Hi Larry, Thanks for your reply. Are you saying that the initrd image is run before the cards SCSI bios gets loaded I hadn't thought of this; but then what is the difference between powering off at the switch and pulling the mains plug. If I shut down via the PC switch (its an ATX system) and start up again on the switch I get the problem if I pull the mains plug for ten seconds or so and then power up by the switch I don't get the problem. I only installed the SCSI drive afterward when I installed 8.0 when I installed 8.1 it was there already so the installer should have seen it and hopefully configured the system correctly. I'm sorry to contradict you, I should have been more concise in my description of the problem, my apologies. I will investigate the initrd route but honestly don't think it is the cause unless somehow it is remaining in memory, is this conceivable?
Regards, Colin Close > This is a shoot in the dark..... > If you installed the scsi after the initial installation of ML then your > initrd is not preloading the driver. > > 1. Make a boot floppy and insure that it works. > 2. Check to see what and date your /boot/initrd is, date and format. ML > uses a form initrd-2.4.8-34.1mdk.img with a soft link initrd.img. > 3. Look at your /etc/lilo and see / insure the the initrd is loading. > I.e > boot=/dev/hda > > map=/boot/map > install=/boot/boot.b > vga=normal > default=linux > keytable=/boot/us.klt > lba32 > prompt > timeout=50 > message=/boot/message > menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw > image=/boot/vmlinuz-smp > label=linux > root=/dev/hda8 > initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.8-34.1mdksmp.img > append=" hdc=ide-scsi devfs=mount" > read-only > > 4. Look at your /etc/modules.conf file and insure the the appropriate > entry for the scsi adapter is indicated. > > 5. Make a new initrd file. See man mkinitrd for the correct command > line. NOTE! The mkinitrd normally writes the file without the .img > extension to the file so you will have to change this in the /boot dir. > > 6. Make sure your /etc/lilo is correct after changing the /boot/initrd > file. If changes are made insure that you run , as root, lilo -c to > install and changes made. > > 7. Make sure your BIOS is set to OS PNP =no > > 8. Boot and check any messages displayed in the /var/log/boot.log and > /var/log/dmesg. > > ?? What is the outcome?? > > Larry > > "C.H. Close" wrote: > > > Hi All, > > I have Mandrake 8.1 installed on an IBM IDE drive as a dual > boot with > Win98 (my sons network games need this). Since I did not want MS on my > main drive I resurrected an old Adaptec 2940A pci SCSI card and an IBM > 4Gig drive to go with it (the card also serves my burner). I > sucessfully > loaded MS on this and all the appropriate boot entries have appeared > under Lilo. There is however one problem in that I cannot boot the > machine unless I remove the mains power first and then boot the > machine!!! > > The cycle goes like this: > > 1. Unplug Mains plug from box > 2. Boot machine and select Mandrake > 3. Machine Boots > 4. Log on then log off and reboot (init 6) > 5. Machine reboots and reaches the point where the Adaptec SCSI > bios is > searching for devices and it just hangs until the SCSI bios > prog times out, boot then progresses normally for Linux > except for error messages relating to the system not being able to find > the SCSI disk. > Obviously I can't boot MS when this happens. > 6. To reboot I have to power down the machine; remove the mains > plug > for a short time then > replace the mains plug and boot. Everything is then OK > > The strange thing about all this is that if I boot to MS and reboot the > problem does not occur. > The conclusion I have reached is that in some way Mandrake is altering > some semi volatile part of my pci configuration which is preventing the > SCSI bios from operating correctly. Removing the power clears this > change and allows everything to work properly. > > I have done quite a lot of testing such as moving around the IRQ's of > the SCSI card and I have managed to get the SCSI card on IRQ11 which I > believe is the default for Adaptecs 2940A. The default that Mandrake > picked originally was IRQ10 which did not work either. > > I admit that this is an unusual configuration of drives; most people > would use the SCSI as the boot drive but his configuration worked on > 8.0 > the only difference was that I added the SCSI card and disk AFTER I had > done a full install. I did have to move the interrupts around though to > get it to work. > > Can anyone throw any light on this!! > > Regards, > > C.H. Close > > > -- > Sword'sEdge > VoiceMail/Fax: (858) 860-6406 x1587 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? > Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com