Problem running FC6

Jverse · 05-02-2007, 07:58 PM

I am new to linux, I have a poweredge 2400 that I picked up from work with 2 1000MHZ processors and 2gb of RAM. I installed FC6 and when it goes to boot I get the message i2o: iop0: could not activate controller. Can anyone please help with this, I am not sure what else to do. It just hangs at this spot and does nothing else.

I want to try out some linux virtualization is really why I am building this box, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
~Jverse

fukawi2 · 05-02-2007, 09:27 PM

I'm running an older PowerEdge 2400 (733 / 512mb), but I don't use the i2o driver for it. I'm running FC6 on this server:

Code:

[root@poweredge2400 scsi]# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
autofs4                25797  2
sunrpc                166653  1
ipv6                  276609  26
ip_conntrack_netbios_ns     7105  0
xt_tcpudp               7233  1
xt_state                6337  1
iptable_filter          7233  1
iptable_mangle          7105  0
iptable_nat            11717  0
ip_nat                 22893  1 iptable_nat
ip_conntrack           57209  4 ip_conntrack_netbios_ns,xt_state,iptable_nat,ip_nat
nfnetlink              11353  2 ip_nat,ip_conntrack
ip_tables              17541  3 iptable_filter,iptable_mangle,iptable_nat
x_tables               19909  4 xt_tcpudp,xt_state,iptable_nat,ip_tables
dm_mirror              26897  0
dm_multipath           23241  0
dm_mod                 63449  2 dm_mirror,dm_multipath
video                  21061  0
sbs                    20097  0
i2c_ec                  9281  1 sbs
button                 10961  0
battery                14533  0
ac                      9541  0
lp                     16905  0
st                     41309  0
floppy                 61605  0
sg                     38877  0
e100                   40009  0
pcspkr                  7361  0
mii                     9665  1 e100
i2c_piix4              12749  0
i2c_core               26049  2 i2c_ec,i2c_piix4
parport_pc             31205  1
parport                40713  2 lp,parport_pc
serio_raw              11333  0
usb_storage            74017  1
aic7xxx               143225  0
scsi_transport_spi     29249  1 aic7xxx
aacraid                61893  5
sd_mod                 25025  8
scsi_mod              141805  7 st,sg,usb_storage,aic7xxx,scsi_transport_spi,aacraid,sd_mod
ext3                  136905  5
jbd                    64873  1 ext3
ehci_hcd               35661  0
ohci_hcd               25433  0
uhci_hcd               28237  0

dherring · 10-23-2007, 05:04 PM

I was in the process of upgrading a DELL PowerEdge 1300 with a PERC 2/SC RAID controller card from Windows to RHEL 5, and I was experiencing the dreaded "i2o: iop0: could not activate controller" error.

I tried several of the boot options that were suggested (like acpi=no and pci=noacpi), but none worked. I saw the solution that worked for some people that involved doing Ctrl-M during the boot process and going into the PERC 2 BIOS and changing the card from I20 mode to MASS STORAGE mode, but my version of the PERC 2 BIOS administration program did not offer that option.

My solution was to update the old PERC 2/SC BIOS (2.10/v1.26) to the latest version available from the DELL support website (3.00/v1.36).
I was then able to Ctrl-M into the controller BIOS at boot time and see the Objects->Adapter->Emulation setting, which I changed from i20 to MASS STORAGE. The system booted normally!

As a side note, none of my windows machines have floppy drives anymore, so here is a simple procedure I developed to create a bootable BIOS update CD from DELL's .EXE BIOS updates that require a floppy:

1. Create a virtual floppy drive.

- Download and install Virtual Floppy Drive (VFD -- Google it).
- Start VFDWIN.EXE from the installation directory.
- Click the Install button to install the VFD driver.
- Click the Start button to start the VFD driver.
- Click the Change button and change the drive letter from (NONE) to A (or any other available drive letter on your system).
- Click the Open button and create a new image file (Disk Type=RAM, Media Type=3.5” 1.44MB, write-protect unchecked).
- Verify that the virtual floppy drive is working and accessible using File Explorer.

2. Run the BIOS update .EXE, choosing the virtual floppy drive as the destination. Use File Explorer to verify the files were successfully extracted.

3. Use Magic ISO Maker to create a bootable CD image containing the BIOS update files.

- Download and install MagicISO (Google it).
- Start MagicISO.
- Click “Load Boot Image” and choose “From bootable floppy driver”.
- The indicator in the main window should now read “Bootable”.
- Drag and drop the files and directories from the virtual A: drive window into the MagicISO file window (the upper right-hand corner window).
- Put a blank CD into the CD burner drive.
- Click on “Burn the current image without saving”.
- Choose the burner drive, select a write speed and click Burn It!
- The BIOS update CD is ready to install.
- Save the image on your hard drive, if you wish, for future reference.

4. Terminate the virtual floppy drive.

- In the VFD console, click Close. (Saving the updated image file is optional.)
- Close the VFD console application.

5. Install the BIOS update using your shiny new BIOS update CD.