[lug] RE: severe difficulties with RH 7.1

[D. Stimits]

Jack Swope wrote:
> 
> Have run memtest. and memory check ok.  Have pulled
> Promise ATA100 card from machine and cable from Zip
> drive.  Still hitting the same wall.  Last couple of
> tries:

You will still want to disable in the bios those parts which are
integrated with the motherboard. Most notably USB.

> 
> HD- Primary MB IDE bus
> CDROM/DVD- Secondary MB IDE bus master
> ZIP- Slave on Secondary MB IDE Bus
> 
> boot:  text mem=128M
> 
> Last few lines of crash
> 
> VFS: Cannot open root device "" or 08:41
> Please append a correct "root=" boot
> Kernel panic:VFS:Unable to mount root fs on 08:41

The generic cause of this can be either the controller not being
recognized, or an inability to read that filesystem for any reason. One
common cause is that the controller or the support for the filesystem
type are compiled as modules, but not part of the initial ramdisk.
Assuming you are installing to an ext2 partition, and it was correctly
partitioned and formatted, it's pretty unconceivable that filesystem
support is at issue for any install kernel from any distribution. If
this is not formatted as ext2, consider it a red flag. Assuming it is
ext2, controller support would seem the next point. But you said you
pulled the ATA100 (which is good, keep it pulled till things work)
already. In your bios, there may still be an option such as boot
offboard devices first, which you would want to avoid if you are using
the integrated version (and I assume the integrated board is not ATA100,
which could cause problems without the updated boot disk). Double check
that the non-ATA100 controller is active in the bios.

D. Stimits, stimits at idcomm.com

> 
> ____________________
> 
> Same config with the disks but
> 
> boot: text
> 
> Last few lines of crash
> 
> running installer...
> running /sbin/loader
> Running anaconda- please wait--
> install exited abnormally--recieved signal 11
> sending termination signals...doone
> sending kill signal md recovery thread woken up
> md: recovery thread finished
> done
> disabling swap
> 
> then continues to umount /proc and others
> 
> Achieved the start of a text install in this config
> with a RH 7.0 CD but crashed after installing about
> two packages.
> 
> Still confused.....
> 
> Jack Swope
> 
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