Slackware 12.1: Partitioning problem on Toshiba Notebook

Heiko Schroeder · 07-01-2008, 07:51 AM

Hi folks,

Problem: After trying to partitionate my root device with ext3 setup crashes. The cursor blinks quietly beneath the blue region without any comment.

I use Toshiba notebook Satellite P100-481 with 120 GB IDE Harddisk. RAM is 1 GB.

Partition table: /dev/hda1 as swap with 2 GB
/dev/hda2 as / with the rest of the space, declared as bootable. Bot partitions are primary ones.

There is no problem setting up the swap device, unless I do not check for bad blocks with mkswap. If I try to check for bad blocks, exactly the same problem occurs and setup crashes.

After selecting the /dev/hda2 partition I use Format, to avoid again the checking of bad blocks. After selecting ext3 as the filesystem the party is over. Setup crashes as I described.

I wonder, since there is NO information at all by the system, how anyone should get a glimpse of idea to fix the problem. Could it be the reason that there was openSuSE10.3 on my harddisk before?
Now it seems to be too late to wipe the openSuSE-system away since there is no boot procedure any more. Do you have any ideas?

The problem is familiar to me. Twelve years ago I tried to start with Slackware, but switched over to SuSE because of that very annoying prob. After Pats announcement that Slackware 12.1. is the best Slackware ever, I rely on it. But I cannot see any improvement in the setup procedure. If error messages occur, than it is up to the user to find out the prob, but WITHOUT any, there is no chance at all IMHO.

Thanks for your help!

Heiko

allend · 07-01-2008, 08:54 AM

Heiko, welcome to the Slackware forum at LQ!

First question- Have you been following the instructions in the 'Slackware-HOWTO' on the install disk?

Second question- If you have been following the HOWTO, then what is the exact output from 'fdisk -l'?

Comments-
If you partition your whole disk then the openSuSE 10.3 will be overwritten. It will have no effect on your install.
I would suggest that you partition your disk so that you have more partitions. Many people prefer to maintain a small partition (10GB is plenty) for the actual operating system and then keep all the user added data ( or at least the /home directory) on another partition. I personally maintain a number of 40GB partitions on my hard disk. This allows me to maintain a number of different operating systems on my PC.

Heiko Schroeder · 07-01-2008, 09:47 AM

Hi allend,

thanks for the welcome!

> Have you been following ...
I used slackbook, but according to your question I read the same chapters in the HOWTO twice.

> what is the exact output from 'fdisk -l'?
The output is:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 242 1943833+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda2 * 243 5243 40170532+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 5244 10244 40170532+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 10245 14593 34933342+ 83 Linux

Every partition is primary. No extended partitions.
I planned to use at least 4 partitions before, but tried to follow the instructions of slackbook completely for the first installation with at first two partitions.

The problem, I described before, occurs again. The only message on the screen is:

Formatting /dev/hda2
Size in 1K blocks: 40170532
Filesystem type: ext3

The very curious thing is that openSuSE formats my partitions as SCSI partitions. The root partition was called /dev/sda2 reaching from cylinder 0 to 14349, the swap was called /dev/sda1 reaching form cylinder 14350 to 14592.

But fdisk of slackware cannot open the partition /dev/sda. The harddisk is recognized as IDE, obviously. It is not possible to create a table with SCSI-devices. And -- as I found out -- fdisk seems to emphasize on a swap partition which is the first one. The openSuSE partition table was called *not in disk order*. So I changed it according to your suggest.

Cheers Heiko

P.S.: I assume that the whole process only takes a *very* long time. When I finished this mail the root partition was formatted (so called quick format ;-)). It is a pity that there is no information about the progress. It lasted up more than 15 minutes. Now I am trying to let setup prepare the swap again with checking for bad blocks. It is (hopefully) still running.

Is THIS the normal behaviour? I do not think so.

Cheers
Heiko

T3slider · 07-01-2008, 10:31 AM

From CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT, which you should definitely read:

Quote:

Originally Posted by CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT

If you notice extremely long wait times when formatting partitions in the
installer, and you're installing on a Thinkpad that has a SATA drive, it's
possible that the wrong driver is being used, which disables DMA on the drive
(and could happen on other machines). A bit more detail about it is here:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Proble...stem_hard_disk
Try passing "hda=noprobe" to the kernel when booting the installer, and it
should use the correct libata driver.

Seems at least partially relevant. Try passing hda=noprobe to the kernel when booting the installer and see if that helps.

Heiko Schroeder · 07-01-2008, 12:56 PM

> Seems at least partially relevant.
No, THAT is the solution!!

> Try passing hda=noprobe to the kernel when booting the installer
Yep, T3slider, thanks a lot. Now Slack recognizes the harddisk as SCSI and everythings works like a rocket.

Thanks again, great!

McSlack · 07-01-2008, 02:53 PM

I see you started another thread, but I was curious if you have a SATA hard drive?

Heiko Schroeder · 07-01-2008, 03:14 PM

> I see you started another thread, ...
Yes, since I assume that the problem does not exactly fit to the subject of the old thread.

> but I was curious if you have a SATA hard drive?
I do not find any hint about SATA and SCSI in the product information. The only thing Toshiba says: 120 GB, S.M.A.R.T. certificate. Nothing else.

Cheers
Heiko

Bruce Hill · 07-01-2008, 04:39 PM

To find out what type of hard drive you have with the software available
in Slackware-12.1, rather than from Toshiba, in a terminal as root issue:

Code:

root@silas:~# hdparm -i /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

 Model=ST3160815AS                             , FwRev=4.AAB   , SerialNo=            5RA6A75V
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs RotSpdTol>.5% }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=4
 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?1?
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=312581808
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: Unspecified:  ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7

 * signifies the current active mode

Then use the Google search engine to find out what Toshiba won't tell about your drive ...

Code:

Specifications  	160 GB
Model Number 	ST3160815AS
Interface 	SATA 3.0Gb/s
Cache 	8 MBytes
Capacity 	160 GB
Areal density (avg) 	101 Gbits/inch2
Guaranteed Sectors 	312,581,808
PHYSICAL 	 
Height (max) 	19.99 mm  (0.787 inches)
Width (max) 	101.85 mm  (4.010 inches)
Length (max) 	146.99 mm  (5.787 inches)
Weight (typical) 	380 grams  (0.838 pounds)
PERFORMANCE 	 
Spindle Speed 	7,200 rpm
Average latency 	4.16 msec
Random read seek time 	<11.0 msec
Random write seek time 	<12.0 msec
RELIABILITY 	 
MTBF 	700,000 hours
Annual Failure Rate 	0.34%
POWER 	 
Maximum start current, DC 	2.0 amps

It's really not that difficult, after reading the manuals.

Heiko Schroeder · 07-01-2008, 05:11 PM

> To find out what type of hard drive you have with the software ...
> in Slackware-12.1, rather than from Toshiba, in a terminal as root
> root@silas:~# hdparm -i /dev/sda
Thanks, that helps.

> Then use the Google search engine to
> find out what Toshiba won't tell about your
Oh, yes, I had this idea indeed ;-).

> It's really not that difficult, after reading the manuals.
I do not know, if I understand you correctly. In the case that you assume that I am a lazy guy, please give me a very (!) slight hint, which manual you mean? I never heard from this command before and -- is it necessary to mention -- I found nothing in any of the manuals of the first disk about it, neither in the slackbook. Surely I do not have read the *correct* manuals ;-)

Thanks a lot, anyway.
Heiko

Heiko Schroeder · 07-01-2008, 05:16 PM

> I was curious if you have a SATA hard drive?
It is a SATA drive, I found out now.

Heiko

Bruce Hill · 07-01-2008, 05:21 PM

In my few short years (5 to be exact) of Linux experience, the one thing that
seems consistent with manuals is that they can be quite esoteric. My intention
was not to paint you as a lazy guy -- my meaning is quite literal. Sometimes it
is still not clear after reading the manual pages, however. Just like operating
systems, some manual pages are better than others. Toshiba, on the other hand, is
about the laziest manufacturer to date. There is no reason to doubt that the result
of a very thorough search of the Toshiba website would provide no useful information,
especially for a Linux OS.

It's very good that your research has determined this to be a Serial ATA drive.

I would like to add that for me, the best resources have been Google, <Linux> - Google
Search, and LinuxQuestions.org. In fact, if there had been no LinuxQuestions.org in
June 2003, and since, I'd still be using Mickey$oft Windoze eXPeriment.