Installation process says 'no common cdrom drive was detected'

[CJCJ]

The installation process says 'no common cdrom drive was detected' but has been reading the DVD drive up to that point! see below.

I have just upgraded my hardware to MSI motherboard (Intel P35/G33) with E6750 Core 2 duo and 4 GB of RAM. I have connected 2 SATA II hard drives to it and my existing DVD-RW drive to the IDE cable. I have a GEFORCE 8600GT graphics card.

The standard installation disc for Kubuntu 7.04 does not work (runs aground with 'I/O error on fd0, logical block0') so I have tried using the alternate install disc.
This boots onto the Kubuntu disc and lets me start the process in text mode (as long as I change from VGA to the resolution of my TFT monitor.) It gets to the 'detect and mount CD-rom' stage but then says "no common CD-ROM drive was detected".

I am pretty sure that the installation disc is OK.
Has anyone got any ideas? I have the same problem with a Fedora 7 DVD so I think it is a hardware problem.

The annoying thing is that the CD (or DVD) has been read up to that point. The drive works fine in Windows XP on the same motherboard etc. It is a fairly modern standard DVD drive and it worked with my old motherboard and loaded kubuntu without any problems.

Anyone got any ideas?

[dibl]

Re: Installation process says 'no common cdrom drive was detected'

Anyone got any ideas?

Idea #1 -- the IDE bus. Is there a jumper anywhere on that CD/DVD drive? Take it off or move it to the "cable select" position.

Idea #2 -- the BIOS settings. Why does it think there is a floppy drive present (fd0)? What is the BIOS setting for the IDE bus? What is the BIOS setup for that CD/DVD drive? Whatever it is -- change it and try again.

HTH

[CJCJ]

Re: Installation process says 'no common cdrom drive was detected'

I have changed to just have the one DVD-RW on the end of the IDE cable and that is now set to cable select. This makes no difference. I have also removed the floppy drive (haven't used it for yeas anyway) and disabled it in the BIOS.

There are few settings in the BIOS for the IDE. I have tried 'PCI Busmaster' enable and disabled and it makes no difference (I think that would apply if I were using an IDE device on a PCI card ??). The only other place the drive is mentioned is in the boot sequence setting where it is correctly identified by the BIOS as a [IDE:SONY DVD RW].

Using the alternate installion disc, it still fails to detect the cdrom device and I cannot get any further.

However, having removed and diabled the floppy drive the automatic install disc now goes into a shell under something called 'busybox'. It tells me

bin/sh: can't access tty;jobcontrol turned off.

It sits there in the shell and will only come back to the same message if I type anything.

Does this give any further clues?

[dibl]

Re: Installation process says 'no common cdrom drive was detected'

What an aggravation! :P

OK, now we're moving from confused to desperate ....

(1) Try the drive on the middle connector instead of the end of the cable

(2) Replace the IDE ribbon cable to the drive

(3) Check MSI's product support site and see if there is an updated BIOS load that you can download and flash.


EDIT: Actually, that "Busybox" error may offer some hope. Try the "how to" mentioned on this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...x+error&page=9

[CJCJ]

Re: Installation process says 'no common cdrom drive was detected'

Tried these suggestions with no success.
(1) The DVD drive works fine in Windows in either position but the same problems occurs trying install Kubunutu in either position.
(2) Tried this as well although the drive works fine in Windows. No luck.
(3) No update seems to be available for the BIOS. I have left an e-mail with them asking if they can shed any light on the problem. (Am I likely to receive an answer other than "WE do not support Linux" ??)
I have also tried (on a hunch) taking 2 GB of RAM out again but it makes no difference.

I tried doing the modprobe piix thing in the busybox shell. It echoed the comamnd seemingly having done it but when I typed exit it just can back to the same message. I do not know what the piix module is. Should I be trying some other parameter with modprobe for my problem ?? I am out of my depth here.

I wonder if anybody else has successfully installed (K)ubuntu with this type of motherboard.

[Snowhog]

Re: Installation process says 'no common cdrom drive was detected'

Time I think, to take a look at your /etc/fstab file. As a few others had problems with an incorrectly identified device for their CDROM, you may be suffering a similar problem. Post your /etc/fstab so we can look it over.

[CJCJ]

Re: Installation process says 'no common cdrom drive was detected'

? I haven't got a /etc/fstab because I haven't got a kubunutu installation. It doesn't get as far as putting anything on my hard disc. It fails with this error only about 2 steps into the installation process immediuately after (correctly) identifying my keyboard.

.. or do you mean something else?

You may be right that it is problem of the same ilk as others with incorrectly identified CD drives.

I am going to try borrowing a different DVD Rom out of another machine. Though I cannot really see that it should make a difference. The other thing I thought of was getting a SATA DVD drive. Though this could be throwing good money after bad.

[dibl]

Re: Installation process says 'no common cdrom drive was detected'

Though this could be throwing good money after bad.

Right. I'd search on your motherboard model number and/or the chipset, in the Ubuntu Forum. You can't be the only one trying to install Linux on it, and if others are having issues, they might be posting the fixes (assuming there ARE fixes).

[CJCJ]

Re: Installation process says 'no common cdrom drive was detected'

Could'nt find any other mention of the MS-7360 mainboard on the Forum. I have solved my problem though by buying a SATA DVD writer. It installs from that OK. I cannot get the internet connection going though. However, I will work on that for a while myself.

So, to anyone who does find this thread about the MSI 7360 beware you may not be able to install (k)ubuntu with an IDE cdrom.

Thanks to dibl and snowhog for their advice. The responsiveness and ease of use of the Forum (the willingness of the experts) is what clinches it for Kubuntu for me.

[jensd]

Re: Installation process says 'no common cdrom drive was detected'

try

sudo modprobe piix

This is thw way on my dell d630.

so i have a piix in /etc/modules

Jens