Install of Red Hat 6.2 stalls. What did I do wrong???

[Felecha]

I'm a student at the local tech. Got a course in Networking next term, got one of the texts early -- Using Red Hat Linux, with a CD included for Red Hat 6.2. The appendix has a lengthy guide to setting up for dual boot for Windows and Linux, then install instructions for 6.2. A lot of this is over my head still, but I did the best I could, and the installation ends up with an error message --

"An error has occurred - no valid devices were found on which to create new filesystems. Please check your hardware for the cause of the problem." That's it. Dead in the water.

Here's what I've got, and here's what I've done so far.

Brand new custom built computer from a local shop. Athlon 900 Tbird, ABIT KT7RAID, 256mb SDRAM, CDROM 52x, PlexWriter 8/4/32, two hard drives, IBM DeskStar 75GXP 30GB.

Windows 98se came installed on HD1. I bought a second identical HD, wanting to use the RAID, and also figured to put Linux somewhere on HD2 to learn about it.

Just got Partition Magic 6.0, used it to create a Linux partition at the beginning of HD2, followed all the recommendations on the screen, ext2 filesystem, made it logical, gave it 5GB, said yes to recommendation to create a SwapSpace, even though 256RAM shouldn't need much help, I would think. Swapspace went into another partition on HD1, since that was the screen recommendation.

Then I went to install 6.2, thinking I had done what I needed to to set up for it. My BIOS has the CDROM as #2 in the boot sequence, so I booted into the installation CD and got through the introductory stuff, chose English, chose a keyboard and mouse, and got to the choice of install type, chose GNOME, and got the error message.

I wondered that the install never asked me where I wanted to install to. So I got to wondering if it didn't even see my HD2, even though it shows in PM6, and the second partition, FAT32 that got the remainder of HD2 is shown as D: in Windows Explorer and works correctly.

So I went and created another Linux partition on HD1, did all the same stuff, booted the install CD, got the same error message.

I freely admit I'm swimming in deep waters here, but I haven't any more clues as to what I left undone or did wrong. Any help??

Thanks for any

F

 

[Sensei]

#1 drop partition magic imho...never liked it.

Use fdisk or better yet one of redhats gui tools for partitioning. I don't know the exact reason for that error.

It sounds to me it was installing to the wrong partition?

 

[Felecha]

But if I fdisk, I gotta clear out overything and install everything over again and go crazy for two days. I've crashed and formatted three times in my five years as a computer lover/hater, and every time that's the story. PM6 can partition on the fly.

 

[Damaged]

RH 6.2 probably doesn't recognize the HD controller. You would probably need to get a more recent distro to install on that system. Like Mandrake 7.2 or RedHat 7.0.

 

[Felecha]

RH 6.2 may not recognize the controller? I have the 2 HD's on the 2 RAID controllers, that's true. Sigh ... short of going out and buying another copy of RH to try it out, any way to know????
F

 

[Felecha]

Something new --

Just saw the results of a run of Norton Disk Doctor, which said there's an error on HD1 -- there's an Extended Partition with invalid parameters, and do you want Norton to fix it?

HD1 is partitioned into a primary FAT32 for Windows98, then an extended Linux partition formatted to ext2 for the Linux installation.

My first guess was -- hey, there's the problem -- the Linux partition was bad, so it couldn't install! I almost said yes to Norton, to fix it.

But then, I thought -- wait, maybe Norton encounters a Linux partition and figures it's gotta be bad if it looks like that....

Anyone got the direction here for me?

 

[Damaged]

Do NOT let NDD "fix" it!

Second, confirms my suspicions: RH 6.2 won't properly recognize an ATA 66 controller.

 

[Felecha]

Worse than that -- I finally got on another forum -- Deja.com, "comp.os.linux.hardware", where I posted my lament, but also saw another post, with just about exactly the same problem, except that the poster was struggling with version 7.0, got the same message, wondered if it couldn't recognize his ATA66 controller. So, does this mean Linux is unable to deal with ATA66/100????? My board has four controllers, two ATA33, two ATA66. I have my CD and CDR on the first two. I can't do any RAIDing unless the HD's are on 3 and 4, so it's a pickle if this is really what is happening.

If anyone ever makes a computer that's simple and problem free, I'd be the first to buy it. But then it might be disappointing in its performance. Oh well.

 

[Felecha]

Follow-up:

I had the bright idea of moving the CD and CDRW to the ATA100 controllers and the 2 hard drives to the regular controllers. Thjat made it impossible o boot except to Safe Mode, no matter how many times I tried. So then I disconnected the second HD and the CDRW, and put the CDROM and HD1 on the regular IDE controllers 1 & 2, and it booted OK, but couldn't boot to the CDROM when I put the installation CD in. So I then put the CDRW in place of the CDROM, and hey, presto, the CD booted, and allowed me to get into the install program without objecting that it couldn't find a valid device. So it seems empirically correct that RH 6.2 can't work with ATA100. Humph!!

So I've figured that at least for this term in class, I'll have to give up RAIDing and maybe just put the CDROM on IDE1, the CDRW and HD1 on IDE2, and the lonely HD2 on one of the RAID controllers by itself and use it as a storage disk but without RAID capability.

Now, of course, the install program has gone to another problem, not following the installation guide, and landing me in another pickle without an explanation. Sigh....

 

[Felecha]

Pickles all resolved, Linux up and running. What a strange adventure.

Anyway, to Damaged -- your tip was the key. Thanks. I've got no hair left, nor teeth for that matter, but I've got my Linux. Good show.

F