Having fatal problems installing 8.10 on a parallel IDE drive

[Jeff Silverman]

Binary package hint: installation-report

Boot method: Ubuntu 8.10 installation CD
Image version: http://ubuntu.osuosl.org/releases/intrepid/ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso
md5sum /d/home/jeffs/downloads/ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso
24ea1163ea6c9f5dae77de8c49ee7c03 /d/home/jeffs/downloads/ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso

Date: January 1 2009

Machine: White box
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1800+
Memory: 512 MB
Partitions:
Disk /dev/hda: 122.9 GB, 122942324736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14946 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0007f1ca

 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 14 14036 112639747+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 14817 14946 1044225 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda4 14037 14816 6265350 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
jeffs@black:~$ df -Tl
Filesystem Type 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda4 ext3 6166980 5138452 715264 88% /
varrun tmpfs 257920 256 257664 1% /var/run
varlock tmpfs 257920 0 257920 0% /var/lock
udev tmpfs 257920 100 257820 1% /dev
devshm tmpfs 257920 0 257920 0% /dev/shm
lrm tmpfs 257920 34696 223224 14% /lib/modules/2.6.22-16-generic/volatile
/dev/hda2 ext3 110871104 97308252 10183664 91% /d
/dev/hda1 ext3 101086 15958 79909 17% /mount/hda1
/dev/sdb1 fuseblk 732572000 108962928 623609072 15% /media/FreeAgent Drive
jeffs@black:~$

Output of lspci -nn and lspci -vnn:
jeffs@black:~$ lspci -nn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400/KT600 AGP] Host Bridge [1106:3189]
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 PCI Bridge [1106:b168]
00:10.0 USB Controller [0c03]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller [1106:3038] (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller [0c03]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller [1106:3038] (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller [0c03]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller [1106:3038] (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller [0c03]: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 [1106:3104] (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge [0601]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge [1106:3177]
00:11.1 IDE interface [0101]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE [1106:0571] (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller [1106:3059] (rev 50)
00:13.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ [10ec:8139] (rev 10)
00:14.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller [1106:3044] (rev 46)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x] [10de:0181] (rev a2)
jeffs@black:~$ jeffs@black:~$ lspci -vnn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400/KT600 AGP] Host Bridge [1106:3189]
      Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-7VAX Mainboard [1458:5000]
      Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 8
      Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
      Capabilities: <access denied>

00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 PCI Bridge [1106:b168] (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
      Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0
      Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
      Memory behind bridge: dc000000-ddffffff
      Prefetchable memory behind bridge: d8000000-dbffffff
      Capabilities: <access denied>

00:10.0 USB Controller [0c03]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller [1106:3038] (rev 80) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
      Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-7VAX Mainboard [1458:5004]
      Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
      I/O ports at d000 [size=32]
      Capabilities: <access denied>

00:10.1 USB Controller [0c03]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller [1106:3038] (rev 80) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
      Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-7VAX Mainboard [1458:5004]
      Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
      I/O ports at d400 [size=32]
      Capabilities: <access denied>

00:10.2 USB Controller [0c03]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller [1106:3038] (rev 80) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
      Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-7VAX Mainboard [1458:5004]
      Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
      I/O ports at d800 [size=32]
      Capabilities: <access denied>

00:10.3 USB Controller [0c03]: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 [1106:3104] (rev 82) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
      Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-7VAX Mainboard [1458:5004]
      Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
      Memory at de000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
      Capabilities: <access denied>

00:11.0 ISA bridge [0601]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge [1106:3177]
      Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-7VAX Mainboard [1458:5001]
      Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 0
      Capabilities: <access denied>

00:11.1 IDE interface [0101]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE [1106:0571] (rev 06) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
      Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-7VAX Mainboard [1458:5002]
      Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 18
      [virtual] Memory at 000001f0 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8]
      [virtual] Memory at 000003f0 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [size=1]
      [virtual] Memory at 00000170 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8]
      [virtual] Memory at 00000370 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [size=1]
      I/O ports at dc00 [size=16]
      Capabilities: <access denied>

00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller [1106:3059] (rev 50)
      Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-7VAX Onboard Audio (Realtek ALC650) [1458:a002]
      Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 20
      I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
      Capabilities: <access denied>

00:13.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ [10ec:8139] (rev 10)
      Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RT8139 [10ec:8139]
      Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 17
      I/O ports at e400 [size=256]
      Memory at de001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
      Capabilities: <access denied>

00:14.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller [1106:3044] (rev 46) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
      Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-7VT600-1394 Motherboard [1458:1000]
      Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 19
      Memory at de002000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
      I/O ports at e800 [size=128]
      Capabilities: <access denied>

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x] [10de:0181] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
      Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 10
      Memory at dc000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
      Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
      [virtual] Expansion ROM at dd000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
      Capabilities: <access denied>

jeffs@black:~$

Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it

Initial boot: [E]
Detect network card: [ ]
Configure network: [ ]
Detect CD: [ ]
Load installer modules: [ ]
Detect hard drives: [ ]
Partition hard drives: [ ]
Install base system: [ ]
Clock/timezone setup: [ ]
User/password setup: [ ]
Install tasks: [ ]
Install boot loader: [ ]
Overall install: [ ]

Comments/Problems:
I am having troubles installing 8.10. I carefully checked the MD5
checksum and did a read after write when I burned my CD. I had the same
troubles 8.04. The system would take about 20 minutes and kick me into
initramfs and busybox. I can still run 7.10 just fine. I also tried
using all_generic_ide and rootdelay=130 in the boot string, no joy. I
tried irqpoll and all_generic_ide and changing the connector from the
black one at the end of the cable to the gray one in the middle (I have
an 80 conductor cable). Changing the cable changes the IDE drive from
primary master to primary slave, but otherwise has no effect. If I get
rid of the quiet directive in the boot command string, then I get the
following message over and over:

kjournald starting commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-FS: mounted file systemn with ordered data mode

  I read somewhere that this was a bug in a 8.04 and I was hoping that it would be fixed in 8.10.

What other information would be helpful for debugging this problem? Is there a way to log more debuging information to e.g. a floppy disk or a USB thumb drive? uname, /proc/version_signature, dmesg are probably not useful as the system won't install. Or am I missing something?

  Thank you

  Jeff Silverman

  jeffsilverm at gmail dot c0m

[Jeff Silverman (jeffsilverm)]

Kyle Cheung wrote:
> ** Changed in: installation-report (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Confirmed
>
>
Thank you, Kyle.

Is there some way to record the progress of booting the machine onto a
floppy or a USB mass storage device?

Jeff

--
Jeff Silverman
Linux sysadmin
To get my addresses:
perl -wlpe 'y/a-zA-Z/n-za-mN-ZA-M/' << EOF
924 20gu NIR R
Frnggyr, JN, 98112
<email address hidden>
EOF

[Jeff Silverman (jeffsilverm)]

I am trying to install 8.10 using the alternate CD-ROM. The installation starts initially with the 8.10 alternate CD in the IDE CD-RW drive. Then it fails at the next step because it thinks the CD-ROM is not in place. So I had the installation create a debug log on a floppy. But that file is binary. The first part says

more vmlinuz
000000] ACPI: DSDT 1FFF30C0, 40EA (r1 GBT AWRDACPI 1000 MSFT 100000C)
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] ACPI: FACS 1FFF0000, 0040
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] ACPI: APIC 1FFF71C0, 005A (r1 GBT AWRDACPI 42302E31 AWRD 1010101)
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] 0MB HIGHMEM available.
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] 511MB LOWMEM available.
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] mapped low ram: 0 - 1fff0000
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] low ram: 00000000 - 1fff0000
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] bootmap 00002000 - 00006000
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] (9 early reservations) ==> bootmem [0000000000 - 001fff0000]
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] #0 [0000000000 - 0000001000] BIOS data page ==> [0000000000 - 0000001000]
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] #1 [0000001000 - 0000002000] EX TRAMPOLINE ==> [0000001000 - 0000002000]
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] #2 [0000006000 - 0000007000] TRAMPOLINE ==> [0000006000 - 0000007000]
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] #3 [0000100000 - 00005c0a20] TEXT DATA BSS ==> [0000100000 - 00005c0a20]
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] #4 [001fa96000 - 001ffbf521] RAMDISK ==> [001fa96000 - 001ffbf521]
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] #5 [00005c1000 - 00005c4000] INIT_PG_TABLE ==> [00005c1000 - 00005c4000]
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] #6 [000009fc00 - 0000100000] BIOS reserved ==> [000009fc00 - 0000100000]
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] #7 [0000007000 - 0000009000] PGTABLE ==> [0000007000 - 0000009000]
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] #8 [0000002000 - 0000006000] BOOTMAP ==> [0000002000 - 0000006000]
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] found SMP MP-table at [c00f4c20] 000f4c20
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] Zone PFN ranges:
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] DMA 0x00000000 -> 0x00001000
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] Normal 0x00001000 -> 0x0001fff0
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] HighMem 0x0001fff0 -> 0x0001fff0
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] Movable zone start PFN for each node
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] early_node_map[2] active PFN ranges
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] 0: 0x00000000 -> 0x0000009f
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] 0: 0x00000100 -> 0x0001fff0
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] On node 0 totalpages: 130959
Jan 6 05:40:21 kernel: [ 0.000000] free_area_init_node: node 0, pgdat c048a500, node_mem_map cThu Sep 6 17:21:28 EDT 2001
The rest is gibberish.

So then I tried again, only this time, when the installer said that it couldn't find the CD-ROM, I moved the CD-ROM to the USB CD-DVD-RW drive. It got farther. I asked it to write a debug log to the floppy, but it didn't. However, the installer ...