Installation Freezes at Partition Step

[subbob]

I appreciate any advice on tackling this problem. So far it has "devoured" 12-16 hours of my time with nothing to show for my efforts.

I have spent most of the weekend attempting to install Red Hat Linux 7.2 onto one of my PCs. I'm installing from CDs that came with the book "Red Hat Linux 7.2 Bible". (NOTE - Just to rule out a problem with the CD, I also downloaded the ISO images from a Red Hat mirror site and made another install CD - same problem occurs.)

When I go through the installation (text or graphic mode), I am never able to get past the "partition the disk" step. In some cases the screen simply "freezes" when I click the NEXT button. Other times the screen goes black and nothing else ever happens.

From reading the postings here (and from previous "tech support" experience) I know that the first reply to a problem is usually requesting more information. In an attempt to avoid that step I'm providing what I've done already and what I know.

System Specs:
Celeron 566, 64 MB Ram, pcchips motherboard (www.pccships.com), two hard drives, two cd-rom drives, one 10/100 NIC

Hard Drives:
Disk 1 - Maxtor 4K040H2 "40" GB (38182 MB)
Disk 2 - Seagate ST310212A "10" GB (9768 MB)

CD-ROMSs:
52X and 16x-10x-40x

Previous Use: My son's computer. Had Windows 98 installed. Ran fine, connected to home network, worked with Internet, etc.

Sequence of Events: Bought my kid a new computer and decided to make his old one a pure Linux box. After removing the files I wanted, I booted up with the Red Hat CD and chose "automatic partitioning" and then the "remove all partitions on this system" option. Upon clicking NEXT, the system reported an error message of "The partition table on /tmp/hda is inconsistent..." I chose ignore and the system froze.

The boot up screen indicated an AMI BIOS date of sometime in 1995. Thinking I maybe needed a BIOS upgrade I found the correct version for my system and flashed the BIOS. I'm now booting up with a BIOS version of Feb 13, 2001. However, that did not fix the problem either.

Since then I've booted up with a Windows 98 floppy and used fdisk in a variety of manners. I have:
1) removed all partitions and tried the Red Hat install - still froze
2) made each drive a single partition & formatted them (and verified they worked) - still had the same problem when attempting the install
3) used a third party program (Ranish Partition Manager - part.exe) and still no luck.

I even disconnected the second drive - didn't work.

I've primarily using the "server" install option, but I've also tried it with the "workstation" install. I didn't really believe that would make a difference but I wanted to rule it out as well.

Here's all the information I have. I believe the problem may be related to the "unused" partition reported by Ranish - however, I do not know how to make it go away. [fdisk (DOS version) only shows the Primary partition, as does the Findpart program]


----- Results of Ranish "part -p" and "part -d 2 -p" Query -----

Ranish Partition Manager Version 2.40.00 February 08, 2001

File Starting Ending Partition
 # Type Row System Type Cyl Head Sect Cyl Head Sect Size [KB]

0 MBR Master Boot Record 0 0 1 0 0 1 0
1 Pri Unused 0 0 2 0 0 63 31
2 >Pri 1 Windows FAT-32 LBA 0 1 1 4,866 254 63 39,094,146
3 Pri Unused 4,867 0 1 4,867 164 63 5,197

Ranish Partition Manager Version 2.40.00 February 08, 2001

File Starting Ending Partition
 # Type Row System Type Cyl Head Sect Cyl Head Sect Size [KB]

0 MBR Master Boot Record 0 0 1 0 0 1 0
1 Pri Unused 0 0 2 0 0 63 31
2 Pri 1 Windows FAT-32 LBA 0 1 1 1,244 254 63 10,000,431
3 Pri Unused 1,245 0 1 1,245 74 63 2,362

----- Results of Findpart -----

Findpart, version 4.21.
Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 2002.

OS: DOS 8.00 Partition tables:

Disk: 1 Cylinders: 4867 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 38178

-PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB -Start CHS- --End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1*0C 63 78188292 38177 0 1 1 4866*254 63 OK OK

Disk: 2 Cylinders: 1245 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 9766

-PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB -Start CHS- --End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1 0C 63 20000862 9766 0 1 1 1244*254 63 OK OK

----- Results of BIOS Identification -----

AMIBIOS Motherboard Manufacturer Identification
Version 1.2 (02/07/2001) Copyright 2000 American Megatrends, Inc.

This file has recorded information useful in identifying the manufacturer
of this motherboard. The information is listed below:

An AMIBIOS ID String Was Detected:
62-0405-009999-00101111-071595-000000
-- ---- ------ ------
| | | |
| | | Chipset/BIOS Info
| | Manufacturer ID
| Version Information
Processor & BIOS ROM Information

The Manufacturer Code Detected (9999) Does Not Have A Database Entry.

The Following AMIBIOS Project Tag Was Found: _TG_M748LMRT

[DMR]

Just a couple of shots in the dark, but...

A) Is this perhaps a Compaq system? Although I don't know exactly where on the disk it resides, some Compaq systems have a special "diagnostic" partition on their drives which can confuse partitioning programs or the partitioning portion of an OS installer.

B) Are you using any kind of "drive overlay" software such as EZ-DRIVE or Disk Manager? These programs can sometimes cause conflicts when installing a new OS.

C) Have you tried the manual partitioning option during any of your installation attempts? For that matter, have you tried a custom/expert (as opposed to workstation, server, etc.) install?

[subbob]

Thanks for the input.

A - It's not a COMPAQ - it is an unbranded system

B - The 40 GB is a Maxtor drive. I thought the same thing, perhaps that the MaxBlast overlay was on there. I created a MaxBlast boot disk to "uninstall" it, but it was not installed.

C - I've tried Auto, Disk Druid and Manual (fdisk) install options. Still freezes up. Sometimes I get further than others (i.e. it actually lets me put in the various parameters like it is working) but I never actually get PAST the partitioning step.

[Timothy L. Miller]

Okay, I've had this type of problem before. The best thing I've found, is since it's still got the windows partitions, boot from a windows boot disk, do a fdsik /mbr then run fdisk, delete EVERY partition, then try to reinstall linux. Since it no longer has any partitions on it, diskdruid shouldn't have a problem with it anymore. Of course, you could also do the same thing with Ranish. Just delete everything so it just says there is 1 "unused" partition, then save it, and set the boot loader to standard ipl(I think that's what it's called...) Hope it helps.