Major install problems on weird configuration PC

[jaywalker]

[UPDATE: This message now comes with its own bugzilla buddy; Bug 9446]

Hi all,

I can't imagine anyone else has tried to do what I am doing, but you never know until you ask:-)

I have a brand new motherboard and case to replace a trashed Mandriva 2008.1 system (I trashed it - no excuses, please tell my brother I am really sorry).

It is an Asus F2A85-M LE, just for your information, and it will make a truly excellent replacement - one day. This board makes almost zero compromise for legacy tech. There is no PATA and only one PCI slot to which I have attached a PATA card using the it821x kernel module.

Having no SATA DVD I installed using the MGA3B2 DVD iso-on-a-stick. First attempt failed because the installer couldn't see the target drive (PATA No1 channel, master drive). I moved it to a USB adapter and the install completed without further problems.

The reboot went OK too, so I updated and installed some stuff, including the current kernel. Then I put the drive back on the PATA interface and the next boot failed. I finally blamed it on the absence of the it821x module in the initrd as the interface had not been used during the install. I booted to an external USB MGA3b2+updates, mounted the offending system with

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d=/mnt/darknight

mount /dev/sdc1 $d
mount /dev/sdc5 $d/usr
mount /dev/sdc6 $d/home
mount -o bind /dev $d/dev
mount -o bind /sys $d/sys
mount -o bind /dev/shm $d/dev/shm
mount -o bind /proc $d/proc

chroot $d


I checked the device.map and then did a

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dracut -f -H

or something like that and it booted OK on the next attempt. That was a few days ago so details are a little foggy. I noted that whereas on my USB MGA3b2 system the internal PATA devices are designated sdb or sdc (depending on other devices being present I suppose), when booted from the PATA adapter the systems describes itself as being on hda. That's fine so far.

Today, 18 March, I booted the machine to play some more with the setup of applications. I may have accepted another update - can't be sure. I did change the label on hdc1 (to better reflect its general games-oriented data role) and updated its fstab entry accordingly. Then I re-booted to complete the application setup changes this would need (nothing critical, just flightgear and racer (Dolphinity Racer running the Windows version under Wine).

Kernel panic - couldn't find /sbin/init.
Richard panic - WTF!

I did another chroot mount and had a look in the journal for possible causes. That was a surprising and disturbing waste of time. The last journal entry was "Journal Stopped" at 16:20 yesterday! So nothing happened that was recorded after that - no sign of the reboots on Sunday or the installation of many updates and applications (including the afore-mentioned racer), nor the shutdown in the wee small hours of Monday morning.

I have tried:

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bootloader-config --action rebuild-initrds

and another

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dracut -f -H

or two, but the best I can get is a new error seen when booting in failsafe mode or a normal boot. It gets as far as the first dot on the Mageia logo and then stops with the report that it cannot find the drive it is booting from, nor the /usr and /home partitions on the same drive.

The UUIDs it quotes are correct.
Executing blkid at the dracut:/# prompt results in a blank response.
A glance through the masses of sosreport.txt shows that the it821x module has loaded and the two PATA drives are correctly identified as to type and capabilities. That is the last mention made of hda and hdc.

A closer look at the contents of /boot/grub shows that a lot of file dates were altered about half an hour before my reboot woes started. Reinstalling grub (v1 of course) using install.sh stops with an error (cannot find drive or something very like that) but that may be something to do with the chroot system seeing the target as sdb instead of the hda in device.map. When I change device.map to reflect the locations within the chroot environment then it works fine.

Have I missed something really stupidly simple? Is there something else I should have done to restore normal operations? I am close to the hair-pulling stage and I don't have much to spare.

Richard

[gohlip]

Reinstalling grub (v1 of course) using install.sh stops with an error (cannot find drive or something very like that) but that may be something to do with the chroot system seeing the target as sdb instead of the hda in device.map. When I change device.map to reflect the locations within the chroot environment then it works fine.

grub v1 (of course!) will use device map as 'determined' (which may change on any boot/reboot) by the bios.
By using grub v1, you will always need to check the current device map before you chroot/target any disk/partition.

[jaywalker]

Thanks for the confirmation. I hacked the device.map to install grub and then hacked it back to what it was for the actual in-situ boot. Seemed to do the trick, but the underlying failure to find any drives attached on the expansion card PATA interface remains.

R

[gohlip]

...............but the underlying failure to find any drives attached on the expansion card PATA interface remains.

Yes, PATA is a real PITA
http://superuser.com/questions/318169/h ... n-the-bios
http://www.flaterco.com/kb/48bitLBA.html
Lots other links recommend more or less the same...
"get rid of it"

Cheers, take care.

ps: If you do not have any other OS on that computer and you say your Mageia is on the external usb,
why not 'set' your grub (either grub-legacy or grub2 will work), to that usb drive (say if sdb) instead of sda (or hda).
But you will need to change bios to boot from that usb (but I am not sure if your old computer can handle that; new motherboard..., maybe).

[jaywalker]

Yeah, and it looks like the manufacturers agree. It still seems wrong, to me, to throw away half a dozen perfectly good drives though. They are only 10GByte Seagates, but that's plenty big enough for a boot drive. And while it worked it was perfectly satisfactory. I am starting to wonder if there was, perhaps, an update which undid me.

The PC is destined to be an XP machine, so I am using the opportunity to provide a slick Linux demo system which may have enough fun and interest in it to attract back the youthful recipient (birthday due soon).

R

[doktor5000]

Well, for 10GB, if you install a slim base system, that's more than enough for the complete system, no?
You could add an usb flash disk as expansion for the missing space in /home ...

[jaywalker]

Absolutely, for the nearly 2 days I had it running it was very nice indeed. The last two toys I put in were Flightgear and Racer. I had to tag on an extra 4 G drive (formerly a complete W98 system) for the flightgear scenery and additional aircraft, but if I hadn't been so lavish with the /usr partition I could have managed without.

I am currently waiting for an MGA3B3 install to complete (with a default KDE desktop - my first for ages, I just want to see if this 8G RAM 4 core monster is big enough for it). I am going to see if it will boot ok and the try slowly updating it until I hopefully find out what breaks it.

R

[jaywalker]

OK, one safe re-boot later and I am again enjoying(?) the KDE experience. Reporting from there now in fact. What on earth is nepomuk and why does it keep crashing every time I click cancel on the crash report. Can't it take a hint? Still, it's not likely to be that important - the noisy obnoxious ones often like to exaggerate their position in the world.

I am still on the USB interface for this PATA drive but I am working up the courage to transfer it back to the IDE expansion card. Coffee first...

R

[jaywalker]

I have now booted again on USB but with the intended hdc attached and recognised. The next attempt will be with the current boot drive on hda rather than USB.

[jaywalker]

It took a while, but I got a clean MGA3B3 up and running from /dev/hda1. A couple of typos and a complete unfamiliarity with dracut and depmod and why you should always try to chroot from a system using the same kernel as the target all soaked up a couple of hours of the night. But it has been worth it if only to prove that I wasn't dreaming about having got this machine to boot before.

I will start with some judicously chosen upgrades tomorrow evening and see if I can find out where it all went wrong.

Richard