Hello all,

Can someone tell me if by working with 64-bit HP and SLES 10 from Suse that is more of the "bleeding edge" than the "leading edge"?

I tried to install SLES 10 (patch 2) on this HP box. I downloaded the .iso files and burned them to CDs. When trying to install the OS, I got the following error:

"Could not find the SLES 10 Installation CD. Activating Manual setup program."

Then I eventually choose "Start Installation or System".

When it mentions to "Choose the Installation Media", I choosed "CD-ROM" and then get the error:

"Cannot mount CD-ROM"

I think - well, if this was the case then why were you (the computer) able to boot off of the CD ROM? Can someone PLEASE give me some kind of idea of where to go from here? I am thinking that it is some kind of kernel issue. The advertised stuff for the box is listed below.

Is it realistic to install SLES 10 on this HP machine? If 64-bit is going to give 64 * 10 headaches then I would rather not bother.

TIA

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Product number
KQ495AA
Introduction date
08-May-2008
Country/region sold in:
United States
Canada
Hardware
Base processor
Pentium E2220 (C) 2.4 GHz (65W)
800 MHz front side bus
Socket 775
Chipset
NVIDIA GeForce 7100 / NVIDIA nForce 630i
Motherboard
Manufacturer: Foxconn
Motherboard Name: MCP73M01H1
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Napa-GL8E
Memory
Component Attributes
Memory Installed 4 GB
Maximum allowed 4 GB* (2 x 2 GB)

*Actual available memory may be less
Speed supported PC2-6400 MB/sec
Type 240 pin, DDR2 SDRAM

Hard drive
500 GB SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec)
7200 rpm
16X DVD(±)R/RW 12X RAM (±)R DL LightScribe SATA drive
Must use Double-Layer media discs in order to take advantage of the DL technology
Must use LightScribe-enabled media discs and supporting software in order to take advantage of the LightScribe technology
Function Maximum speed
DVD-RAM Up to 12X
DVD-R DL Write Once Up to 8X
DVD+R DL Write Once Up to 8X
DVD+R Write Once Up to 16X
DVD+RW Rewritable Up to 8X
DVD-R Write Once Up to 16X
DVD-RW Rewritable Up to 6X
DVD ROM Read Up to 16X
CD-R Write Once Up to 40X
CD-RW Rewritable Up to 32X
CD-ROM Read Up to 40X

Modem
56K bps data/fax modem
Video Graphics
Integrated graphics
Sound/Audio
High Definition 8-channel audio
ALC 888S chipset
Network (LAN)
Integrated 10/100 Base-T networking interface
Memory card reader
Supports the following cards:
Compact Flash I
Compact Flash II
IBM Microdrive
Secure Digital (SD)
mini-SD
MultiMediaCard (MMC)
Reduced size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC)
MultiMediaCard Plus (MMC plus)
MultiMediaCard Mobile (MMC mobile)
Memory Stick
Memory Stick Pro
Memory Stick Duo
Memory Stick Pro Duo
SmartMedia
xD Picture Card (xD = extreme digital)
External I/O ports
I/O ports on the front panel
Port type Quantity
15-in-1 (4 slot) One
1394 One
USB Two
Headphone One
Microphone One

I/O ports on the back panel
Port type Quantity
PS2 (keyboard, mouse) Two (one each)
SPDIF out (coaxial) One
SPDIF in One
VGA One
DVI One
USB Four
1394a One
LAN One
Audio (side speaker out, rear speaker out, center speaker out, line-in, line-out, microphone) One Each

Expansion slots
Slot type Quantity
PCI One (One available)
PCI Express x16 One (One available)
PCI Express x1 Two (One available)

Drive bays
Bay type Quantity
5.25" Two (One available)
3.5" Two (One available)
Pocket Media Drive One (One available)

Keyboard and mouse
HP multimedia keyboard
Quebec Keyboard Kit (French Canada only)
HP PS/2 optical mouse
Software
NOTE: HP provides basic support for software that comes with the computer. For in-depth feature assistance, refer to the help section in the software or on the software vendor's Web site.

Software titles that shipped with PC Software Category Software Title
Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium with Windows Media Center (64-bit) with SP1

CD/CD-RW/DVD/DVD+RW Windows Movie Maker & Windows DVD Maker
CyberLink DVD Suite 5
LightScribe Template Labeler

Entertainment, Music & Games My HP Games (not available in French Canada)

Imaging, Photography, Video & Film Muvee autoProducer Basic

Productivity Adobe Reader
Microsoft Works 9
Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 Trial

Security Norton Internet Security 2008 (60-day security update subscription)

Support HP Total Care Advisor (not available in French Canada)
HP Hardware Diagnostic Tools
Help & Support Center
Online documentation

Recovery HP Recovery Manager

Internet Solutions Microsoft Internet Explorer
Yahoo toolbar
ISP offers

HP Partner offers (may vary) Snapfish PictureMover (US only)

The issue is the original boot is being done by the BIOS.

That loads a Linux ramdisk into memory and from that point over the Linux OS is trying to access the drive rather than the BIOS.

Since it says it can't find the CD it could mean many things:
1) The Linux kernel on this boot doesn't have a driver to support the CD. (e.g. is it a USB CD? A SCSI CD? IDE?)
2) There is some conflict preventing Linux kernel from recognizing the CD. Earlier today I was reading a note about needing to disable a USB floppy drive when using a CD.

The problem is the exact cause could be specific to the version/distro of Linux or to the hardware you're using.

You'll end up having to do some digging to find out what the cause is.

The type of Linux I downloaded was SUSE Linux (SLES 10). I have never had a problem with such a Linux before. The CD seems to be some kind of new CD from HP - not SCSI, ATAPI or anything else like that. I called HP and they say "We don't support". Calling SuSe, they just said - remake the CDs and that there was a problemw with the download. I did that and still had the same problem.

I am at a time contstraint - so - I am packing the box up and taking it back and just getting one with *very basic* devices (I have had it for 2 days). For those folks out there, it was a HP Pavilion a3500f machine. I have a 360GB USB disk but I have used USB devices in Linux before (that were at first working well with Windows) and it trashes them (the USB device) to the point where they are no longer usable, It doesn't seem to like USB devices/disks that were first used with Windows.

So, again , I am taking the box back. Will try with something else different (At least make sure the CD device is something - COMMON -

Thanks again!
-

"some kind of new CD" is still going to use a standard interface---it is almost certainly either IDE/ATAPI or SATA. Some distros don't support SATA as shipped.

OK, I looked at the listing again and saw: 16X DVD(±)R/RW 12X RAM (±)R DL LightScribe SATA drive

Now where can I find such a device driver and how would one go about loading it so that when you run the installation, it will actually recognize it.

I thought SuSe had drivers for everything :|

The modern mainstream distros all support SATA "out of the box". Enterprise server may be a different issue.

Since you are using the "enterprise" product, you have support available from Novell.

If you just want a Linux desktop, why not OpenSUSE?

Sles 10 is to my knowledge issued juni 2006 and based on suse 10.1
If this is true than it could be possible that it can gives problems on a brand new computer

Thanks for the responses. Well, I looked at the boot message log.

What is SATA? I was using SLES 10 (patch 2) because I wanted to install a particular software. Supposedly, this software requires the use of SLES from Suse - at least according to the installation instructions.

Would OpenSuse be better and be the same as SLES?

I saw that I have a SATA hard disk. The kernel seems to recognize it - it is 500GB - (although I don't know if it will work successfully with it). I am not sure if it is probing for the CD or not. If so, it looks like it failed - but the CD works with Windows...

But the information from the log is as follows (I copied it from the screen):

__________________________________________________

.....

ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 Cmd 0x9F0 ct1 0xBF2 bdma 0xF700 irq 201
ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 Cmd 0x9F0 ct1 0xBF2 bdma 0xF708 irq 201
scsi0: sata_nv
ata1: SATA link up <unknown> (SStatus A3229F03 SControl 0)
ata1.00: ATA-8, max UDMA7 976773168 Sectors: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
ata1.00: ata1: dev 0 multi count 16
ata1.00: Drive reports diagnostics failure. This may indicate a drive
ata1.00 fault or invalid emulation. Contact vendor for information
ata1.00 configured for UDMA/133
scsi1: sata_nv
ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 0)
ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0x977 Vendor: ATA Model : SAMSUNG HD501LS Rev: CR10
Type: Direct-Access
ANSI SCSI Revision: 05
SCSI device sda: 976773168 512-byte hdwr sectors (500108MB)
sda: Write protect off
.....
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With the log above, can it be fixed? Also, I downloaded the trial (60-days) for the Enterprise product. I would have to buy it if actually worked out.

SATA = Serial ATA

If the OS recognizes the SATA hard disk, it will also recognize the SATA CD drive, but it sounds like you have not gotten that far yet.

I have no experience with servers, but I think ANY Linux can be set up to run a server. I would assume that SLES simply does soem of the work for you.

Why not try your SW with one of the free mainstream distros?

Thanks for the response.

To be quite honest, I have not heard of SATA until now. Only ATAPI, IDE and SCSI ...

What would be the easiest distribution to work with nowadays? Red Hat? I remember it being so awful long ago.

BTW, if the OS recognizes the hard disk, does it mean that it will actually work with the hard disk?

Actually the OS is not communicating with HD but with the HD controller

OK and understood ...

I found the old thead:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ostics+failure

which says to run "smartctl -a" on the device.

Is there a way to access the command prompt with installation software?

Since the OS is not communicating with the hard drive or the CD, then is this a problem more with the OS or the box istself?

TIA

Well, what I wound up doing is using OpenSuse 1.3. Just to be sure that I did not do anything wrong with the CD creation, I burned the CD1 for SLES 10 again (using NERO and speed 10x). I burned the CD for OpenSuse at 12x.

The OpenSuse went in fine.

The SLES 10 did not work - yet again.

I did a google and saw that the kernel level for OpenSuse was higher than the one for SLES 10.

Either way, it worked :-)

Now to try to install the Windows software (get the dual booting feature - GRUB - working) and the software.

Thanks to all for inputs. They helped!