mandriva2006 cannot partition Sata HD w. Intel controller
 

Hi,
I'm trying to install Mandriva 2006 on my Dell Optiplex GX520. Installing with two floppy discs and network connexion.
Hard disc is on a Intel 82801 GB SATA controller. Presently it has two partitions : one small FAT32 (with DELL software I guess), and a huge NTFS for Win xp SP2 -- this is factory setting.

DrakX detects the hard hisc : I get the message :
"Detected interface : Intel Corporation| I/O Controller Hub SATA cc=IDE"

but then I get :
"an error occured : found no valid peripheral for creating new partitions. Please check your hardware."

when I ask for the list of detected hardware, I get :
ata_piix : Intel Corporation | I/O Controller Hub SATA cc=IDE [STORAGE_IDE]

any idea ?

Thanks !
Erwan from France

You are not trying to create new partitions without first deleting the old ones are you? That could be the problem.

well, I'll like to be ABLE to go to the partitioning utility,
then resize my NTFS partition to make it smaller and give some free space,
then create linux partitions...
but I can't even enter the partitioning utility !

But in order to answer your question, let me make it clear : I DO NOT want to delete my ntfs partition : windows is sometimes useful; I'd like to have a dual-boot system. I want to RESIZE it. But Mandriva installation program would not enter any partitioning utility.

Yours,
Erwan from France.

ok, so where in the install process do you get that error? I thought you were trying to create partitions but if you are not even that far in the install then the problem is elsewhere.

It might be a bios setting that doesn't allow detection. Although I have not heard of any company putting some sort of partitioning or installation block on their harddrive that is possible as well. You might want to try partition magic to create a partition. I don't know what the state of NTFS resizing is in Linux but there have been problems with it. Partition Magic can do it safely.

Finally it might simply be hardware that is not supported yet, depending on how new the computer is.

the computer is brand new : 1 month old (Dell Optiplex GX520 with Pentium IV HT)

how far do I go ? Well, the installation process begins with :
- language selection (I chose FRANCE :) )
- license agreement (I agreed)
- devices detection
then I get the error message. I do not enter any partitioning utility, or cannot choose packages to be installed, etc...

in my Bios I have to options for my SATA hard disk : pure sata or combined (stg like that, as far as I remember). I've tried both and it does not work.
There might be some kind of incompatibility : I cannot run Knoppix live cd (downloaded two months ago), neither Mandriva "move" (=Live CD release 10.0)...

any idea ?
I had installed Mandrake Linux 10.0 on an older PC one year ago, and it went allright : I had partitioned my Hard disk in Mandrake's installation program, without any trouble.

...
Erwan in France

As the laptop is brand new the problem is probably lack of support for some hardware (probably chipset). That's why you had the problems with the live cd's as well. This is a problem with Linux that may never be resolved. The newest hardware is not supported as the manufacturers do not develop for Linux.

When buying hardware for Linux you are pretty safe if the hardware has been in manufacture for a year or more. You will be able to install Linux on this laptop sometime next year.

Ewan
Welcome to LQ
your intel chipset is not there apparently
http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html

Please think about adding it (or the laptop) to LQ HCL
if you have not already

I googled around a bit and it seems others are having the same problem with this motherboard chipset(intel 945G). I saw one workaround that you might want to try. Check your bios setup and see if you have a menu entry for "On-Chip SATA Mode". If you do set it to "Combined" rather than "Auto" or "Enhanced". That has worked for some.

As warpengi said you tried too old a distro anyway.
You may want to try aurox 11.0 available in F,
a magazine there (november edition) has a paper about sata support

If I were you I would buy a PCI card controller and vote with your purse.
Do some background research before buying a card

http://kerneltrap.org/comment/reply/5600/191271
Another workaround is installing on a pata,
and then copying on the sata HD

Do the world a favour:
post the output of lspci -v once you get a distro to work,
so people have the exact ID of this intel chipset

One more thing, these live distro *should* work if you
tweak the boot parameters (go to tldp and search for bootprompt)
try noauto or nodetect or wahtever it is called so the live
distro is not trying to detect your HD, it should boot.
You will not see the sata but it will boot

Let us know how it goes

thank you for your help...
I've set my BIOS with "combined" SATA mode but it did not help.
I've decided to install Linux on an older PC (1 year old) with "classical" non-SATA HD.
Erwan.

Thanks
 

Thanks for your tip. I have successfully installed Redhat on my Dell Optiplex GX520.

HELP
 

KAMMY-LAMMY

HOW HOW HOW I ASK were you able to complete successfully the installation of Linux on GX520. I am trying to get Fedora to install on GX520 but the SATA HD is not loading......I would like also to dual boot, w/ XP Pro, however that can be done later. Now i would really just like to get Linux to load.

I'm new to linux and not sure of all the commands that can be used. I saw a post
"One more thing, these live distro *should* work if you
tweak the boot parameters (go to tldp and search for bootprompt)
try noauto or nodetect or wahtever it is called so the live
distro is not trying to detect your HD, it should boot.
You will not see the sata but it will boot"

how do I get to TLDP(What is TLDP??) and search for the bootprompt.

Is there a driver out there for Intel Intergrated 82801GB ICH7 Serial ATA host Bus adapter....???

According to KAMMY LAMMY this is fesiable with tweaking, Please sum1 help.......

Pulling teeth and hair.......


HELP!!

welcome to lq :)
People will expect you do some homework
Right I assume you have the same PC

google tldp linux
this is not difficult

Yes if kammylammy could tell us how he did it that would help, and which redhat version.
In my experience, I would guess he just tried every single option for the sata HD bios option

It can, and cannot. Do not install Zin?
Zinblows always want to be first installed, so leave some free space.
Best way is to have 2 HDs it will save you time as a beginner

If you have time google for dual boot

What linux version/ distro are you trying?

Hi, I think that the same problem has bitten me :

Cannot install Mandriva 2006 :
error: opening /proc/splash failed
then get through licence acceptance, then :
error: - no valid devices were found on which to create a new filesystem

New system :
Dell Dimension 5150
1x P4 3.2GHz with 1 GB RAM and 2 x 250 GB SATA disks
No Floppy, Not RAID (though that was what I wanted).

SATA drives pre-partitioned using Partition Magic 8.0,
with windows and linux partitions

disk controlers :
IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers Intel(R) 82801GB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 27DF
Primary IDE Channel
Intel(R) 82801GB Serial ATA Storage Controllers - 27C0
Primary IDE Channel
Secondary IDE Channel

This is bad news, I have been using dual windows/linux systems since before
mandrake 7.2, and it is the linux system that saves me when windows fails -
I am in a recovery situation right at the moment with a previous fairly new
Dell PC.

I have viewed the SATA modes in the Dell BIOS :
the two options are :
[Raid Autodetect / ATA] [Raid On]
So I can not try some of the suggestions I see.

I have optical devices on both PATA channels, so can only add an IDE drive
to mount the linux on that, by sacrificing one optical drive.
I do hope someone can find a solution soon .... please tell me if you do ....
cheers,
beau

I'm assuming you have XP and not 98 or something older than XP.

If you are wanting to dual-boot Windoze & Mandriva, and can start with a blank disk, the way I do it is to insert my Mandriva install disk.

Follow it though to partitioning and manually create 2 partitions whatever sizes you want and press reset to stop the install.

Then while your PC is restarting, change to the XP disk and do the full install. It will ask you where you want it to be installed. Choose the first partition. Finish it.

Then reboot when XP is completely finished and change to your Mandriva disk and do a full install from that.

It really works and it's really simple.