Mandrake v8 ISO New Install - Comp Keeps rebooting - HELP!!!

[EnderWiggin]

I have no idea why my computer keeps rebooting during the middle of the install process. Here are my specs:

P2/266
asus mobo w/ ata33 support
toshiba 40x cd rom drive hooked up to the ata/33 on the mobo
maxtor 30 gig 7200rpm ata/100 hd hooked up to the ata/100 controller card
maxtor ata/100 controller card
192 megs of ram
soundblaster pci128 sound card
netgear fa312 10/100 network card
matrox g200 graphics card

I downloaded the ISOs, cheked the md5sum and everything looks good. I am trying to install using a floppy/cd rom combo. During the middle of the install process, specifically the part where it asks for the software packages, the computer reboots. Sometimes it reboots while i am specifying which packge I awant to install (mail server sw, graphics, development, docs, etc) and sometimes right before and sometimes right after.. seems kinda sporadic. The only consistency is that it reboots or locks when I get to that part, right after formatting and partitioning the drive.

I have no idea why it is doing this.. to troubleshoot, I have pulled the sound card out, took out the extra 64 megs (leave me w/ 128 megs ) of ram, and also attached the cd rom drive and hard drive to the ata/33 controller and both to the ata/100 controller. All these things don't alleviate the problem in any way.

One thing I have noticed however is that if i don't boot the computer for a whlie (meaning few hrs), the time/date is not retained and i need to re-enter it. Also, it thinks the computer is a p2/133 instead of a p2/266. However, once I enter this info into the bios, it is back to p2/266. I am assuming the CMOS battery is out or going bad? Would this affect the install at all?

Can anyone help at all please?? I have also tried both expert and recommended install and neiether makes a difference.. i plan on using this linux box as a web/mail/ftp server. Thanks and I hope I can get some help soon!!

[stepdad]

Merely a guess but I'd say you probably are having problems with your bios. A few motherboards are known to reboot during Linux installations because of problems with their Bios. Normally an upgrade is available from the manufacturers website.

Also, the PII Intel LX chipset is known to have similar problems, but there is no upgrade that is available for this. The only way to fix this problem is to disable the PII cache in the bios, though these reboots are reportedly more of a random nature than the one's you've described.

But the first place I'd look would be your motherboard and bios, that is the most likely culprit.

Stepdad

[EnderWiggin]

Do u think a bios upgrade would help at all? I was wondering if it was the mobo to the bios to the CPU to the ATX Power supply only being able to be on for 2 minutes or something.. because all the other components I have tested.

It also seems like Mandrake/Linux is able to detect all my hardware and everything is also said to be supported.. so I just didn't know what to do next. Perhaps I will see if I can download a new bios update and also disable the cache like you said.

I am also going to try and do an install booting from the CD as well. This originally didn't work because the CD Rom was hooked up to the maxtor controller card.. so i wasn't able to boot to that.

Any other suggestions? Thanks BTW...

[bdg1983]

You could try to flash your bios, but I think it's probably the battery and flashing the bios may make your pc unbootable if the battery decides to fail at that point.

[EnderWiggin]

I've heard that mandrake v8 does not work well w/ asus mobos with more than 2 cards (including the video card)? Has anyone heard about this?

How about mandrake v8 not liking my maxtor ata/100 card? I heard this ata/100 card is identical to the promise one.. any suggestions on how to stop this rebooting prob??

[antitrustworthy]

Hey, Im using Mdk 8.0 and Im on an Asus A7V mobo with 4 cards in use including a Voodoo3. So I think I have pretty much taken all of the stories of Linux not working well w/ Asus mobos, Voodoo cards, and more than 2 cards at once and thrown them out the window.... In other words, If I can do it, there's no reason you shouldnt be able to. People who build their own comps have fewer problems in my opinion!! :D :D I do agree that trying to flash your BIOS prolly wont do you any good. If it isnt keeping time and it's rebooting spontaneously, then you just need to go out and grab yourself a new mobo.....and a new CPU too. It isnt necessary, but in a groovy world where you can buy a 1.2 GHz CPU for $96, why wouldn't you?? These are just suggestions. Take them as you will. :cool:

[EnderWiggin]

So if you are doing okay.. perhaps it's my ATA/100 Card and the ATA/100 Maxtor HD? I will try that again tonite I guess.. frustrating..

[antitrustworthy]

There is also a workaround for that, too. It's a bit detailed and possibly difficult, so do it at your own risk. Go to this site for info on how to make ATA 100 work in Mandrake: www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/hardware/hbits5.html (http://www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/hardware/hbits5.html)
If you were connected to the ATA 100 drive while trying to install, that was more than likely your problem. Good luck!

[EnderWiggin]

That article looks pretty advanced.. this is my first linux install ever.

Assuming I can do the install by hooking both devices (maxtor ata/100 HD and toshiba cd rom drive) to the ata/33 IDE of the motherboard and taking out the ata/100 maxtor controller card - can i later put the controller card back in, and plug the HD into the controller card? How does this work? Does mandrake detect this in any way or do I need to run something? What is the process in this?

I just hope I can do the install w/ both device shooked up to the ata/33 on the mobo.

[EnderWiggin]

It also looks like changing the positions of the cards in the slots may solve my problem too? Shuold I try doing that as well?

If not, where would I insert these statements:

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_VIA82CXXX=y
CONFIG_IDE_CHIPSETS=y
CONFIG_IDEDMA_AUTO=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE_MODES=y

Is this before I even start the config? I don't recall a place to manually set these.. please help! Thanks..

[EnderWiggin]

..actually, this might be the solution I am looking for:

Installation
Restart your computer to perform the installation.

Having the system rebooted from the distribution CD, press the F1 key again on the first screen to get a prompt.

Enter this line:

linux ide2=0xa000,0x9802

(0xa000 is first I/O value and 0x9802 is the second plus 2)

These parameters tell the kernel the address of the Promise ATA 100 controller.

At this point you are able to go ahead with a full installation.

During the bootloader configuration, you must enter these parameters so that the system will be able to reboot.
(tom :) If - for some reason - you fail to do this, you have to supply these parameters at the boot prompt: for LiLo, that would be

linux ide2=[I/O1],[I/O2] ide2=autotune ide0=autotune

for GRUB, hit 'e' twice and add the same line, but without 'linux'.

The matching lilo.conf entry looks like this:

(...)
image=/boot/vmlinuz
label=linux
root=/dev/hde2
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="ide2=0xa000,0x9802 ide2=autotune ide0=autotune"
read-only
(...)

(tom :) An entry in GRUB's 'menu.lst' would look like this:

title linux
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hde2 ide2=0xa000,0x9802 ide2=autotune ide0=autotune

(Everything after 'kernel' has to be on the same line)

This step must be taken before rebooting the computer or you will have to give the same parameters during each time you boot.

This was tested on a new installed HD and on a drive installed previously on a PCI Promise ATA 100 card.


---------

thx for pointing out that web page BTW.. =)

[antitrustworthy]

Im not really sure because I havent tried it yet myself. I'll post back when I do. But from what Ive read about the subject, I think you can switch back to 33 or 66 after you install it in 100, but after you install it on 33, there's no going to 100 without reinstalling. It's a bummer. :confused:

[EnderWiggin]

Oh that sux.. so that means I should install as ATA/100 in the first place and try and figure that out.. and not settle w/ ata33. Hnmm, I will try using the workaround that was pointed out..

[Crewchief]

Are you dual booting? I had the same problem. This had to do with hidding the partition in boot magic. I do run a a7v mobo with a 4 cards. Its not the mobo. I triple boot 98, 2k and drake 8.0. I fiixed mine by removing the ext2 partition and then setting it up again, then reloading drake. Drake still *****es and moans about the promise controler then loades.

If your not dual booting then put the drive on a starndard ide channel, after that you will have to modify lilo. lots of docs on that.

[EnderWiggin]

crewchief: This will be a standalone only Linux (mandrake) box. There is no previous OS either - basically a virgin system.

So what you are saying is that I should hook up both devices, the HD and the CD ROM to the ATA/33 on the mobo's IDE and install everything I need.. then later, install the maxtor ata/100 card (same thing as promise I assume), and put the HD on that? Then run the lilo stuff? Can you point me to the docs that you know?

Thanks in advance for all the help..

[EnderWiggin]

bump

[bdg1983]

Just follow the procedure that antitrustworthy gave you.

http://www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/hardware/hbits5.html

It should work if done correctly.

[Crewchief]

Drake 8.0 will see most ata100 cards. I installed mine from the 100 card and I did not need to do what was posted above. Thats not to say that these gentlemen here are not right. You may need to do as they say. Mine did not have a problem with the promise controler, it had to do with partition magic.

Have you checked all your hardware? Reseated all cards and cables? I know I will get flamed big time here for suggesting this but can you install w98 on the system? You have already told us that you may have a battery dieing. Most ata cards will flash some kind of info about the drive as you boot. Do you see anything like bios not found? and no I don't meen the mobo's bios. Mine says something like "promise bios 123456" at boot in what looks like a dos screen, then tells the drives attatched to the card.

[EnderWiggin]

crewchief: your post brings up some interesting questions... I am surprised that you had no problems with the ATA/100 card...

As for battery/bios issues. The battery is dying on the actual mobo. This means the date/time is not retained on the mobo's settings. As for the Maxtor ATA/100 Card, the bios for this appears and does indeed detect my HD as well. There appears to be no problems with this when I boot.. perhaps I should try flashing the maxtor card w/ the promise update to make it into a promise card? Or use my promise ata/100 card in my win98 box?

I haven't installed ANY OS on this system... it is virgin and I wnted it to be that way so I can install drake v8 w/o worrying about partitions and such.

I will try reordering the PCI cards.. the cards I have in the system include:

1) Soundblaster 128 PCI
2) Netgear FA312 10/100 card
3) Matrox G200 AGP Grafix Card
4) Maxtor ATA/100 IDE Controller Card

I've heard things like the order and where the PCI cards sits can make a difference.. such as switching around my sound card w/ my network card.. I've also heard that ASUS has problems w/ more than 2 cards total in slots as well.. anyhow, will try a few different combinations tonight.

It is just frustrating to get 10 minutes into the install w/ a random reboot while selecting s/w packages.. then having to wait while it boots again after a new combination.

[Crewchief]

You also have to remember that bios hold info about your pci cards as well. This may not be a problem for you if the battery can hold somewhat of a staic charge. asus likes card in this order, video-agp, sound in slot 3 and nic as far away as possible- slot 5. Here is my system.

asus a7v mobo onboard promise ata100
3com 3c905c nic-slot 5
sb live- slot 3
geforce 2 mx-agp
3com hardware modem not being used at all(no drivers installed)-slot 2

Are you getting any errors before it reboots or is it just shutting down?

If you look while it boots to linux it will show the drives that linux finds. Mine shows up as hde(triple booting). Look at it real close and tell us what drive it finds. This may be of some help. For the most part its gonna find your cd player and or burner first then ***** for a few till it finds your hard drive. At this point I would not recomend that you flash the bios for the card. Never can tell if it will make it a paper weight or not. Have you tried to install on the standard IDE channel?

OK lets try this... Lets blow everything off the hard drive. I used to work for Dell as a hardware tech and this is what we use. Follow to the letter!
http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?DN=TT1011054

Then using fdisk from dos set up your partition. ONLY ONE PARTITION. Run the install once again(i needed both cd's to install correctly). Just another thought, make sure the cooling fan on the cpu is working. I will be around for a few hours. let me know how it goes.

[EnderWiggin]

First thing, regarding the BIOS - well, I believe it holds info for a certain amount of time as well. At least min. for an hour, it will retain the time/date and info on the computer because I swith back and forth between my win98 box to post on here and chat in mirc to try and find possible solutions...

As for the order of the cards, I will reinstall the cards as you mentioned.

For rebooting, there are NO error messages whatsoever.. it simply just reboots! Sometimes right before I get to the s/w package installation screen, sometimes in the middle of it, and someties right as I am about to hit continue. These is no warning. Sometimes it doesn't even reboot annd it just looks like the video signal is lost because the led on the monitor turns amber. This is very frustrating because I have no idea what may be causing it.. perhaps when it starts accessing the cd rom drive more excessively, that is when the conflicts occur?

When I watch while linux boots, lots of text scrolls across. It appears as if it detects everything including the hard drive and the ata/100 device as well. It also states it finds the toshiba cd rom drive so I believe everything is found. Also the fact that I am able to partition the hard drive and access the cd rom drive during the first half of the install process confirms this (i think) that the linux is able to detect everything. There are also no error messages either.

Perhaps I will hold off on flashing my maxtor ata/100 to turn it into a promise. As for blowing everything away on the HD, I don't believe this is necessary because everytime i do the install for drake v8, I choose to replace the whole drive and all the data on it.

If things don't go well w/ the troubleshooting I will attempt, then I will try doing the dell help that you provided.

As for background info, I have been using DOS since v3 and am very familiar with how partitions are setup, and formated under the MS world.. but as I mentioned before, this system has NO OS and is a virgin system. I figured it would just be easier to install linux directly onto it instead of messing w/ converting OS's partitions and such..


I'll keep ya guys updated. and thanks for all the help thus far...

[EnderWiggin]

Okay - I have some updated information. I really hope
you guys can help!

I arranged the PCI cards in the order that you
recommended. So now this is how I have the cards on
my mobo going from right to left looking at the
motherboard from the top.

1) AGP Matrox G200 Grafix Card
2) Soundblaster 128PCI (PCI)
3) blank (PCI)
4) Netgear 10/100 312FA
5) Maxtor ATA/100 IDE Controller Card

I also tried combinations of booting from the CD and
booting from the floppy and doing the install.
Currently, I am using 2 separate IDE channels, both
coming from the Maxtor ATA/100 Card. Channel 1 has
the Maxtor IDE HD and Channel 2 has the Toshiba 40x CD
ROM Drive. Both are masters on the channel. I also
disabled the ALL the IDE devices in the BIOS (4 of
them) and changed them to say NONE.

During the boot process for mandrake v8, I noticed
that it says the following for my 2 devices:

ide2: hde Maxtor ...... irq 10
ide3: hdg Toshiba CD ROM/DVD ......... irq10

Does that make sense to anyone? Is that what it is
supposed to say? I can't really do a screen capture.
Maybe I can take a digital photo and post it
somewhere?

One peculiar thing I also noticed.. there are devices
w/ the same IRQ listed when I boot.. there is a
certain point where after the memory count, after the
BIOS for the Maxtor ATA/100 IDE Controller loads, then
the PCI Device Listing Appears. This is what it
contained:

BUS NO DEVICE NO FUNC NO VENDOR DEVICE ID
-----------------------------------------
0 7 1 8086 7111
0 7 2 8086 7112
0 15 0 1274 5000
0 19 0 100B 0020
0 20 0 105A 4D30
1 0 0 102B 0521

DEVICE CLASS IRQ
------------ ----
IDE Controller 14
Serial Bus Controller 10
Multimedia Device 11
Network Controller 5
Mass Storage Controller 10
Display Controller 11

Anyhow, what I noticed was that the same IRQs are
being used for 2 of the devices listed above?? Is
this right or could this be my problem?

I also tried following the workaround you guys
suggested at: www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/hardware/hbits5.html (http://www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/hardware/hbits5.html) -> but
this didn't work. The following are the IO ports I
got:

0: dc00
1: e000
2: e400
3: e800
4: ea00

I increased the values by 2 and also entered the line:

linux ide2=0dc00,0xe002

before the install when I hit F1 - but this didn't
solve anything.

** From what I can see though, the problem stems from
the accessing the CD ROM Drive. Right when I am
"searching for s/w packages", the CD ROM Drive light
is about to come on or during, and it reboots (and/or
the screen blanks). This is where the problem is.

The hard drive gets formatted fine from what I see,
after defining the partitions. However, I notice the
CD ROM Drive sometimes is acessed fine.

-- Should I try doing an install completely ONLY from
the motherboard's ATA/33 controller and take out the
Maxtor ATA/100 Controller and later try and install
the Maxtor ATA/100 controller?

Please help! I really want to get this thing going..
thanks again everyone..

(Is it possible that the Toshiba CD ROM Drive is not
compatible w/ drake v8? The thing is it detects it
during the boot stage and identifies the toshiba drive
- Also, I am using ISOs burned on 80min/700 MB CDs)

[EnderWiggin]

I noticed the formatting came out messed up.. I hope you guys can still tell what my point is though.. I hope someone can help! Thx again..

[EnderWiggin]

Okay - I wanted to post a quick update on my situation.. I pulled out the Maxtor ATA/100 Card completely.. and attached the HD on Channel 1 IDE and the Toshiba CD ROM Drive on Channel 2 IDE, both set as masters with their own cables.

I was able to install Mandrake v8 successfully all the way through... woo hoo! The thing is... it prompts me to reboot the machine. At that point, it forces a reboot after doing some more configing and such..

However, what happens is that after all this, I get a menu on right right side.. it gives the choices of "linux", "safe-xxxx", and "xxxxx" .. the x's are representing what I don't remember..

Now, when I choose linux, it looks like it tries loading stuff.. some text flies by, then the computer reboots. From what I can presume by looking at the docs, the login prompt is supposed to appear - but it never does.

Can anyone possibly speculate why it does not?

THe other question I have is how can I now get the ata/100 controller card in there and configured to work w/ the HD? Thanks in advance..

[EnderWiggin]

help?

[Hoopman67]

Ender -

While you're getting help maybe you can help me . . .

I've been tinkering around with Mandrake 7.0 and decided to download the ISO for Mandrake 8.0. This was a first for me. Is the ISO disk that you downloaded bootable?? Mine is not. It only has a Mandrake folder and a /RPMS2 sub-folder.

I have no idea how to do this upgrade if this thing is not bootable. I'm not even sure everything is on the ISO disk.

Thanks man.

[EnderWiggin]

There are actually 2 CDs I downloaded. I remember the ISO for the install disk had more than 1 subdirectory.. or folder. There were several actualy.. also make sure you do a md5sum on both ISO files before burning.

[Crewchief]

Try choosing linux "linux nonfb" should be the second choice. Sorry been working on a antique system. This is NOT a problem with your controller! Althought you got it to install. If it see's the drive then it should work.