I have put 10+ hours just to get it to install properly. I have swapped so many parts.. I have even went to walkmart at 3 in the morning to try to figure this out... Here is my most recent problem.. The 80 gig IDE drive I just stuck in is showing up strictly as /dev/hdc... Isn't it supose to be HDA? why is it hdc? also I can get the manula install to go about 95% or so.. then it talks about not being able to write to /hdinstall so on and so forth, then it never really work right after that.... I was using a sata drive, but the problems trying to get that to work were to much...

Any idea why my 80 gig IDE would show up as /dev/hdc. and then any idea why I get 95% done or so when it starts throwing up errors about being able to write to /hdinstall? Any help would be soo much greatly appreciated.. Not a big linux fan as it is, and yet I keep getting let down.. please hlpe!

Thanks,
Derek

It may be hdc because you've got the drive on the secondary ide channel.

Mosto motherboards have two IDE cables. Usually your CDROM drives are attached to IDE cables as well. Each IDE cable has two connectors, the one on the end is usually the master, the one in the middle is the slave. You can probably just swap the the IDE cables on the motherboard to make it see your HD as HDA. You will probably have to go to BIOS and change your boot order so it looks to boot off the CD before the HD so you can install.

Hardware is getting better. They used to make IDE cables without a notch, so you could plug in HDs backwards / upside down (you were supposed to look for pin 1, the red wire and match those). First time I did a HD install I screwed that up a few times, but no smoke...

Hardware details might be nice too, since it sounds like you problems are pretty much hardware and BIOS setup issues. The form in the sticky posting under the Tier 1 and Tier 2 Hardware Recommendations topics contains most of the details we want to know. Or look at my signature block for a minimalist example.

I have tried siwtching From IDE0 to IDE 1. I have tried juper settings. I have tried different posistions all on the ribbon cable. All with the same results. I have messed with and changed sooo many Bios settings... SOrry for not including my info Here it is:

AMD Sempron 2800
PC Chips M861G(V1.6a)
512 MB DDR 400
BFG Geforce 5200 256mb
WinTV Go Plus TV tuner card
WD 80GB EIDE HD



I think that about sums it up. Let me know if anything crosses your mind!

BTW Sometimes while doing Auto install it gives an error about



But if I do the manual install or the automatic it ALWAYS throws up a bunch of errors at about 95% complettion. And then kinda screws everything up. If you need more details let me know.

Thanks,
D

Ok I got it to see as HDA by switching something around like several times. Btu at about 95% when it switched to writing to /etc/fstab then it all goes crazy and thorws a bunch of message about not being able to read from the /tmp/ directory. and not being able unmount /hdinstall. Then I am assuming because of all of that this happens.

It says setup is complete then tells me to reboot. when it starts to boot back up it tells me it can't not start X because it is not setup correctly. Then I check the Logs and it is talking about not being able to find any screens... I am guessing I am getting this because fo what happens at 95% of the install. Just thought I would update you guys on what's going.

Please let me know if you have an ideas.

-D

1) Are you booting that CD with the testcd option? If you've got it hooked to a TV for output, when it first comes up and prompts you, enter "tv testcd". This will ensure that you have a good CD image/burn, until you do that you're not even sure that you're trying to install something that should work.

2) Have you looked at the troubleshooting pages on the wiki for how to correct you X configuration? This is not an uncommon problem and there have been plenty of posts that walk people through tweaking the /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 config file.

Everything came out ok on the testcd. Still the same issue.

Ok I think I narrowed it down to a possible NVIDIA issue... When I install and run with the on board graphics card mostly everything seems to go smooth. Then I put in my bfg 5200 256 agp card it will give an error about not being able to load the Nvidia kernel module. So I thought I would pop my 7800 out of my other computer and try it. When I put it in and boot up I dont get the same error. However I get a very very dark screen once everything is loaded. I can barely read what is on the screen on the LCD, and nothing is displayed via svideo... So I am thinking it might be a Nvidia driver issue. Ever seen this before?

-D

So then you will need to set up X correctly. The "no screens" error just means it could not find a Modeline that it liked. It's not all that hard to fix. If you're in North America using TV output via S-Video, there is a sample XF86Config-4 on the wiki here.

http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... X5200HowTo

It's slightly out of date from the one that I'm using, but nothing that should keep it from working for a first cut.

Also check to make sure that the nvidia drivers got installed. Make sure that the XF86Config-4 that's there says Driver "nvidia" rather than "nv".

Oh, no wonder... Unplug the monitor, and leave only the TV attached. If the dark screens persist see the troubleshooting pages on the wiki, especially:

http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... terInstall

Bad ass.. Just having the svideo hooked up worked great. Damn.. it only works with my 7800.. must be some kinda issue with my 5200. The 5200 when plugged in just throws up the X server error. But I am getting closer and I am liking it!