Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 9107
6.1 fails to find Addonics (NEC) CDROM dive to install
Last modified: 2008-05-01 11:37:54 EDT
Trying to install Red Hat 6.1 on IBM Thinkpad 755CE using Addonics (NEC) PCMCIA CDROM drive. Tried the Red Hat 6.1 PCMCIA boot disk. CDROM seems to be found (lights up and spins up), but then gets lost, and the install program demands a driver disk. Red Hat has none. 5.2 installs OK, but it has a supplemental driver disk. Addonics doesn't have a driver on their web site for 6.1 (yet, I hope). I've asked them about this but no reply yet. During the install: Checking ALT+F3 shows many reports (some end in (path is NULL), interesting ones - cardmgr returned 0x0; failed to open 3 files (/tmp/drivers/modules.cgz, /tmp/drivers/modinfo, /tmp/drivers /modules.dep). All 3 show "No such file or directory." Checking ALT+F4 shows: finds CDROM, lists much info (at this point CDROM lights up and spins the disk), then reports: fopen(stabfile) failed: No such file or directory. So the install program finds the CDROM then loses it. I've tried boot disks with images from the Red Hat CDROM and from the Errata page on the web site. I've tried both the boot and pcmcia disk versions from both. I've tried graphic, text and expert installs. They all want a driver disk!! 5.2 had one - 6.1 doesn't. 5.2 installs - 6.1 doesn't. RedHat says driver disk mechanism was changed to make it easier for third party vendors to have driver disks. It's not easier for me! Re Hat tech support referred me to Buzilla, so, give it a shot! Thanks.
Not quite sure why you are even getting the driver disk screen unless you are running in expert mode, or the installer is not finding any autoprobed equipment on your machine. Anyway, the fact that the installer is prompting for a boot disk may mean nothing. It certainly does not mean that it wants a disk for your CDROM drive. Basically, we should have put better text on the driver disk screen. It is for use if you have a driver disk in hand. So, basically this is the point where the installer is saying, "If you have a driver disk, please insert it now, otherwise click cancel and we will continue." The installer is not trying to tell you that it has to have one, just that if you have one you are to use it there. The text that you are seeing on the VCs is actually pretty normal. The stuff ending with "(path is NULL)" is actually normal, as is the stuff about not being able to find files in the /tmp/drivers directory (these are files that would normally be on a driver disk . . . since you do not have one, it failed to find those files!) Try running the install again, and if you get the Driver Disk screen, just hit "Cancel" and continue on. Submit to me details of what happens from there. I think that this will actually work for you without any further tasks on your part. If you do have trouble, just post it here and we will take a look at it.
Closed due to inactivity.