Ok guys and gals, this is a long one - apologies but I have tried to include as much information as possible. ;o)

I have a problem with installation of SuSE 8.1 Professional – my pc configuration is a little different from most home pc’s and I am not sure, from your support page, whether or not my configuration will be within the scope of your free support but hopefully you will be able to help me.. I shall try to detail as much as possible below but I am a complete Linux newbie so please forgive me if I leave out important / basic information.

The problem is that after the first stage of installation of SuSE Linux 8.1 my system is unable to boot. The installation process allows me to configure the installation and then proceeds to configure the partitions, install the selected packages and install / configure LiLO. At this stage the system advises that it needs to reboot and that all installation media be removed (except the floppy disk if that is where LiLO was created).

After this I think that LiLO is having problems with disk geometry, from what I've been able to see on various web-sites.

PC Specification is:
Motherboard: SuperMicro P3TDDE
Processor: 2 x Pentium III 1.26ghz with 512k cache
RAM: 512MB ECC
On-board RAID: Promise FastTrak 100
Hard Drives: 4 x 60GB IDE on the Promise FastTrak 100 RAID controller – configured as two RAID 0 volumes of 120GB each (actual usable space is 111GB) with geometry of 14594,255,63 for each RAID volume (7297,255,63 for individual hard drives).

I have tried to install SuSE in a number of different scenarios, with differing results – please see the following for an explanation:

Scenario 1:
Configuration:
/dev/ataraid/d0 used for Windows 2000 partition
/dev/ataraid/d1p1 mounted as / and set to 110.8GB in size
/dev/ataraid/d1p2 used for swap and set to 1011MB in size
LiLO installed onto MBR of /dev/ataraid/d0
1 x Aopen IDE CDR at hde
1 x Creative Labs IDE CD at hdf
1 x Sony IDE DVD at hdg
Lilo.conf reads as follows:
Unfortunately I do not have a copy of the lilo.conf
Result:
At boot LiLO returns a number of lines of L 01 01 01 01 01…

Scenario 2:
Configuration:
/dev/ataraid/d0 used for Windows 2000 partition
/dev/ataraid/d1p1 mounted as /boot and set to 54MB in size
/dev/ataraid/d1p2 mounted as / and set to 110.7GB in size
/dev/ataraid/d1p3 used for swap and set to 1011MB in size
LiLO installed onto /dev/ataraid/d1p1 (/boot)
1 x Aopen IDE CDR at hde
1 x Creative Labs IDE CD at hdf
1 x Sony IDE DVD at hdg
Lilo.conf reads as follows:
Unfortunately I do not have a copy of the lilo.conf
Result:
At boot LiLO returns a number of lines of L 01 01 01 01 01…

Scenario 3:
Configuration:
/dev/ataraid/d0p1 mounted as / and set to 110.8GB in size
/dev/ataraid/d0p2 used for swap and set to 1011MB in size
LiLO installed onto /dev/ataraid/fd0
1 x Aopen IDE CDR at hde
1 x Creative Labs IDE CD at hdf
1 x Sony IDE DVD at hdg
Lilo.conf reads as follows:
Unfortunately I do not have a copy of the lilo.conf
Result:
At boot LiLO returns a number of lines of L 01 01 01 01 01…
Scenario 4:
Configuration:
/dev/ataraid/d0p1 mounted as / and set to 110.8GB in size
/dev/ataraid/d0p2 used for swap and set to 1011MB in size
LiLO installed onto /dev/ataraid/d0
1 x Aopen IDE CDR at hde
1 x Creative Labs IDE CD at hdf
1 x Sony IDE DVD at hdg
Lilo.conf reads as follows:
-----Begin cut-----

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Mon Mar 31 23:09:28 2003


boot = /dev/ataraid/d0
change-rules
reset
read-only
menu-scheme = Wb:kw:Wb:Wb
lba32
prompt
timeout = 80
message = /boot/message

image = /boot/vmlinuz
label = linux
root = /dev/ataraid/d0p1
vga = 791
initrd = /boot/initrd
append = "hde=ide-scsi"

image = /boot/vmlinuz.shipped
label = failsafe
root = /dev/ataraid/d0p1
vga = 791
initrd = /boot/initrd.shipped
append = "ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off vga=normal nosmp maxcpus=0 disableapic 3 hde=ide-scsi"
optional

-----End cut-----
Result:
At boot I get an error message: “Error loading operating system”

Scenario 5:
Configuration:
/dev/ataraid/d0p1 mounted as / and set to 110.8GB in size
/dev/ataraid/d0p2 used for swap and set to 1011MB in size
LiLO installed onto /dev/ataraid/d0p1
1 x Aopen IDE CDR at hde
1 x Creative Labs IDE CD at hdf
1 x Sony IDE DVD at hdg
Lilo.conf reads as follows:
-----Begin cut-----

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Mon Mar 31 22:29:24 2003


boot = /dev/ataraid/d0p1
change-rules
reset
read-only
menu-scheme = Wb:kw:Wb:Wb
lba32
prompt
timeout = 80
message = /boot/message

image = /boot/vmlinuz
label = linux
root = /dev/ataraid/d0p1
vga = 791
initrd = /boot/initrd
append = "hde=ide-scsi"

image = /boot/vmlinuz.shipped
label = failsafe
root = /dev/ataraid/d0p1
vga = 791
initrd = /boot/initrd.shipped
append = "ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off vga=normal nosmp maxcpus=0 disableapic 3 hde=ide-scsi"
optional

-----End cut-----
Result:
At boot I get an error message: “Error loading operating system”

However if I boot onto the installation DVD, select to install, chose the language and then select ‘boot installed system’ then it all works fine but I notice errors that some modules can’t be located but unfortunately it all happens so fast that I am unable to get more information.
Given that it boots from the install CD ok I'm thinking that maybe SuSE 8.1 install is using GRUB and so maybe this is a problem with the boot manager (i.e. LiLO).

I've tried adding in the line:
append = hd=14594,255,63
but that didn't change anything so I also tried:
append = hd=7297,255,63
The first is the geometry readings from the RAID controller for /dev/ataraid/d0 and the second being the individual drive geometry for hda. I'm not too sure how LiLO is seeing the disks from the RAID controller.

Appreciate any help offered - and the time taken to read all of the above!

thanks in advance.

David

This problem appears to be a bit complicated on the surface, but i'm sure there is a simply solution for it.

Okay, first off, when you install the bootloader, where do you install it to? A floppy disk? MBR? Partition?

Hi Corey,

currently LiLO is installed on the MBR - which is on /dev/ataraid/d0.

I've tried putting it on /dev/ataraid/d0p1 (with this set to mount as / and only other partition being SWAP) but still no joy.
have also tried creating a /boot partition and installing LiLO on this - same result.
tried installing LiLO on a floppy disk but same result.

WIth SuSE 8.1 you also get the option of using an 'APIC Installation' which seems to do a lot more probing of hardware. After about an hour it got to the point of letting me configure partitions - i configured /dev/ataraid/d0p1 as 110.8GB for / and /dev/ataraid/d0p2 as 1011MB for SWAP. when formatting / it got as far as 64% through and then seemed to stay there for a while. so i left it overnight and came back 6 hours later and it was still there.
have checked all hardware and all is ok

I did notice though that the APIC option made mention of physical disk geometry being 116301,16,63 so I added 'append = "hd=116301,16,63" ' but that made no difference. is the 'hd' bit correct - i.e. should it be something else like hda or /dev/ataraid/d0?

appreciate your help.

cheers.

Hokalee-dokalee folks - looks like I'm getting there so thought I would post the progress so far so that anyone else with similar situation might get the benefit of my hair-tugging antics...

There's a section in the LiLO manual (http://user.fundy.net/cyclist/linux/Manual.txt) that explains about disk geometry and how to set various arguments in LiLO.
I had also noticed that when editing LiLO and re-running LiLO there was a message 'BIOS drive 0x80 may not be accessible'. This was in line with explanation of the LiLO 0x01 error code.

So I added the following lines into LiLO:

disk = /dev/ataraid/d0
bios = 0x80
sectors = 63
heads = 255
cylinders = 14594

Re-ran LiLO and rebooted and 'hey presto!' she boots.
Well, sort of...

I now get to LiLO, select the OS and all looks good until the system hangs when trying to probe the individual hard drives that make up the RAID volumes. so I think I will neeed to add in some extra info into LiLO for each physical disk too?

Anybody out there got any pointers they'd sure be appreciated. Otherwise I shall just plod along and keep experimenting - at least I'm having the problems before I've filled my disk with valuable data so have nothing to lose if it all goes to custard!

And besides - at least I'm not looking at L 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01 01... any more!!!

I seem to be answering my own questions here but I'll carry on in the hope that someone will take pity on a newbie...

Now I can boot into SuSE 8.1 ok - I noticed that the system was booting ok when selecting Safe Mode. so I appended 'nosmp' to the normal mode and wadda ya know - it boots fine. there are still some error messages generated when Linux is booting and querying the hard drives (hda and hdb) but i don't know where to grab that info from in order to post it here. (any help would be appreciated).

But it would be nice to have the benefit of both processors and be able to remove the 'nosmp' argument from LILO. anybody got any ideas?

cheers

David

You can grab the boot messages in the file /var/log/dmesg . That keeps a record of all the stuff the files through the screen on bootup.

may i ask what raid controller you are using

the name and model number...

we are having an issue with a controller here at work and
maybe its along the same problems you were having

Thanks Tourettes - I'll have a look through the boot messages and see what I can find.

Chris - the RAID controller is a Promise FastTrak 100.

Cheers.