Slackware 10.1 Installation Issues
 

Hi everyone, I'm actually working with Redhat AS, but I wanted to try Slackware 10.1, but I've always experienced some problems since I wanted to install Slackware 10.0. The first problem was that Slackware 10.0 didn't recognize my hard drive 'cause it's an ATA Hard Drive, so I decided to wait for the next version of slackware that is Slackware 10.1, so I uninstalled Redhat, after that I proceeded to insert the disk 1 to the CD-ROM Drive (This is Obvious), and after that I rebooted the computer. The computer booted with the Slackware CD, in the boot prompt I chose the ataraid.i kernel for boot, after that in the prompt line I typed "cfdisk" for make the partitions, but once that I typed that, there appears a message saying the next: "Read-Only Disk Opened, You Don't Have Permission" and After that it asks to make the partitions, and It gets even worse 'cause it only lets me make a partition of 600MB when my hard drive has 120 GB. And there's another thing funny too, 'cause I wanted to make sure if the problem was my hard drive or the installation CD, so I decided to make partitions with another distribution Installation disk, and the only distribution that recognizes my hard drive it's the same distribution that I used to work with, RedHat AS (Enterprise Edition). can somebody help me out. 'cause I've been working with Redhat for a very long time and I really wish to taste something different. Thanks

What kind of ATA controller are you using? And ataraid.i shouldn't be needed for standard ATA. Are you sure you're not trying to open the cd drive or anything with fdisk? Does fdisk recognize the drive as the right size?

You are using cfdisk to open your CD drive. That is why it is telling you its read-only and 600MB...makes sense for a CD right? :)

run "dmesg" and see what information it tells you about your drives. Try running cfdisk for whatever hard drive you find in dmesg.

For be exactly I'm using a WDC WD1200JD-00FBY0 SATA hard drive.

I'm actually trying to install Slackware 10.1 in a WDC WD1200JD-00FYB0 SATA hard drive.

If you just type in cfdisk you will, as another poster pointed out, be running cfdisk for your CD-ROM. What you will need to do is run:

cfdisk /dev/satadrive

As stated run dmesg to look for information on how your SATA drive is "recognized" by Slackware. Matter of fact you might want to try:

dmesg | grep sda

See what that gets you.

HTH,
MMYoung

For SATA drives, I think you should use sata.i instead of ataraid.i

When using cfdisk, use /dev/sd? and not /dev/hd? (e.g.: /dev/sda)

Hope it helps.