i FORGOT TO TELL YOU, THAT THE HDD IS "SATA"

[Moderator note: next time use the "edit" button instead of posting twice, OK?]

Hi guys

I have a pc running on winXpro, and have 3 partitions.
C:WinXP
Eata
F: for installing Linux

Ram. 2gb
hdd: 160 GB SATA
MOTHERBOARD: MSI K9N6SGM-v
Processor: AMD Athlon 64X2
VideoCard: XFX GeForce 7200 graphics card - 256MB suppports 512MB

I had the intention to install a Linux RH-Entrerprise, then I booted from my DVD the first CD, and everything seemed to be ok, untill I reached the step to choose automatic intallation or manual. I chose manual and the installation didn't continue,it just re-booted again, and when booting precess, it hanged (stopped) in "running/sbin/loader", and never went ahead again. The cursor didn't blink anymore on the screen, and the HDD showed no signal of activity.

I later tested the cd#1 in another pc, and worked fine. I can't figure it out what's going on.

I would appreciate your help ...... guys.

Regards
PCholic

Try this page:

http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html

HTH

Forrest

thanks forrestt,I reviewed the document, but it wasn't helpful for me.

¿anymore ideas for this ?

hope for your answer ...guys

Red Hat 9 is a VERY old distribution. It stopped being supported in 2004. Have you tried anything more recent? The problem is that older distributions don't have as good hardware support for a lot of things compared to newer distributions. It looks like you are running new hardware, so there is no way all of the drivers would be in a 4.5 year old kernel, and it is sounding like you are running into a hardware problem. The hardware you are using would much rather run a nice new shiny version . If this isn't an option, I'll try to help, but that would be my top recommendation.

HTH

Forrest

Forrestt, thanks for your reply. I have been trying to install RH enterprise 4, I said this on my first post. As I have 2GB on ram on my PC,I took off one of this memory ram from its bank, it means, I removed one 1GB (ram stick memory) from DIMM2, and left it with no memory, therefore, I just left 1GB, on DIMM1. It worked fine and after loading all the devices, this loading process, at last could passed the step "running/sbin/loader" and obviusly, linux's installlation interface finally showed up. But later, I got a new problem. When I was about to partition the disk, a NEW WINDOW poped up and said the following:

"AN ERROR OCURRED-NO VALID DEVICES WERE FOUND ON WHICH TO CREATE NEW FILE SYSTEM. PLEASE CHECK YOUR HARDWARE FOR THE CAUSE OF THIS PROBLEMS"

Then , when clicking "ok button" the PC re-booted.

I can't really understand what's going on here. I don't know if the problem comes from "SATA hard disk technology.

I need some help please.

Regards
PC caf

I can't remember the exact error we had but it sounds much like yours.
What we did to get around it was at the install / boot prompt that you get with the 1st cd type:

linux acpi=off

and it worked like a charm. Good luck!

I believe it has something to do with the 64 bit athlon ...

I think I must have been smoking crack when I replied last time. There isn't even a "9" anywhere in your post.

This link has same recommendations:

http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html

I like the first one myself.

Hi DotHQ

Sorry I don't understand how to do it. Could you please be clearer and tell me step by step. I am new on this.

Rgds

Sure,
put in your #1 CD and allow it to boot as normal.
The very 1st screen you come to is where you can enter anything type:
linux acpi=off

That's it.
You'll see the red hat logo on the screen I'm talking about. Normally there you just hit enter to install in graphical mode. Instead of just hitting enter type:
linux acpi=off
then hit enter.

Hi, I did it and didn't work, after writing "linux acpi=off" and hit enter, it loaded fine again but it said the following:

NO HARD DRIVES HAVE BEEN FOUND.YOU PROBABLY NEED TO MANUALLY CHOOSE DEVICE DRIVERS FOR THE INSTALLATION TO SUCCEED.

Then I clicked OK, it said that no device drivers have been loaded to the system. Then asked me if I wanted to load one.
I clicked on "yes", and a list of a lot of drivers are displayed. I tried with:
-K2 sata controllers (sata svw) didn't work
-Via sata controllers (sata_via)didn't work either
-nVidia nForce sata controllers (rt18150)didn't work either

Then,I reached the partition's step and same problem as always.

I am hopeless...please need more help

Rgds