What a day, this isn't really a problem, well it is, i think i have the solution, i'm documenting it fully on here. And if anyone wishes to "positivily" comment feel free...
Scenario
I'm taking over a School ICT Lab in an international school in Bangkok, I have inherited 10 pc's from the past 4 years of ICT heaven... The main PC in the server, what appears to be a cobbled together local mart Cheap, drivers what are then moster of a machine, loads of memory, and this is the one i am designing the whole lab around. I want to load Fedora C4 from DVD on this, i have a DVD which i know works, because it did on this very tosh Laptop i am using right now...
So with the hope and smiles of the dumb ox i am, i plonk in the DVD, the PC boots, up pops the DVD and the FC4 startup menu appears.. Big smile, i press return, and hey presto...
Ramdisk: Couldnt find valid ramdisk image; starting at 0
VFS: Cannot open Root device [NULL] or unknown block (8,3)
Please append a correct "root=" option
Kernel Panic: unable to mount root on unknown block (8,3)
Uh oh, so i use the schools dial up link, and spend 30 minutes surfing, to find maybe i need to type in
linux root=/dev/hda1 or /dev/hdb1
Nope... Squat, well thats a lie, i got loads of interrupt failed messages,
Day 2, I've been to the local emporium, happy with Mandrake 10.1, boot, nice pictures, and Whallop!! No hard disk detected...
I open the Box, what the F#$% is that, its not an IDE hard disk, its a diddle connector.. Err!!!
I am told its a SATA connector... So after surfing the net on here and fedoraforum.org i have come up with the following options...
Option 1
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...t=kernel+panic
When you get the error, at the boot prompt type mediacheck.
It will display an error.
Hit linux mediacheck and the install proceeds without problems.
This is crazy and meaningless, since there's no visible correlation between this procedure and the problem desired to be solved. But it gets solved anyway.
Option 2
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...t=kernel+panic
Boot off your DVD
at the boot: prompt, type rubbish like "asdfghj" and press enter.
Naturally you get an error.
Now - procede normally.
Weird huh?
Option 3
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...t=kernel+panic
hey!
I have ultimately found the solution.
I don't know why it is behaving such strange
@ the boot prompt first type some crap
boot: linuxlol
boot: linux askmethod
So looking at the forums, the first option looks to be a good one, however i don't hold my breath... its not that i hate linux, in the last 8 weeks, i have fallen in love with linux.. I am forgetting my own motto, after 15 years of ICT Support
Don't ever sit infront of a PC and utter the words "This will only take a minute"
there were some other options:
Linux acpi=off noacic
or
cfdisk /dev/sda
or
in the BIOS change to Standard ATA support
or
linux vdso=0 update
I have the feeling this is going to be the first of many problems with this Hybrid beast, if i get it working, were smoking with cheese, if i don't... I suppose there is an option of... no i refuse, i will not go back to XP... anyway i've got 4 more PC's turning up and XP only networks 10...
So if anyone has seen this problem, and a fair few have, i am going to try these options, and see what happens.. and then update this to say what does and doesn't work....
