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Description of Problem: 1. I have reported this to technical support and they are aware of it. My RedHat account name is klthoms. 2. With the assistance of tech support, I've tried to install Red Hat 7.1 Deluxe onto my computer system. I chose the server installation. I get though to the end of the set up and the program formats the filesystem. Then the program tries to transer to the install image to the hard drive. At this point, it stops, saying it a encountered an error and says that I'm out of disk space. 3. The technical support analyst is investigating and indicated that I submit this bug report. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): I'm purcahsed Red Hat 7.1 Deluxe Workstation. How Reproducible: I followed the standard installation procedures as outlined in the manuals. The support tech walked me through them again and produced the same result. Steps to Reproduce: 1. Follow the standard installation procedures. 2. 3. Actual Results: Errors out and with no OS installed on system. Expected Results: Functiong Linux Server. Additional Information: The computer system I'm installing this on is a Compaq Deskpro 2000. 233MMX/Mhz, 8GB Seagate Drive, 288MG of RAM, Sony 16x CDROM drive. The video card is Trio64V2/GH (S3/VirageGX), audio is ESS Audio, NIC card is a Netelligent 10T PCI card, Modem is a Netelligent 56K ISA Fax Modem. The monitor that I'm using is Samsung SyncMaster 570V TFT, which the install program did not recognize, nor was there a generic flat screen option in the setup.
What partitions did you make and how big were they? The flatpanel probably isn't detected because some flatpanels don't provide information about themselves the way most CRT's do. Some of the newer flatpanels are starting to provide more detection capability, though. We can investigate this further once we get your system installed. In the monitor screen in the installer, there's an entry for "Samsung." There should be an entry for "Samsung SyncMaster 570B TFT/580B TFT". This should be the correct monitor for you.
With respect to paritions, when I tried the first time, I created partition sizes based on what was in the Installation Manual, page 21. When did the same steps with the technical support person, we used automatic partitions and let the installer determine the size. Roughly I used, 256MB for swap, 512MB for /user, 512MB for /home, 256MB for /var, 32MB for /boot and the rest of the 8GB drive as /(root). I did try adjusting the swap size down to 128 because there was a reference in the manual that the max should be no more that 128. I even tried the swap size 2XRAM which was 576 and that didn't work. As for the monitor, I did select the one you mentioned since it was the closet and felt it wouldn't be an issue. Thanks for your help! Kevin
Very strange. It sounds like you are doing everything right. Can you try booting the install with 'linux noprobe' and see if that helps? I think that the kernel might be getting the geometry wrong on your hard drive and perhaps it thinks the drive is smaller than it actually is. Does that help at all?
Greetings: Per your suggestion, I started the installation as "linux noprobe" and unfortunately, the same error occured when trying to transfer the image. To be sure, I went back through the installation process and used fdisk with commands "O" and "W" to redo the disk allocation table. The tech support engineer had me do that orginally and I thought it a good idea. After that, I rebooted, and ran the installation as before. Same error message. *sigh* Any thoughts or clues that I might be missing? Thanks for your help! Kevin
As a fellow Compaq Deskpro 2000 owner, I'm not sure if this is related but Be aware of bug 37280. It effects our computers.
kthomas6, when the install tells you that you are out of disk space, try pressing <Ctrl><Alt><F4>. Do you see any error messages that have anything to do with the hard drives or cdrom? Specifically, are there any messages that say anything about "DMA"?
Greetings: First, I read through bug 37280. a) I have seen the error msg "Unknown EDD version 0x1600 supported" when I've had to reboot. b) I did not try the linux ide=nodma nousb as that did not appear to work for users. c) The Compaq I have has the VIA IDE Controllers. d) There appears to be some correlation between this bug and 37280. e) Somebody mentioned in the bug report 37280 about making the CDROM the slave drive off of the Primary IDE. I'm not sure how to do that, so I'll ask. Second, check your forums because this bug is being reported there as well. I've provided the link below: http://www.redhat.com/WebX?13@101.ySoea7iOObR^3@.ee71931 Additional clues maybe gleaned there. Third, I ran the installation again per your instructions and did CTL-ALT-F4 and here are the last couple of lines: <4> hdc: command error: status = 0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } <4> hdc: command error : error = 0x50 <4> end_request: I/O error, dev 16:40 (hdc), sector 1109876 There was nothing about DMA. Fourth, in bug 37280 it's mentioned that Kernal versions 2.4.4 and 2.4.10 might resolve the VIA IDE controllers issue. Are those kernals present in RH 7.2? Have you tested 7.2 on these systems (Compaq Deskpro 2000's)? Thanks, Kevin Thomas
Dear Mr. Fox, I contacted Tech Support yesterday to find out if there had been any resolution to this problem that I reported. For some reason, the person who originally told me to fill out the bug report did not open a "ticket" and I was subsequently lost in the system. Sandra, one of the techs opened a ticket, Number 848 and has it pending resolution through your organization. To that end, it's been almost a week since I posted my last update and I have not receieved any further comments or assistance with this problem. Could you please contact me and provide me a status of this issue and what steps are being done to rectify the problem? I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks, Kevin Thomas
Hi Kevin. I apologize for the delay. We don't have a Deskpro 2000 in house, so I can't test 7.2 on it myself. I have asked the kernel team and posted a question on bug #37280 to see if anybody else has had any luck with this issue. One user says that 7.1 worked for him if he moves the cdrom drive to be the Slave drive on the primary IDE controller. Is it possible for you to try this? Here's how. You system has two IDE controllers, a primary and a secondary. The ribbon cables allow for two drives to be connected to each controller. However, if you have more than one drive on one IDE controller, you must use the jumpers on the drives themselves to determine which drive is Master and which drive is Slave. This allows the motherboard to give priority to one drive if both drives try to transfer data at the same time. Right now, the hard drive is the Master on the primary controller and your cdrom drive is the Master drive on the secondary IDE controller. Try removing the ribbon cable from the cdrom drive and put it on the same ribbon cable that the hard drive is on. You will have to look on both the hard drive and the cdrom drive for instructions on how to set the jumpers correctly. You want the hard drive to be Master and the cdrom drive to be slave. Does that info help?
Greetings: Success! I made the CDROM a slave of the IDE controller, basically as you outlined above and it worked. I successfully installed both server, then wiped the drive and sucessfully installed workstation with no post-installation problems. Further thoughts and next steps? Kevin
Well, I'm not a kernel engineer, so I don't know exactly what the problem is. It seems that you have found a workaround, although it's not perfect. Now that you have the machine installed, I'm curious as to what would happen if you move the cdrom back to being the master on the secondary IDE controller. The installer uses a "boot" kernel, which is a stripped down kernel with just enough functionality to get the system installed. Maybe the problem wouldn't appear in the full kernel after installation. Having said that, we haven't seen this problem in house, so my guess is that there's something quirky about the motherboard that the kernel doesn't quite like. Since your system is working now, do you want to pursue this bug report further? It's up to you.
Greetings, I guess I could try to switch the CDROM back to the secondary controller at some point to test it out. But, I'm also of the mind "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" It installed fine and seems to be working. I read somewhere that 7.2 had the same problems on a Deskpro 2000, so I still think there is a kernel issue that needs to be addressed by the engineers. Second, I think you could close the ticket associated with this bug, which is 848. Beyond that, it appears to me that the kernel issue still needs to be addressed in later versions of Red Hat so they work with these older systems that people find or have. Kevin
I wish we had a Deskpro 2000 in house to test it on, but we don't. I'm going to dupe this bug against bug #37280 since that bug is already assigned to the kernel team. Thanks for your report. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 37280 ***