"setup" doesn't recognize USB Linux partitions
 

I booted up off the bootdisks, and the probing recognized the USB HDD (thank God). I used fdisk to partition the /dev/sda1 drive into 4 partitions (1 linux swap, 3 linux). However, when I run setup, its not recognizing the Linux partitions OR the swap space.

...roadblocked.

Are you talking about the Slackware distribution? The boot disks gave a clue but you should identify what distribution you are using in your questions. :)

If you are installing Slackware and if your computer will boot from the CD-ROM then use the CD based installation. The boot disk + root disk method uses very old kernels with very limited hardware support. You can find download mirrors at www.distrowatch.com. Note that you only need the first two CDs to install Slackware with KDE. You only need the first CD to install Slackware without X software.

If, again you are installing Slackware, and if your computer will not boot from a CD-ROM then try a boot disk that has SCSI support. USB hard disks use the SCSI driver.

well it recognized the usb device, hence my ability to "fdisk" it, but the setup utility isn't seeing it. unfortunately, my computer won't boot off the DVD, and i don't have the CD install. maybe i will try the scsi.i bootdisk and see if that makes a difference.

OK...i realized my error. I was trying to fdisk /dev/sda2 instead of /dev/sda. Problem corrected!

NOW...I am trying to mount the IDE drive /dev/hda1 but it keeps coming back with "filesystem unknown: ntfs"

so HTF am i supposed to mount it if it doesn't recognize the filesystem?

btw, the linux install files are on that drive :D

UPDATE:

I realized that with the basic boot like I used, NTFS is not supported, and since my /dev/hdc (dvd-rom) wasn't reading DVD+R discs, I had to get an external dvd drive that did. I mounted /dev/sr0 (external dvd) and im now installing.

now comes the fun of learning how everything works....AGAIN. :)

I knew it wasn't going to be completely smooth from this point on, but I thought I would get a little further. I used the bootdisk I created during installation to boot, and then proceeded to 'mount root=/dev/sda1' which is where i have the new linux installation. Of course, I come to a point where I get the dreaded kernel panic. unable to mount root.

.....
VFS: Cannot open root device "sda1" or 08:01
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:01
.....

wtf?! i followed the install to a T. i also tried plugging this into my laptop which has the ability to boot off of USB, and it gave some kind of error and wouldn't proceed.

i downloaded and compiled a new kernel, 2.4.34, using the options i thought were appropriate. i finished up with make dep, make modules, make modules_install, make bzImage. i copied the bzImage to /boot/vmlinuz and booted off bare.i and typed mount root=/dev/sda1.

i got the EXACT error as above.

does anyone have a clue as to wtf i am missing here?

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