Hello. I am attempting to build a Linux box from scratch. This is the first time I've built a computer and the first time I've attempted to use a non-Microsoft OS.
I tried to install Libranet (a Debian based distro), I get past the first couple of screens, and am then asked,
"Create new partition table?
The disk /dev/hda (@a@t@r) does not appear to have a valid partition table. Do you wish to creat a new partition table on this device?"
This is all as expected, since it's a completely new box / new hard-drive. I select 'yes', and get the message, "Success - new partition table written to /dev/hda", which is very encouraging, until I move on to the next screen and get,
"Error
No partitionable disk drives have been detected. Please make sure your disk controller(s) have been detected."
I have the option to load SCSI modules, and I've tried loading every one that comes with the distribution (in desperation this is, since it's certainly an IDE drive). Obviously this got me nowhere.
I then wondered whether Libranet would install more happily if I could format and partition the hard-drive ahead of time, so I downloaded a copy of Knoppix, which runs beautifully and almost accepts that I have a hard-drive attached.
When I run QTParted, it recognises /dev/hda as an attached device, which is kind. It recognises one partition, "(Number) 01 (Partition) Partition Table (Status) Empty (Label) table" I can interrogate QTParted for &Device Property, which returns, "(Device Short Name) /dev/hda, (Partition Table) none, (Device Status) Available"
However, when I try to create a new Partition Table, QTParted returns the error message, "Critical Error during ped_disk_new!" and closes.
From the root shell I have tried using CFDISK and FDISK. This is quite interesting, since CFDISK recognises 4331mb free space on the disk (FDISK sees 4334mb). Now, I am actually unsure what size the disk is, since it was salvaged from an older computer, but it's a Maxtor DiamondMax 6800 Ultra ATA (model 90650U2), so it should have a capacity of 6.5Gb. So that's odd.
Worse is that CFDISK and FDISK both claim to write the Partition Table, but as soon as I quit out of them, there's no Partition Table written. Gone.
Next up I downloaded S.M.A.R.T. Linux on the offchance that this had more luck or could tell me a little more. It couldn't, but FDISK offers a few more error messages:
"The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 8399. There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024, and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
Warning invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)"
Also, on writing, FDISK now returns,
"The partition table has ben altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
hda: unknown partition table
hda: unknown partition table
Syncing disks."
FDISK then exits and the partition table... stays unwritten.
I've played with every jumper setting I can think of, fiddled with the BIOS, and I'm getting nowhere. At the moment the jumpers are set to Cable Select, although I've had exactly the same results with it set to Master. The BIOS is currently set to LBA (which I believe is correct), although it's been on NORMAL and LARGE as well.
The motherboard is an ASUS P2B-F and I have no reason to believe it's at fault - everything else works perfectly. Furthermore, I've tried a different, new, 40Gb hard-drive and got exactly the same (non)result.
So, any ideas? I'm out. Utterly lost. Help? Any help would be appreciated. If there's any extra information you require, please let me know (but you may have to tell me how to extract it).
Many thanks in advance.