Hi,

I'm trying to replace vista with Linux. Vista came packaged on my new machines. I've installed the same Linux on two others, also prepackaged ala Vista, with no problems.

My Linux installer loads the basic stuff then halts with message: "unable to find any devices of the type needed for this installation type", and gives me a list to choose from. None of these load, but I'm using the list to find possible drivers on the web and load them by floppy when it gets to this part. So far haven't found one that works. Most of them I have no idea what they are though I'm learning somewhat as I go.

I think the problem is missing chip controllers, because the older machines are Pentium D processors, the new ones are Pentium E. Motherboards and chipsets are also different.

I tried an upgrade of my Linux version, also another similar distro, but same result. Below is the info I hope helps.

LINUX version: Scientific Linux (same as Redhat Enterprise) 5.0

NEW MACHINES:

Compaq Presario SR5450F
Pentium E2180F
Socket 775
NVIDIA GeForce 7100 /NVIDIA nForce 630i (chipset)
motherboard manufacturer & name: Foxconn MCP73M01H1
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Napa-GL8E
hard drives: Hitachi HDP725050GLA360 500GB SATA

OLD MACHINES:

1.)
Compaq Presario SR5050NX
Pentium D925 (P)
Socket 775
Intel 945G (chipset)
motherboard manufacturer & name: Asus P5LP-LE
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Leonite-GL8E

2.)
Compaq Presario SR2180NX
Pentium D820 (S)
Socket 775
Intel 945G (chipset)
motherboard manufacturer & name: Asus P5LP-Le
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Leonite-GL8#

Thanks for your time. Sincerely,

R.Soares

==================

P.S. This is the "choose from list":

3ware 9000 Series Storage Controller (3w-9xxx)
3ware Storage Controller (3w-xxxx)
ACARD ATP870& PCI scsi controller (atp870u)
ARECA (ARC11xx/12xx) SATA RAID Host Adapter (arcmsr)
Adaptec AACRAID (aacraid)
Adaptec AHA-2740, 28xx, 29xx, 39xx (aic7xxx)
Adaptec Aic79xx SCSI Host Bus Adapter driver (aic79xx)
Adaptec aic94xx SCSI Host Bus Adapter driver (aic94xx)
Advanced Host Controller Interface SATA (ahci)
Compaq Smart Array 5xxx Controller (cciss)
Compaq Smart/2 RAID Controller (cpqarray)
Emulex FC Controller (lpfc)
Future Domain PCMCIA SCSI driver (fdomain_cs)
HighPoint Rocket RAID SATA Controller (hptiop)
I2O Block driver (i2o_block)
IBM ServeRAID (ips)
ICP RAID Controller (gdth)
Initio 162x SATA controllers (sata_inic162x)
Intel PIIX/ICH ATA controllers (ata_piix)
K2 SATA controllers (sata_svw)
LSI Logic Fusion MPT Base Driver (mptbase)
LSI Logic Fusion MPT FC Host Driver (mptfc)
LSI Logic Fusion MPT SAS Host Driver (mptsas)
LSI Logic Fusion MPT SPI Host Driver (mptspi)
LSI MegaRAID Controllers (megaraid)
LSI MegaRAID Controllers (megaraid_mbox)
LSI MegaRAID Controllers (megaraid_sas)
Marvell PATA controllers (pata_marvell)
Marvell SATA controllers (sata_mv)
Mylex DAC960 RAID Controller (DAC960)
Pilicon Image PATA controllers (pata_sis)
Promise PATA controllers (pata_pdc2027x)
Promise SATA SX8 block driver (sx8)
Promise SATA controllers (sata_promise)
Promise SX4 SATA controllers (sata_sx4)
Promise SuperTrak EX (stex)
QLogic 2xxx (qla2xxx)
QStor SATA controllers (sata_qstor)
Qlogic 1280/12160 (qla1280)
Qlogic 4xxx (qla4xxx)
SIS SATA controllers (sata_sis)
Silicon Image 3124/3132 SATA controllers (sata_sil24)
Silicon Image SATA controllers (sata_sil)
Symbios 53C896 (sym53c8xx)
ULi SATA controllers (sata_uli)
VIA SATA controllers (sata_via)
VSC7174 SATA controllers (sata_vsc)
nVidia nForce SATA controllers (sata_nv)
========================

Lets get this clear - it is the Compaq Presario SR5450F which you are having trouble with?
Pentium E is just the dual-core CPUs. These are well supported. It is much more likely to be the nvidia chipset giving problems.

The list seems to suggest it is having trouble with hard-drive controllers. Make sure you have disabled any on-board RAID and set SATA to legacy or IDE mode. You may need to pass kernel options at the boot: prompt like "nommconf all-generic-ide

I guess I would add that a lot of hardware recognition was added in version 5.1(not sure exactly what).

This could be due to the SATA hdd on the new machines.
SATA hdd need legacy settings in the BIOS to be toggled before installing.
Do the old machines have SATA hdd?
Try the bios legacy settings toggled.

As a test, just get a newer revision of Linux - Fedora 8 for example. You don't want to downgrade the controller and lose the speed in the SATA by dropping it to IDE - not worth the performance hit. I am sure you will find the a newer release will easily handle the controller. I have had the same issue on many systems.

cheers

Centos 5.1 was released after F8.

Although Centos 5.1 was released after f8, I have found that the installer does not understand the high speed SATA options - only if set to IDE emulation. Don't know why, but that is what I have found on numerous SATA based laptops - f8, ubuntu, and several others see the drive. Centos and RH don't (nor does XP unless you load a third party driver disk)

Just my 2 cents..

The advise was to get a new linux release - "linux" is the kernel, not the distro.

Latest ........... 2.6.25
fedora 8 ......... 2.6.23.1
CentOS 5.1 ....... 2.6.18
Ubuntu 8.10 ...... 2.6.24
PCLOS 2008 ....... 2.6.22.15
Mandriva 2008.1 .. 2.6.24.4

Even that can be misleading as a recently patched version can still be up to date despite having a lower version number.

But - here you see that CentOS uses an old kernel - this is because RHEL emphasizes stability and slow release cycles to be more business-friendly. CentOS 5 did add lots of HW support - CentOS 4 had kver 2.6.9 - that's quite a jump.

Isn't it time we heard from OP?

Just to add to what Simon said, RHEL/Centos is goofy with their kernel numbers. Their kernels often have patches applied that add most of the same stuff as the newer kernels. It is one of the features I dislike most about RHEL/Centos. When an older (by number) Centos kernel supports hardware that a newer (by number) Fedora kernel does not, it drives me straight up the wall (say a F7 fresh install vs a Centos 5.1 fresh install). I run both Centos and Fedora. There was also a huge jump in hardware support between RHEL/Centos 5.0 and 5.1.