Ubuntu Linux doesn't see my hard drive--amongst other things

[Zach_the_Evil]

Hi, this is my first attempt at installing Linux, and at first, it appeared to go well. It didn't like my DVD drive, but I swapped it for an older one during install. I installed Linux on an old 40 gig IDE hard drive I had, and all appeared to be well.

However, then I attempted to boot. Grub showed Linux and Windows, and I chose the Linux default. All appeared fine, it loaded up, and then it was time to log in. I type my password in and log in. However, isntead of showing the box with Ubuntu and loading (as I've seen from running the Live disk on another computer), it shows some wierd corrupted box that is the wrong size and is really small. So I reboot after waiting a while. Now, I choose Ubuntu again. Same thing as before.

Thinking the third time is the charm, I load it once again. Oh, the third time is a charm alright! Linux says "Loading modules" for a few seconds and then stops. The loading screen goes away and it says something to the effect of "/dev/hda does not exist" and something about jobs. I'm then able to type in commands (which doesn't help me as I don't know the commands). The BIOS shows the hard drive. Windows doesn't.

My computer:

Athlon 64 3700+
DFI Lanparty nf4 SLI-DR (or something like that)
1 gb of Corsair value RAM
Sony DVD drive
300 gb Maxtor SATA drive
40 gb Maxtor IDE drive

Other things of note: IDE hard drive and DVD drive are not on the same cable, as the cable does not reach that far in my case. They are on two different IDE controllers. HDD is set to slave (however it was able to boot to the messed up screen in slave before it magically disappeared), DVD is a master. Ubuntu Linux is the latest version, compiled for AMD64.

Please help!

 

[Zach_the_Evil]

I don't see how I forgot this, but I also have a GeForce 7800 GT.

Since this posting, I've tried installing Linux again. Now it just gets the messed up image after logging in, but fails to do anything.

 

[linux_0]

It sounds like the driver for your graphics card may not be working quite correctly.

You might want to try the nVidia driver or maybe Fedora Core 4 x86_64

http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/core/4/x86_64/iso/FC4-x86_64-DVD.iso

or

grab the CD ISOs from here:

http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/core/4/x86_64/iso/


You can get the nVidia driver here: http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/1.0-8178/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-1.0-8178-pkg2.run

To install the driver you have to do the following:

0. ALT + CTRL + F1 to get to a login prompt

1. login as root

2. tar czvpf /root/etc.02122006.tar.gz /etc

3. cp -i /etc/X11/xorg.conf /root/

4. wget http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/1.0-8178/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-1.0-8178-pkg2.run # assuming you are connected to the internet and your networking is setup correctly

5. chmod a+rx NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-1.0-8178-pkg2.run

6. ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-1.0-8178-pkg2.run

7. follow the onscreen instructions to install the nVidia kernel module

8. init 3

9. init 5


Message me if you have any questions, etc

Good Luck!

 

[Zach_the_Evil]

Hmmm....let's see now....

Fedora Core 4 it is

In fact, I've installed it right now, and am posting from it. 32 bit version, asI've heard that Flash player doesn't work on 64 bit amongst other things. FC4 appeared to be far superior to Ubuntu as I didn't have to change my CD drive for another one just to install. And it logs in, which can't hurt. Interesting, as I've gotten the live CD to work on my school's computers.....

Okay, now that I'm on Linux, let's see if I can get Wine to work with one of my favorite games of all time: Morrowind. Then, after that, it's time to learn the commands so that I can understand what step #3 does. And what the a+rx in step #5.

 

[linux_0]

Good to hear

Check out http://winehq.com/ and http://transgaming.org/forum/

Fedora 64 is 20-30% faster and in some cases even better unfortunately some stuff doesn't work all that great.

Morrowind does run under WINE and Cedega (formerly WINEX) but you may have to tweak a few things.

cp -i /etc/X11/xorg.conf /root/ # copies the xorg GUI config file from /etc/X11 to /root it's a backup in case it breaks

chmod a+rx filename # makes filename readable and executable by everyone


Let me know if there is anything I can do to help, I've been using Linux for 12 years :-D

 

[Zach_the_Evil]

12 years you say? I'm putting you on retainer.

 

[linux_0]

12 years you say? I'm putting you on retainer.

I still have 2 Slackware CDs from 1992 ;-)

I am running Linux full time on all my machines

I have one machine which dual boots for some stubborn games that won't run on Linux yet.


Please let me what you are planning to use FC4 for and I'll make some suggestions

PS For a better morrowind experience I would strongly suggest searching for morrowind @ http://transgaming.org/forum/ :-D

 

[Zach_the_Evil]

My purposes for Linux are to see if the OS is good, and if so, learn how to use it. I've decided that Linux is pretty stable (aside from my issues with Ubuntu) and has a powerful command line. Not that I know the commands, but I'm working on it. It also appears to be faster. For surfing the web, writing reports, etc. Linux is perfectly capable of doing what I want. And it's free.

Gaming is an afterthought that is somewhat pointless as I have a dual-boot system. Then again, if all my games worked in Linux, I would only have Linux installed.

 

[linux_0]

My purposes for Linux are to see if the OS is good, and if so, learn how to use it. I've decided that Linux is pretty stable (aside from my issues with Ubuntu) and has a powerful command line. Not that I know the commands, but I'm working on it. It also appears to be faster. For surfing the web, writing reports, etc. Linux is perfectly capable of doing what I want. And it's free.

Gaming is an afterthought that is somewhat pointless as I have a dual-boot system. Then again, if all my games worked in Linux, I would only have Linux installed.

Check out http://tldp.org/

On your system you can run:

[code:1:95baa3c573]

[user@your_machine ~]$ man command # for the manual page on that command

[user@your_machine ~]$ info command # for more info on that command

# for example

[user@your_machine ~]$ man ls # list directory contents

[user@your_machine ~]$ man cp # copy files and directories

[user@your_machine ~]$ man mv # move (rename) files

[/code:1:95baa3c573]

You can also start the firefox web browser and browse to:

file:///usr/share/doc/

# you much have the documentation installed of course


Good Luck!

 

[Zoron]

How is FC4? I used FC3 for a while on a old hard drive I had kicking around... and it wasn't too bad... but I don't have much basis for comparison as it was the only distro I tried. Now that I've upgraded and have a permanent second hard drive... I'm tempted to try FC4.

 

[linux_0]

How is FC4? I used FC3 for a while on a old hard drive I had kicking around... and it wasn't too bad... but I don't have much basis for comparison as it was the only distro I tried. Now that I've upgraded and have a permanent second hard drive... I'm tempted to try FC4.

FC4 works fine. If you have an AMD64 system and a DVD drive I would suggest:

http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/core/4/x86_64/iso/FC4-x86_64-DVD.iso

Otherwise you will need the 5 install CDs + the rescue CD from here:

http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/core/4/x86_64/iso/

The Knoppix Live Linux CD and DVD is great too but not for installing.

http://www.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/

 

[Zach_the_Evil]

How is FC4? I used FC3 for a while on a old hard drive I had kicking around... and it wasn't too bad... but I don't have much basis for comparison as it was the only distro I tried. Now that I've upgraded and have a permanent second hard drive... I'm tempted to try FC4.

I've never tried FC3, Ubuntu and FC4 were my first attempts, but FC4 appears to me to be good. No crashes so far, nor anything of that sort. I've pretty much switched to Linux except for gaming.

 

[linux_0]

I use FC4, FC3 and Knoppix all the time

They are all great! This being Linux if you don't like something you can always change it!!!

That's the beauty of Linux and Open Source

 

[Zach_the_Evil]

Speaking of the beauty of open source.....

How do you kill the X-server? Why do I ask? Because I want to install the Nvidia drivers, and logging out with ctrl-alt-backspace and opening a console with ctrl-alt-f1 does not appear to be doing this.

At first, ctrl-alt-F1-F6 was evil and displayed some "cannot find VPD keys" error (or something like that), but I've figured out that it is my onboard ethernet making it angry. I must disable this in the BIOS to use this, so there can be no unusual 'wget http://xserverwebsite.com/killx.run' command . Before you say 'killall gdm' or 'killall kdm', I've tried this, it does nothing. I've also seen 'killall gdm gdm' or 'killall kdm kdm' and seen that it is equally disfunctional.

 

[linux_0]

# become root

[user@host ~] $ su -

[root@host ~] # init 3

 

[mdd1963]

"Gaming is an afterthought that is somewhat pointless as I have a dual-boot system. Then again, if all my games worked in Linux, I would only have Linux installed."

Indeed!

The only problem with Linux is (based on my 3 days of experience with Suse 10.0, anyway), the general mainstream public will never opt for Linux, which appears to routinely require command line manipulation (with typical 10-15 step procedures of command/options they cannot / will not ever remember), just to update a driver or add a piece of hardware or software that is not uniquely designed for that particular flavor of Linux.......

I'm still waiting/researching / trying to fabricate a plain language detailed checklist of how to get UT2004 retail even installed on a Suse 10.0 (32bit) system, before I can begin to condemn the ATI linux drivers for a 9700Pro (said drivers which I will also unlikely be able to install without a detailed checklist) and the bad alleged gaming performance, *if* I were able to test it!
!

Until someone makes 'WinXP-like' driver/software/hardware setup apps for Linux, Linux will remain a 'fringe' desktop OS.....

XP vs. Linux rant mode off/!

 

[Zoron]

Actually, ATi's newest Linux driver installs quite easily and nicely. I used it back when I still had FC3... and I plan on installing FC5 soon. I had no 3D acceleration at all until I installed ATi's driver.

 

[MU_Engineer]

I've been using Linux for 12 years :-D

Holy cow! That was back in the 1.x kernel days! My two years is nothing compared to that...

 

[linux_0]

Actually, ATi's newest Linux driver installs quite easily and nicely. I used it back when I still had FC3... and I plan on installing FC5 soon. I had no 3D acceleration at all until I installed ATi's driver.

For many years the nVidia drivers were a LOT better.

Recently ATI put some effort into their drivers and they have gotten MUCH better.

ATI drivers also had issues under windoze as well. They have improved significantly under both windoze and Linux and MacOS ( BSD based ).

I've been using Linux for 12 years :-D

Holy cow! That was back in the 1.x kernel days! My two years is nothing compared to that...



I've been using Linux, *BSD and Unix for 12 years... I only wish I had started sooner!

Unix has been around since the 1970's

 

[linux_0]

sorry about the double post

 

[rabidpencil]

anyone have any idea why i cant find my ide hard drive when installing linux? it finds my sata drive just fine. when i unplug my sata drive and try it, it says there is no disk present. i've never heard of something detecting sata and not ide. please help.

i have windows xp on sata 120 gb drive and (as of now) xp on the ide 40 gb drive. if that matters. im not sure if this matters, but unless i disable autodetect in bios, my computer boots from the ide drive.

 

[Oberon]

Greetings again my fellow UNIX geeks. I started with UNISYS before it was UNIX. My first system was a Speary Burrows system with platters and tapes. Then the old 3B2 AT&T systems with 4*4 mhz processors. God I feel old now...LOL 8O

For a brief history of UNIX (UNICS) look here.

http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch02s01.html

 

[MU_Engineer]

What is the output of /sbin/lspci? Perhaps your IDE controller is not supported/configured correctly under Linux.

 

[linux_0]

anyone have any idea why i cant find my ide hard drive when installing linux? it finds my sata drive just fine. when i unplug my sata drive and try it, it says there is no disk present. i've never heard of something detecting sata and not ide. please help.

i have windows xp on sata 120 gb drive and (as of now) xp on the ide 40 gb drive. if that matters. im not sure if this matters, but unless i disable autodetect in bios, my computer boots from the ide drive.

As I mentioned in the PM please run the following commands:

[code:1:ff45d21ebb]
uname -a
cat /etc/redhat-release
cat /proc/cpuinfo
lspci -vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
dmesg
[/code:1:ff45d21ebb]

And PM me the info there will be a lot of it.

You can hit ALT+CTRL+F2 during the install process to get to a shell where you can run these commands. Normally you have to go past the screen where it asks what kind of keyboard you have before you can get to the shell.

It will be a lot easier if you boot from a Knoppix Live CD since you will be able to get online and PM it from a web browser.

You can download the 700MB CD from kernel.org:

http://www.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V4.0.2CD-2005-09-23-EN.iso

Like MU_Engineer said your PATA IDE controller may not be recognized by the kernel.

Knoppix "might" be able to see your drive.

What version of redhat did you try?

If you already know your full hardware specs please post them so we can help you further.

Thanks!

 

[rabidpencil]

ok, im downloading knoppix through bittorrent because my isp sucks and cuts out and i want it to continue where it left off (if anyone knows a way to do that with firefox, let me know). while i'm waiting, here are the specs i know, let me know what others you'd like, and possibly how to find them (i'm more of a software guy).

AMD Athlon XP 2800+ 2.08 GHz
1.00 GB RAM (2x512 MB, crucial and kingston?)
Samsung SV4002H 40 GB Hard drive
(from here on, im just reading device manager)
WDC WD12 00JD-00GBB0 SCSI Disk Device (sata 120 GB)
NVIDIA nForce2 IDE Controller
Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller
VAXSCSI Controller (listed under 'SCSI and RAID controllers')
ASUS a7n8x-E Deluxe motherboard

i dont think you need my cd or dvd drives, my wireless network card or anything like that, but let me know.