Hi all, I can't find the original post to this topic - I think the subject was obscure. In any case, people may be interested to know how this home system was finally reconfigured. I have no idea as to how the typical "Ma and Pa" crowd would have solved this one...
Hardware: AMD Athlon irongate chipset with American Megatrends BIOS and SCSI subsystem, 9GB Seagate. Older style DVD ROM reader, DDS3 tape drive, IDE floppy. Originally configured with SuSE 7.2 The problem: out-of-date software and full hard disk due to need to store lots of images (rock slides and sample photos for geology thesis) Hardware purchased: New SCSI drive, 72 GB Maxtor DVDs for Debian system. Later obtained CDROMs of same because of installation problems with DVD (but may have been SCSI problems - see below). The hardware was installed OK and the OS installed OK but would not boot -- could not find init. After a couple of days of fussing around, this was the solution: 1. Download disk drive manuals and information regarding SCSI ID selection as the different drives had different settings. 2. Jumper the original Seagate disk to SCSI ID 1. Controller is SCSI ID 7, other devices were noted in BIOS settings. 3. Remove the factory jumpers from the new Maxtor disk; they are factory-configured to SCSI ID 6 which is internally jumpered (not the standard interconnect). This information is in the service manual for the drive, downloaded from the manufacturer's website. 4. Re-mount the hardware. 5. Change the BIOS settings to boot off device 0. Although the Americal Megatrends BIOS allowed you to boot from device 6, the software did not actually select this device. I think this is a BIOS fault. 6. Noted the logical device names are now sda (for device 0) and sdb (device 1). 7. Partition sda with a small boot partition. This was essential for this BIOS. For these large drives, boot has to be 8MB as that is only one cylinder. Format it ext2 as the boot loader for some reason can't read ext3. The remainder of the disk can be ext3 or whatever. I partitioned swap, /var, /tmp and / (a large partition). 8. The rest of the configuration was straightforward as per the Debian documentation. The system is now up and running, and the second (original) hard disk is mounted as Reiserfs with the primary HDD as ext3. Regards to all, Jill. -- Jill Rowling, System Administrator Eng. Systems Dept, Aristocrat Technologies Australia Level 2, 55 Mentmore Ave Rosebery NSW 2018 Phone: (02) 9697-4484 Fax: (02) 9663-1412 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT NOTICES This email (including any documents referred to in, or attached, to this email) may contain information that is personal, confidential or the subject of copyright or other proprietary rights in favour of Aristocrat, its affiliates or third parties. This email is intended only for the named addressee. Any privacy, confidence, copyright or other proprietary rights in favour of Aristocrat, its affiliates or third parties, is not lost because this email was sent to you by mistake. If you received this email by mistake you should: (i) not copy, disclose, distribute or otherwise use it, or its contents, without the consent of Aristocrat or the owner of the relevant rights; (ii) let us know of the mistake by reply email or by telephone (+61 2 9413 6300); and (iii) delete it from your system and destroy all copies. Any personal information contained in this email must be handled in accordance with applicable privacy laws. Electronic and internet communications can be interfered with or affected by viruses and other defects. As a result, such communications may not be successfully received or, if received, may cause interference with the integrity of receiving, processing or related systems (including hardware, software and data or information on, or using, that hardware or software). Aristocrat gives no assurances in relation to these matters. If you have any doubts about the veracity or integrity of any electronic communication we appear to have sent you, please call +61 2 9413 6300 for clarification. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
