[Louisda16th]

I've tried installing Fedora 8 (dvd version i386). When I boot from DVD, it starts the setup but then freezes while loading some driver (I don't remember which one correctly). Also none of the live CDs I have -Ubuntu 7.10, Linux Mint or Fedora 8 work. Ubuntu and Mint show a command line screen which says something like "type help to get a list of commands".

A few details that may help:

My live CDs stopped working after I did a few upgrades to my PC - put a graphics card (nvidia Geforce 8500 GT,), IGB more RAM (that makes 2GB now), An extra hardisk (the new one is a SATA) and a DVD writer.

Also, my old harddisk had a problem during the installation of the new hardware - the computer kept hanging. Due to this the technician had to use the reset button. He did this so many times that my old hardisk was screwed. I believe the boot sectors must've got corrupted. Windows has now been installed on my new harddisk and the old one has been formatted.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance .

[GWatt]

If you suspect that your old hard disk is at fault, take it out and try loading linux again.

[Louisda16th]

I did disable the old one at the BIOS. Does it make a difference if I remove the connections then?

[born2c0de]

You can try installing them in a Virtual Machine using Microsoft Virtual PC perhaps.
If it boots or installs from there, it's a safe bet to assume that your hard disk is faulty.
If it doesn't, the disks themselves might have some errors.

[Louisda16th]

Louisda16th, on 14 Jan, 2008 - 11:30 PM, said:

I've tried installing Fedora 8 (dvd version i386). When I boot from DVD, it starts the setup but then freezes while loading some driver (I don't remember which one correctly).

It freezes at when loading the "ata_piix driver". On virtual PC it easily goes beyond this step. Does this indicate anything?

[born2c0de]

It seems that this is a very common problem with Linux.
This error is usually associated with Older motherboards.
I guess only a kernel upgrade (not available yet) can solve this problem.

You might find this and this useful.

[Louisda16th]

But it doesn't explain why the live cds don't work any more. My motherboard is the same.

[GWatt]

So, the DVD works under virtual PC while the Live CDs don't?

[Louisda16th]

Nope. Everything works on a virtual machine. (I used virtual box).

[Louisda16th]

Here are the messages I get when I use live cds:
Ubuntu:

Quote

BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3 - 5ubuntu7) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs)

Followed by a cursor

For fedora live cds it like this:

Quote

ata5.00: cmd c8/00:08:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 4096in
ata5.00: exception emask SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen

This message repeats again till I get:

Quote

-------------------------------------------------------
Warning: Cannot find root filesystem!
-------------------------------------------------------

which is again followed by

Quote

ata5.00: cmd c8/00:08:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 4096in
ata5.00: exception emask SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen

which repeats for sometime till I get this message:

Quote

Buffer I/O error on device sdb, logical block 0.

After this the 'ata5.00: cmd .......' messages repeat. At this point I restart my computer (after waiting for 10 min).

[GWatt]

Yeah, Fedora isn't liking your primary slave drive. It might be the windows partition actually, but I'm just grasping at straws with that one. I have had WinXP Pro installation die on me with certain linux partitions on the drive, but never the other way around.
If you don't mind losing your Windows partition, you can use some of the livecd utilities to wipe the drive. If that fails, you can always try DBAN

If you want to keep your Windows installation, DO NOT DO THAT!

[Louisda16th]

I have two harddisks. Windows is on the SATA. Can I remove it and then install Fedora? I want the OSs to have separate hard disks. I don't want a dual boot. Basically, once everything is installed, I'll go to the BIOS everytime and choose the harddisk boot priority. I don't want to loose my windows partition.

[MorphiusFaydal]

You could.... To be quite honest with you though, it looks like the drive is screwed. Buffer I/O error on device sdb, logical block 0. looks to me like drive /dev/sdb (which would be your IDE hard disk) is shafted. AFAIC recall, "logical block 0" is the boot sector, which means the drive is toasted.

[Louisda16th]

Im suspecting that only one of my harddisks is screwed - my old one. The other one is just a few days old and windows has absolutely no problem with it except that there is delay before this screen shows up:

I'll have to wait till I get a replacement for the old one (next weekend). Won't disabling the old one at the bios help? And yes, the new one is a SATA. I've heard of problems with SATA hard disks and linux before.

[MorphiusFaydal]

Louisda16th, on 17 Jan, 2008 - 03:54 AM, said:

Im suspecting that only one of my harddisks is screwed - my old one. The other one is just a few days old and windows has absolutely no problem with it except that there is delay before this screen shows up:

I'll have to wait till I get a replacement for the old one (next weekend). Won't disabling the old one at the bios help? And yes, the new one is a SATA. I've heard of problems with SATA hard disks and linux before.

I haven't. I've heard about issues with controllers, but this was back in the 2.4.20-days. I'd say just unplug the drive, but then again, I have a bit of an obsession with opening up computers and just looking at all the parts and getting my hands in there... O:-)

And that delay... How long? If it's just a few seconds, don't worry about it. If it's a few *minutes* there might be soemthing to check out.