Firstly, this is the second system in as many days that I have tried to install mandrake 9.1 on. The first was a great success, though it didn't like my Philips USB Speakers, so had to disconnect those.

This second machine though has two Creative CD2422E 24x CD-ROMs. The Mandrake 9.1 Install disk boots fine and goes through boot sequence, detecting the drives correctly. Now the black background with blue background text comes up and it gets to
I choose but then...
I get nowhere from here on. Install disc is in correct drive and is thge disc I successfully used on first system mentioned above.

Looking at the Kernal Message tell a different story, with
VFS mounting hda: ATAPI 20X CD-ROM drive, 0kB Cache, DMA
hda: tray open
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:00 (hda), sector 148.

Suggestions for this very grateful.

David Humble

According to the kernel messages logs, your CD-ROM is the primary master: this seems unlikely so I would, at this stage, check which cable the CD-ROM is on and how the jumpers are configured.

I would also, if the drive was configured correctly, try putting the disk in the other drive in case it detected the drives in reverse order.

Many thanks for taking the time to reply.

Yep, I have two SCSI hard drives, is the answer to that.

A friend also mentioned that the CD-ROM drives might have been detected in reverse so did try swapping the Mandrake Installation disk over at that point but still the same problem.

Both CD-ROM drives are known to be working OK. The system ran as a NT Server happily.

Any more assistance welcomed.

David Humble

When you tell it which drive to look at, what do you put in? Do you type it in or use mouse etc?

If it's something like hd* something this may help.
hda = primary master
hdb = primary slave
hdc = secondary master
hdd = secondary slave

Put in or select the drive where your CD drive is connected to mobo.

Might also try to disconnect one till you get it installed. That might work. After booting the first time just shutdown, reconnect second drive, turn it back on. It will notice the hardware change during boot up. Be ready, because it will ask you what to do. If you are not on top of it, it will skip it. Has a timeout thing on it.

Hope this helps or post info.

Using the mouse I select the CDROM (hda) from a drop-down menu.

Yep, did also try with only one CDROM drive connected but same problem.

David Humble

One, I'm out of ideas. Can someone else think of something? Sounds like hardware or BIOS. Not sure which???

Two, BUMP

As a guy once said:

HHHHHHHEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPP!!

Try selecting /dev/scd0 instead of /dev/hda since /dev/hda is EIDE not SCSI.

I do appreciate evryones efforts but still no nearere a solution. Some responses have been the result of confusion, even though the initial cry for help is clear.

Problem is EIDE CD-ROM drives not, the SCSI Hard Drives.

Anyway, the story so far....

I temporarily installed a LG CRD-8322B CD-ROM drive, known to be compliant and installed Mandrake 9.1. Now having had to remove it to its original machine, I put one of the Creative CD2242E CDROM Drives back in. It is not recognised by the system, as stated in original plea.

trying...
mount -t iso9660 /dev/hda /mnt/cdrom

... results in....

mount: block device /dev/hda is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: Not a directory

Any further suggestions?

System:
Pentium II 266MHz 64Mb
Mandrake 9.1 as server. No GUI.
Kernel 2.4.21-0mdksmp

David Humble

Make sure you don't have the jumper on 'cable select'. Set to Master or slave. Make sure the jumper is making contact or put in another jumper to be sure.

Strange. I had a CD that wouldn't work either, Samsung **248. I had to swap for LG. Worked fine.

Good thought but nope. Master jumpered without cable select.


David Humble

I dunno.

Somebody please help. It won't work for him.