Very Computer

Folks:

I'm desperate.  I just bought a Dell Dimension 90MHz Pentium, configured as
follows:

        1 IDE hard drive             - mastered off primary controller
        1 Mitsumi IDE CD-ROM         - mastered off secondary controller
        Adaptec 2940 SCSI controller - id 7
        1 2.1GB Conner SCSI drive    - id 0

        Red Hat Linux 2.0 (2940-nonet.img boot image).

I've tried every conceivable LILO option, and I can't get the machine
to recognize the CD-ROM.  It picks up the SCSI and IDE hard drives
beautifully, though.

One person who responded to my email said that he thought the problem was that
the IDE controllers on Dell motherboards were flaky... or maybe just flaky
under Linux.  This strikes me as rather unbelievable... especially since
it works beautifully under Windows 95.

Is ANYONE out there using a Dell for Linux, with IDE???  

Does ANYONE have $0.02 to throw into this issue?
--

   ____           __

 / __/ _/ / / , /     Hughes STX Corporation, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Cntr.
/___/_/ \  /\  /___    
        /_/ /_____/   http://selsvr.stx.com/~eryq/

<snip>

The CDROM in the Dell Dimension is an ATAPI IDE interface, not an Mitsumi
interface.

--Earl Fryman

: >Folks:
: >
: >I'm desperate.  I just bought a Dell Dimension 90MHz Pentium, configured as
: >follows:
: >
: >  1 IDE hard drive             - mastered off primary controller
: >  1 Mitsumi IDE CD-ROM         - mastered off secondary controller
: >  Adaptec 2940 SCSI controller - id 7
: >  1 2.1GB Conner SCSI drive    - id 0
: >
: >  Red Hat Linux 2.0 (2940-nonet.img boot image).
: >
: <snip>

: The CDROM in the Dell Dimension is an ATAPI IDE interface, not an Mitsumi
: interface.

: --Earl Fryman

This is true.  Be sure to select IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM support when compiling
your kernel (the question appears after you are asked whether you want the
new or old IDE drivers).  What version of Linux is in Red Hat 2.0?

Does your startup script (retreivable via the dmesg command) report a
secondary IDE interface on IRQ 15?

Have you tried hdc=cdrom as a parameter to the kernel at boot time?

I would be interested in your success with this.  I was considering a Dell
Dimension XPS but sales told me that it wouldn't run any Unix - only their
'business' machines would.  I said this is strange and I asked them to
re-checj this with their tech people.  

Could it be something to do with Dell's BIOS?

(Also do you have PCI support compiled in your kernel?  Be sure not to
selected the Mitsumi CD-ROM driver later on in the configuration script when
doing a 'make config' for the kernel).

I don't know if this help.. I hope it might give a few clues.

Nick K.

Thanks for all replies on this thread; it turned out that I had
downloaded a 2940 kernel that wasn't compiled with ATAPI/IDE CD-ROM
support.  The folks at Red Hat compiled one for me the moment I
asked, and everything went great (and yes, you do nee hdc=cdrom
at the LILO prompt).

Quote:>I would be interested in your success with this.  I was considering a Dell
>Dimension XPS but sales told me that it wouldn't run any Unix - only their
>'business' machines would.  I said this is strange and I asked them to
>re-checj this with their tech people.  

They're either snowing you to get you to buy a more-expensive product,
or (most likely) they don't know what they're talking about... i.e.,
they think you want to put Solaris or some other PC-based Unix-clone
on it.  Linux runs quite nicely on my XPS90... at least, it seems to so far;
I've only been playing with it for a week.  I'd be interested in hearing
*why* they think a Dell XPS90 supposedly can't run a Unix-clone...

BTW: I spoke at one point to one of their night-shift tech support people;
he's got Linux on his own Dell.  So there's at least one Dell techie running
it.  Don't know what kind of machine he has, tho...

--

   ____           __

 / __/ _/ / / , /     Hughes STX Corporation, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Cntr.
/___/_/ \  /\  /___    
        /_/ /_____/   http://selsvr.stx.com/~eryq/

: : >Folks:
: : >
: : >I'm desperate.  I just bought a Dell Dimension 90MHz Pentium, configured as
: : >follows:
: : >
: : >        1 IDE hard drive             - mastered off primary controller
: : >        1 Mitsumi IDE CD-ROM         - mastered off secondary controller
: : >        Adaptec 2940 SCSI controller - id 7
: : >        1 2.1GB Conner SCSI drive    - id 0
: : >
: : >        Red Hat Linux 2.0 (2940-nonet.img boot image).
: : >
: : <snip>

: : The CDROM in the Dell Dimension is an ATAPI IDE interface, not an Mitsumi
: : interface.

: : --Earl Fryman

I had a similar problem with my friend's machine... The CD-ROM worked under
Windoze95, but I couldn't get it to work under Linux. I tried everything.
Nothing would help. I wasted 2 days!!! Then I brought the machine back to the
dealer to replace the CD-ROM. But just before he was about to replace it,
I tried one last thing. I switched the jumper on the CD-ROM from master to
slave. All of the sudden everything worked just fine... :-)

Might work for you as well...

______________________________________________________________________________
Pavol Federl, Graduate Student                       Dept. of Computer Science


                                                     MS 617A