[Linux-ia64] Red Hat Installer cannot find the hard drive

[Linux-ia64] Red Hat Installer cannot find the hard drive

[Li, Shuo]

Does anybody know what caused the following problem and how to fix it?

The problem happens at Linux install time. After the installer come back
after trying to detect the hard drive, it reports an error saying

Partiition(s)) do not end on cylinder boundary:

This occurs because the drive geometry detected by kernel used by the
installer is different than the drive geometry used when the drive was
partitioned. This can be corrected by specifying the drive geometry on the
kernel command line when booting the installer.

Shuo 

RE: [Linux-ia64] Red Hat Installer cannot find the hard drive

[Akhter, Shameem F]

I got the same problem. You can try to do the low-level format for the
harddrive and rest, go through the installation process. That should resolve
the error. At least it worked for me.

Regards,

-- Shameem

Shameem Akhter
Platform & Technology Enabling
Solution Enabling Group
Telephone: (503) 264-1644 (O)
           (503) 970-3112 (C)

If you would like to join "Intel Software Community" (ISC), please visit
http://msllinux.dp.intel.com/mailman/listinfo/isc


-----Original Message-----
From: Li, Shuo [mailto:shuo.li@intel.com]
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 4:47 PM
To: linux-ia64@linuxia64.org
Subject: [Linux-ia64] Red Hat Installer cannot find the hard drive


Does anybody know what caused the following problem and how to fix it?

The problem happens at Linux install time. After the installer come back
after trying to detect the hard drive, it reports an error saying

Partiition(s)) do not end on cylinder boundary:

This occurs because the drive geometry detected by kernel used by the
installer is different than the drive geometry used when the drive was
partitioned. This can be corrected by specifying the drive geometry on the
kernel command line when booting the installer.

Shuo 



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Re: [Linux-ia64] Red Hat Installer cannot find the hard drive

[Stephane Eranian]

Hi,

On Mon, Jun 25, 2001 at 04:47:28PM -0700, Li, Shuo wrote:
> Does anybody know what caused the following problem and how to fix it?
> 
> The problem happens at Linux install time. After the installer come back
> after trying to detect the hard drive, it reports an error saying
> 
> Partiition(s)) do not end on cylinder boundary:
> 

I don't know which version of RH you're trying to install. I know that
in the past there was a problem here and that it would abort the install.
The fix is to switch to a text console (Alt-Fx where x is maybe 6 or higher,
I don't recall). Then you invoke fdisk manually on the device. Note that the
device entry may not be present. So you need to recreate, sda or sdb or
whatever you're tyring to install on, uing the mknod command. Then,
you manually repartition your drive with correct
boundaries. Finally, you swicth back to the graphical install and go back 
one screen  and then forward one and it should pick up the new partitions.

-- 

-Stephane

RE: [Linux-ia64] Red Hat Installer cannot find the hard drive

[Matt_Domsch]

>> Partiition(s)) do not end on cylinder boundary:
> I got the same problem. You can try to do the low-level format for the
> harddrive and rest, go through the installation process. That 
> should resolve
> the error. At least it worked for me.

You don't have to low-level the drive, just write zeros to the first sector,
or erase the partition table.  Much faster...

Intel's fdisk.efi doesn't cylinder-align the EFI System Partition, which
often causes this problem.  If you use fdisk from within the installer,
delete the first partition, and write the empty partition table out, then
restart the installer, it'll work fine.

Thanks,
Matt

-- 
Matt Domsch
Sr. Software Engineer
Dell Linux Solutions
www.dell.com/linux

Re: [Linux-ia64] Red Hat Installer cannot find the hard drive

[Dan Pop]

On Mon, 25 Jun 2001, Stephane Eranian wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On Mon, Jun 25, 2001 at 04:47:28PM -0700, Li, Shuo wrote:
> > Does anybody know what caused the following problem and how to fix it?

It usually happens if the disk has already been partioned by an older
RH version.  At least, this is what we have seen.  The solution is to
manually remove all the existing partitions (with fdisk) and then to
select the "Retry" option.

> > The problem happens at Linux install time. After the installer come back
> > after trying to detect the hard drive, it reports an error saying
> > 
> > Partiition(s)) do not end on cylinder boundary:
> 
> I don't know which version of RH you're trying to install. I know that
> in the past there was a problem here and that it would abort the install.
> The fix is to switch to a text console (Alt-Fx where x is maybe 6 or higher,
> I don't recall).

I think that Alt-F2 should bring you to a root shell session.  Anyway,
it's easy to find by trial and error.

> Then you invoke fdisk manually on the device. Note that the
> device entry may not be present.

It's present, but under /tmp.  Something like "fdisk /tmp/sda" should
do the job.

Dan