Very Computer

Please help-

I am attempting to install RedHat 6.0 on my P233MMX system.
I have a 4.3G HDD for Win98, a fresh (as yet unformatted) 4.3G HDD for
Linux.  I also have:
64M Ram
4M VRam 3D video card
32X CD
56k modem, NE2000 compatible NIC

My problem is the secondary on-motherboard IDE controller.  Apparently there
is some kind of IRQ problem.  According to Win98 there shouldn't be any
conflicts.
It does say that there is a problem (denoted with a little "!" in the system
properties) with both primary and secondary IDE controllers, yet it doesn't
say what exactly (standard "device is not working properly, or all drivers
are not installed", etc.)
It also says that it is using MSDOS compatibility paging for both.
It assigns IRQ14 to primary IDE, and IRQ15 to secondary, no conflicts with
either.

When I have Win98 HDD and CD on primary, and Linux HDD on secondary, and add
the new HDD in BIOS, the BIOS detects it at boot, but then it hangs, and
eventually says "secondary master hard disk fail."

When I boot from Linux CD (after disabling new HDD in BIOS) and enter
installation, it detects the new drive, but reports these errors:
"hdc: irq probe failed"  and
"hdc: lost interrupt"

It eventually continues with installation, and I can set the partitions up
OK.  When I select packages and start installing, it freezes up again and on
the other screen (Alt-F4 I believe), it keeps giving that same "hdc: lost
interrupt."

Then I tried putting both HDDs on primary and CD on secondary.
The BIOS still detects CD, but the DOS device drivers don't detect it and
fail to load, and Win98 can't detect it either.
I can still boot Linux off CD.  But again it detects the CD, then gives the
"irq probe failed" and "lost interrupt" errors agian.
In the install where it says "Initializing CD", it hangs, and the other
screen keeps giving the lost interrupt error.

I took my box to my local LUG meeting (showed up a little late to really
tinker, only 30mins left...doh), they couldn't figure it out really, and
suggested just using one drive at a time (enclosed-drive swap rack mount, or
switch cable).  I would like to have both drives and CD available, and use
LILO to switch boot between OS's.

If anyone has any suggestions please help, post on both ng and email.
THANK YOU!

Phantom

If  W98 had problems with your drives I don't see how you could expect to
get a good install of Linux. You have a hardware problem somewhere. Make
sure you drives are jumpered correctly for the combination you want to use
and make sure all cables are inserted properly. Then go over your bios
settings carefully.

Uncle Bill has spent untold millions working on hardware detection and 32bit
drivers for scores of motherboard and drive combinations. Linux is just good
it is not magic.

--
Chess Grogan

www.shotgunwillie.com

Quote:> Please help-

> I am attempting to install RedHat 6.0 on my P233MMX system.
> I have a 4.3G HDD for Win98, a fresh (as yet unformatted) 4.3G HDD for
> Linux.  I also have:
> 64M Ram
> 4M VRam 3D video card
> 32X CD
> 56k modem, NE2000 compatible NIC

> My problem is the secondary on-motherboard IDE controller.  Apparently
there
> is some kind of IRQ problem.  According to Win98 there shouldn't be any
> conflicts.
> It does say that there is a problem (denoted with a little "!" in the
system
> properties) with both primary and secondary IDE controllers, yet it
doesn't
> say what exactly (standard "device is not working properly, or all drivers
> are not installed", etc.)
> It also says that it is using MSDOS compatibility paging for both.
> It assigns IRQ14 to primary IDE, and IRQ15 to secondary, no conflicts with
> either.

> When I have Win98 HDD and CD on primary, and Linux HDD on secondary, and
add
> the new HDD in BIOS, the BIOS detects it at boot, but then it hangs, and
> eventually says "secondary master hard disk fail."

> When I boot from Linux CD (after disabling new HDD in BIOS) and enter
> installation, it detects the new drive, but reports these errors:
> "hdc: irq probe failed"  and
> "hdc: lost interrupt"

> It eventually continues with installation, and I can set the partitions up
> OK.  When I select packages and start installing, it freezes up again and
on
> the other screen (Alt-F4 I believe), it keeps giving that same "hdc: lost
> interrupt."

> Then I tried putting both HDDs on primary and CD on secondary.
> The BIOS still detects CD, but the DOS device drivers don't detect it and
> fail to load, and Win98 can't detect it either.
> I can still boot Linux off CD.  But again it detects the CD, then gives
the
> "irq probe failed" and "lost interrupt" errors agian.
> In the install where it says "Initializing CD", it hangs, and the other
> screen keeps giving the lost interrupt error.

> I took my box to my local LUG meeting (showed up a little late to really
> tinker, only 30mins left...doh), they couldn't figure it out really, and
> suggested just using one drive at a time (enclosed-drive swap rack mount,
or
> switch cable).  I would like to have both drives and CD available, and use
> LILO to switch boot between OS's.

> If anyone has any suggestions please help, post on both ng and email.
> THANK YOU!

> Phantom

[snip]

This _sounds_ like a master/slave configuration problem.  You
_are_ changing the jumpers on the hard drives and CDROM as
you change their configurations, right?  Some drives can be
set as "master or single", while others have an explicit
"single" setting.  Some old CDROM drives for some reason
ONLY work as slave drives even though they have a jumper
to be used when the only thing on the ide chain.

Apart from that, I'd guess that the only other thing you
could have is an IRQ conflict or bad hardware...  Since the
prob shows up in both OS, you definitely have some non-Linux
specific problem.

--
     Peter F Curran
     Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Use address in Organization line, finger
for PGP key.  Antispaam test in progress.