Unwanted HD detecting.
 

I'm running MDK9.2 and the following problem had been annoying to me since the day that I installed linux.

Everytime I boot up my computer, linux tryes to detect and mount hard disks and etc etc. I only have hda1, hda2, hda3, hda4, and hda5 and CD rom and Floppy.

But at every boot up, Mandrake tryes to detect "hde", which I don't have. It takes about 30 seconds and give me the following error

hde no response (status =oxfe)

And that's not it. After that it continues to the next one. Which is "hdf", another drive that I don't have. Takes another 30 seconds and output the follwing

hdf no response (status =oxfe)

Overall this take away 1min of my valuble time. Just because of this reason, I have selected Windows XP, instead Mandrake on the boot up screen, because I want to do something faster.

Now the question is, how can I stop this? I want to stop Mandrake from trying to detecting this two devices that I dont have and then showing error messages, which waste my time...

i can't remember the boot option to make the kernel ignore those devices, but
you could make them ide-scsi. hdf=ide-scsi
there is an ignore command too though. you can find it.

hmmm.. sounds like a good idea. But being a linux newbie, I 'm not exactly sure what you mean.. How can I actually do this?

He is suggesting you edit your LILO/GRUB configuration files. Which bootloader do you use, LILO, or GRUB? (It should say at the boot menu)

Then it will be easier to help you.

I'm using lilo... I'll look around and see if I can find anything about it in lilo.

i had this problem. but i'm solving it with a fresh re-install.

I forgot to take out my memory sticks and cards out of my laptop while installing and it mounted everything for me and thought they were harddrives and such.

But i don't have any of these stuff. Just my one and only HD, CDRW, and Floppy. Same as when I did the installation.

edit /etc/lilo.conf

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.14-xfs
label=2.4.14-xfs
read-only
append="hdc=ide-scsi hde=ide-scsi"

that is the way that stuff gets appended to the kernel boot line.
edit the entry for the kernel you use in /etc/lilo.conf
reinstall the bootloaded by running
lilo <enter>
after you have edited the file

There is nothing there about "hde" here is what it looks like. Is this mean this is not about lilo or what? This is weard.

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
vga=normal
default="WindowsXP"
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
nowarn
timeout=100
message=/boot/message
menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw

image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="MDK9.2"
root=/dev/hda7
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=ht splash=silent"
vga=788
read-only

image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="linux-nonfb"
root=/dev/hda7
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=ht"
read-only

image=/boot/vmlinuz
label="failsafe"
root=/dev/hda7
initrd=/boot/initrd.img
append="failsafe devfs=nomount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=ht"
read-only

other=/dev/hda1
label="WindowsXP"
table=/dev/hda

other=/dev/fd0
label="floppy"
unsafe

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And these are all the devices I have.

/dev/hda1 (Windows XP -ntfs)
/dev/hda2 (Windows No OS -Fat32)
/dev/fd0 (floppy)
/dev/scd0 (CD RW)
/dev/hda5 (home)
/dev/hda6 (swap)
/dev/hda7 (/)

that's what i'm saying. add hde and hdf there in the append line. hde=ide-scsi makes the ide driver ignore hde, and assumes you are going to set it up as scsi later, but you're not, so it will get completely ignored.
that's what i'm saying to do.
change this line from
append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=ht splash=silent"
to
append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi hde=ide-scsi hdf=ide-scsi acpi=ht splash=silent"

not sure, but I think that using

hde=noprobe hdf=noprobe

may work...

yea, thats it
i couldn't remember. do that instead of ide-scsi in lilo.conf

I tried what whansard said, but had no effect... Good thing I had backed up my lilo. lol... This time I'll try what iedirtbiker said.. So do I add this to the same line? I mean, take out what whansard put and plug in this new one on the same place in lilo, right?
I'll try that and see what happen....

YYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS !!!!!!!!!!
It worksssssss............ Now it's all good...

noprobe worked
thanks for helping...

no prob bud! thats what this forum is all about!

iedirtbiker