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Thread ID: 35888 2003-07-24 11:51:00 Mandrake 9.1 - can not find CDROM? robbie_robot (4293) Press F1
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162603 2003-07-24 11:51:00 MANDRAKE 9.1 INSTALLATION PROBLEM

For some reason the Mandrake (3-CD set) installer is having a problem with my CDROM.

Booted with Disk1.
The welcome screen loaded ok, pressed ENTER, various programs/information scrolled up the screen,
then this error message:

'I can't access a Mandrake Linux Installation Disk in your
CDROM drive (Samsung CD-ROM SCR-3231)'

Tried booting with Disk2. Same end result.

Made a boot floppy with windows (cdrom.img). Tried that in A: + Disk1 in CDROM.

'Boot failed: please change disks and press any key to continue'

I have triple checked bios settings:
boot sequence (was A,C,SCSI) -> A,CDROM,C
PNP OS installed (was YES) -> NO
parallel port mode (was SPP) -> ECP/EPP

All devices (printer,scanner,speakers,etc) connected and powered up.

I have tried the Mandrake CD's on a friends computer and they work fine.
*****************
System:
CPU PII 333, win98se, 128MB.

IDE primary master (C:) with win98SE and associated files and applications all in
a single partition.

IDE primary slave (D:3.7GB, E:11.1GB, F:3.7GB). F: is used for
backups and archiving. D: or E: are available for installing Mandrake.

IDE Secondary master CDROM (Z:)
******************
Q Anyone else had this problem?

Q What am I doing wrong?

Q Is my system too old for Mandrake?

Q CDROM was renamed Z: instead of D: and connected as secondary master
when I installed a 2nd HD. Could this be a problem for Mandrake?

Q config.dos (see below) shows D: as the CDROM. Is this relevant?

REM [CD-ROM Drive]

device=c:\realmode\oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd001
device=c:\realmode\btdosm.sys
device=c:\realmode\flashpt.sys
device=c:\realmode\btcdrom.sys /D:mscd001
device=c:\realmode\aspi2dos.sys
device=c:\realmode\aspi8dos.sys
device=c:\realmode\aspi4dos.sys
device=c:\realmode\aspi8u2.sys
device=c:\realmode\aspicd.sys /D:mscd001

[common]
dos=high,umb
files=20
buffers=40
lastdrive=Z
device=c:\realmode\himem.sys /testmem:on
*******************

Please advise any comments or suggestions.

Thanks Robbie 		robbie_robot (4293)
162604 2003-07-24 12:52:00 It won't boot from disk 2. It has to be cd1 in the drive, check you have the correct cd. Have you got a boot floppy for Mandrake 9?? You could try that.

www.bootdisk.com

Is your bios set to load the cd-rom first etc?

Weird error though, I just installed Mandrake 9 tonight as well, maybe all the luck went for my install ;) 		PoWa (203)
162605 2003-07-24 13:24:00 Are you using a SCSI card or had you never bother to alter the original BIOS boot settings? If it is a SCSI card it may not be recognised by the minimal linux used at start-up. The boot floppy failure can often be a corrupted floppy. You will need to use a fresh floppy and make another boot.img :)

Further reading suggests that you have your IDE CD-ROM on the second IDE connector. Sometimes linux (I have noticed this with Mandrake & SuSE distros) don't like the CD on the secondary controller so if you put it as the primary slave this will hopefully solve the problem.

Keep smiling coz computers are fun :D 		Gorela (901)
162606 2003-07-25 01:49:00 Did you use RAWRITE to make the boot floppy? A DOS/Win copy of a .img file doesn't make a bootable floppy. :D It must be a perfect floppy too. Do a full format, then a scandisk surface scan.

I couldn't boot APC Mandrake CD 9.0 either. I made a floppy, and did the install. Then when it went to add applications it refused to recognise the CD. :D Later I tried entering the actual (APC) disk label to the RPM manager softawre. That didn't work. I could access the RPMS directory from the console, and manually install things ... but. :_|

I've wiped that installation. Tried Debian. Not sure I like that either. Back to Red Hat for me, I think. 		Graham L (2)
162607 2003-07-25 10:49:00 PoWa thanks. Actually the 2nd CD in Mandrake 9.1 is also bootable (according to the MDK 9.1 installation instructions).

Gorela thanks. My feeling is that it is a software problem. Will try swapping IDE channels if all else fails.

Graham L thanks. Made a new boot floppy using RAWWRITEWIN.EXE selecting Z:\images\cdrom.img per the MDK 9.1 installation instructions. Used a new floppy, full format, thorough scan.

Just tried another install using the boot floppy. Got a whole screen full of installation data. Here is a small sample:

ALT-F3 logs
* have to insmod ide-cd
* needs cdrom
* needs ide-cd
* succeeded ide-cd
* looking for ide media
* IDE/1: hda is a SAMSUNG VG3432A (4.32GB)
* IDE/1: hdb is a WDC200EB-00CSF0
* IDE/0: hdc is a SAMSUNG CD-ROM SCR-3231
* mounting dev/hdc/ on tmp/image as type iso9660
* have to ismod isofs
* needs isofs
* succeeded isofs
* mount failed: Not a directory


ALT-F4 kernal logs
<4>VFS: mounted root (ext2 filesystem)
<4>hdc: ATAPI 32x CD-ROM drive, 512kB Cache,DMA
<6>uniform: CD-ROM driver Revision 3.12
<4>hdc: command error: status=0x51 {DriveReady SeekComplete Error}
<4>hdc: command error: error=0x50
<6>end-request: I/O error, dev 16:00 (hdc), sector 148
<4>ISOFS: unable to read i-node block


Anyone know how to capture/save the full log so that it can be printed out?

Robbie 		robbie_robot (4293)
162608 2003-07-26 03:37:00 Looks like a bad/dirty CD. :D

Haven't tried this, but it's probably running in a ram disk. If it eventually decides it can't carry on and gives you a prompt (probably "#"), do cd / , then ls , then ls var/log, if var/log exists :D . You should be able to mkdir /tmp/flop && mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /tmp/flop and copy any log files to the floppy. 		Graham L (2)
162609 2003-07-28 12:30:00 Wooopeeee! The install is now working!

Got the following suggestion from Mandrakeclub forum:

Reboot -> press F1 at the installation screen -> linux ide=nodma

Not quite sure what this does but it works for me. Any ideas?


Mandrakeclub forum:
www.mandrakeclub.com


thanks everyone for your various suggestions and taking the time to respond to my post. 		robbie_robot (4293)
162610 2003-07-29 02:34:00 Interesting. Looks as if the installer has only a PIO driver for IDE. I suppose that's reasonable, but since they are aiming at modern hardware (minumum of Pentium :D) you'ld think they would either give a warning, or add the DMA stuff. And you would think that Mandrake would get lots of complaints from the paying customers. Or maybe they do include the DMA driver in the retail version. :D

Of course there are so many things which can go wrong in interactions of hardware and software in an installation that it's a wonder that anything works. 		Graham L (2)
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