Using the kernel from the Beta3 CDs and the ramdisk image from: ftp://ftp.beta.redhat.com/pub/beta3/linux/update/alpha/ the installer is unable to use the CD-ROM as the install media. The TUI console reports "Unable to find Red Hat CDROM", vc3 prints: trying to mount device hda loopfd is -1 LOOP_SET_FD failed: Bad file descriptor The ramdisk included with beta3 always fails to find init at boot time, hence the use of the one from the update directory.
Verified on the following platforms: o Multia o Mustang o Corelle o Monet Multia and Mustang have NCR*** SCSI controllers and are recognized as DAC960! Corelle and Monet just give "unrecognized CD-ROM" messages and the above bad file descriptor message.
The problem is that the new generic kernel has only sym53c8xx support compiled in not ncr support, resulting in the following boot messages: sym53c8xx: PCI bus 0, device 6, function 0 sym53c8xx: not initializing, device not supported scsi: 0 hosts. scsi: detected total. So either the ramdisk should contain an ncr module, or the generic kernel should include it. Also please note that this is an very severe bug, without working scsi support install is impossible since the root fs is on scsi too. The ncr53c810 is the default scsi controller for a lott of alpha's without it most wont work. (most alpha's are scsi only) This goes for atleast multia's and axpci/33 machines.
I worked around the not having an ncr53c8xx driver by using the kernel from 6.2, now it does see the CD, but I get the messages described at the top of the bug report, so it seems this bug should be split: -cdrom install gives loop_fd=-1 errors (with updated ramdisk from gribble) -ncr53c8xx driver is missign causing trouble on quite a lot of alpha's
Please note that the NCR problem is not the problem that I reported. The CD install is broken regardless of what the CD-ROM is connected to. For example I am using an IDE ROM.
As said (maybe we both submitted after each other? ) this bug should be split, there are really 2 bugs. I got confused by the messages of mchampig who talked about having NCR controllers. I guess he should have openend a new bug. AS soon as all my i386's are installed (need hd space can't export CD's anymore with the dual CD setup, this needs fixing, GRRR) I'll try todo a network install.
Is this still an issue with beta 5?
Ehm platform = alpha = not supported, so yeah this is still a problem, since beta3 was the last alpha beta afaik.
Can't verify the bug as Alpha is no longer supported.
this is a duplicate of 17472 (or is it the other way around ;-) ) ... in regards to the issue: trying to mount device hda loopfd is -1 LOOP_SET_FD failed: Bad file descriptor *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 17472 ***