I am trying to install the latest Debian sarge distribution (2004-12-04) on
a Gateway E-4100 computer (P4 2.8GHz, 512 DDR, 60 GB Maxtor IDE Drive, 16x
Liteon DVD, 100MB LAN). Pretty standard configuration.

The base installation goes smooth,
- kernel 2.6
- partition the disk in root and swap, use ext3
- for boot loader I tried both LILO and GRUB

Now the problem comes after the reboot when I should boot into Linux. The
system freezes on BIOS startup when it detects the hard drive. In order to
be able boot I have to (I know it's criminal!) pull the power suply from the
disk, boot successfully from the DVD and then plug the power supply for the
disk back.

Then I would repeat the installation, try some other things (the disk is
detected and formatted properly) and when it comes to rebooting the BIOS
would freeze again.

I also tried another new hard drive. Before the installation touches the
drive the system boots OK. But after the base installation (which formats
the drive) the BIOS just hangs on hard drive detection.

When it freezes I cannot even enter the BIOS setup or boot from another
device. This led me into thinking that the freeze is caused by the drive
detection.

Now the big question: How could the installer affect the hard drive in such
a way that it freezes the BIOS? Even if it messes up the MBR and all the
partitions, I should still be able to get into the BIOS setup, right?

Your help is dearly appreciated,

Bogdan Calmac.

Sounds like the disk has not been correctly formatted and the bios is unable to find the relevant track.

Right, probably i should get a shell during the installation and partition with cfdisk intead of partman (installation default). I'll post the outcome tonight.

But I'm just curious, how the hack can a badly partitioned disk freeze the BIOS? Even when the disk is completely damaged you can still get the BIOS setup. I think the BIOS shares part of the fault too.

It depends a lot on the bios POST system. The ide drive process is part of the pci and on many new m/boards it goes through a diagnostic process and if you have a drive that it cannot detect an os on it will halt the POST process. On my MSI board I have a diagnostic light system and it gives me the relevant error. i.e. in this case it would say there is a problem initialising the ide which could mean a problem with ide controller, cable or drive.

OK, we're getting close :-) Can it be S.M.A.R.T then? Maybe it keeps some metadata and the partitioning tool messes it up.

Its generally a good idea to turn SMART off in the bios anyway because it slows up the POST sequence anyway but I don't think its that. I think its purely because the drive is not formatted correctly and the m/board diagnostics are picking up the error. Have you got the manual for the board?

I don't have the manual. It is an Intel® Desktop Board D848PMB:

http://support.intel.com/support/mot...8pmb/index.htm

One more thing: Is it the fault or partmon only or could the 2.6 kernel play soe role into this?

Its generally formating that has gone wrong and the geometry is not correct. You need to do an fdisk and then make the file system (format). You do get drives that can be a bit strange. i have one in my system that plays silly buggers.