54 { AbortedCommand LastFailedSense=0x05 }
> <4>ide: failed opcode was: unknown
> <3>ATAPI device hdd:
> <4>  Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05)
> <3>  Illegal mode for this track or incompatible medium -- (asc=0x64,
> ascq=0x00)

     [HUGE ...snip...see prev msg in thread for details...]

> <3>Buffer I/O error on device hdd, logical block 69739
> <4>Error -3 while decompressing!
> <4>d0863218(-24898552)->ca57f000(4096)
>
> For whatever reason, it can't ready the CD.
> My guesses as to what the problem might be:
> 1) a bad burn of a disk
> remedy: try running the disk check function (if you can get that far)
> 2) flakey CD drive
> remedy: try using a drive that is known to be working.
> 3) flakey power supply
> remedy: replace with a new one
> 4) bad controller
> remedy: add a PCI IDE controller card (expansion), or replace MB.
>
> If I had to bet, I'd suspect #3, given that the system was working at
> one point, but now won't even boot from a CD.
>
> I just *hate* hardware problems.
>
> Good luck.
> --
> -Eric 'shubes'
> [...]
> ---------------------------------------------------

Thanks for your help.
We had already ruled out this:

1) a bad burn of a disk
remedy: try running the disk check function (if you can get that far)

by the exact remedy recommended.
I am not sure where we go from here, but
your efforts are appreciated.
--
Mike Schwartz
Glendale  AZ
schwartz at acm.org
Mike.L.Schwartz at gmail.com
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