Disc not recognised

[waverider]

Hi,
I have Feisty64 installed ( AMD64) and wish to make a fresh install of Gutsy 64bit. Running from the live CD Gutsy doesn't recognise the master drive(WD 160gb - ext3) on which Feisty is installed although it does see the slave disk ( Fat 32) OK.

Having previously tried to install Guitsy, I know that it will install and then not boot because it can't find the drive on which it installed itself.

What is causing this and what do I do?

Thanks

[integr8e]

Re: Disc not recognised

Having previously tried to install Guitsy, I know that it will install and then not boot because it can't find the drive on which it installed itself.

Did you receive a "GRUB error ..." or did it load to a black screen with a blinking cursor on the top-left-hand side? I've (re)installed 7.10 several times and have never had it not recognize the drive on which it was installed - unless, you're having issues with the GRUB bootloader; those can be resolved relatively easily, I just need a bit more information so I can know how to approach the issue.

As for the installation problem, are you choosing to manually partition your hard drive, or to have Ubiquity do it for you? You should be able to manually select which hard drive/partitions to which you would like to install Kubuntu, but if you can't, I'll do my best to help you sort that one out too.

[waverider]

Re: Disc not recognised

Thanks for the offer of help.

During the install it reformatted and partitioned the IDE disc automatically (WD 160GB) and installed the system. It does boot and I get the splash screen before it stalls and drops into BusyBox.
However, when I run Kubutu 7.10 as a Live CD it finds the other IDE drive and partitions, but doesn't recognise hda which it formatted and then installed Kubuntu - no sign of it at all.

Yet using Knoppix I can see and browse the drive - all the appropriate files seem to be there.

Interrupting the boot sequence and removing quiet mode I can now see where it stalls. It can't find the disc it formatted and loaded the files onto!

I see:

Check root=bootarg cat /proc/cmdline
or missing modules, devices:cat /proc/modules ls /dev
ALERT! /dev/disc/by-uuid******(disc id here)*** does not exist.
Dropping to a shell


BusyBox

Why can't it see the disc it formatted?

[dibl]

Re: Disc not recognised

It appears that some BIOS's won't boot a drive or partition unless it has the "boot" flag set on it under some conditions. Problematic conditions include:

- BIOS has a different hard drive listed ahead in the boot sequence
- Trying to boot a SATA drive when there is a bootable IDE drive on the system (this affects my system)
- Trying to boot an older IDE drive with no "boot" flag set (just had this problem on a Hitachi Deskstar)

I would disconnect any other hard drives, boot a GParted Live CD, partition and format the partitions as you want them, set the "boot" flag on the first partition (that's where the root filesystem should go), and then reboot to the Live or Alternate Install CD to install Kubuntu. I personally have better luck with the Alternate Install CD.

[integr8e]

Re: Disc not recognised

I personally have better luck with the Alternate Install CD.

Me too (the Ubiquity installer is still a little buggy, and the Alt. CD is a much more straight-forward installer than the Live CD)

Nvidia 8800 GTS

Nice new gear

[waverider]

Re: Disc not recognised

Thanks Dibl,

I would disconnect any other hard drives, boot a GParted Live CD,

After a few variations on your suggestions I find that the cause of my problems is the second IDE drive. Disconnecting the drive and then installing has resolved most problems.

It appears that the second drive in some way affects booting Gutsy.

If it is not connected Gutsy works fine, reconnect it and it goes back to the same behavior - dropping out into Busybox.

As this drive contains a lot of data which I need this is a problem. This didn't happen with Feisty. It also is not a problem with Windows.

The disk is formatted with three partitions - Fat32, Ntfs and Ext3.

What could be causing the disruption to the boot process with Gutsy?

[integr8e]

Re: Disc not recognised

Do you have any operating systems installed on the problematic hard drive? Possible some with a separate bootloader?

[waverider]

Re: Disc not recognised

Thanks integr8e,

Do you have any operating systems installed on the problematic hard drive? Possible some with a separate bootloader?

No. I've checked the drive with GParted and it has an lba flag set on the fat32 partition. Other than that everything appears to me to be normal.

Could that be causing the problem?

[Snowhog]

Re: Disc not recognised

You've identified the second HD as an IDE drive. What is your first HD, SATA, PATA, ?

[waverider]

Re: Disc not recognised

Thanks Snowhog,

You've identified the second HD as an IDE drive. What is your first HD, SATA, PATA, ?

Both discs are IDE

[Snowhog]

Re: Disc not recognised

Okay, for me, it's been a LOOOONG time since I've had a desktop PC, so ....

Are you sure that both HDs have the jumpers set correctly for 'master' and 'slave'?

[integr8e]

Re: Disc not recognised

Was your other hard drive connected when you re-installed Kubuntu?

Edit: Nevermind, I missed

Disconnecting the drive and then installing has resolved most problems.

Anyway, if the other hard drive has an MBR, it may be interfering with GRUB (maybe).

[waverider]

Re: Disc not recognised

Okay, for me, it's been a LOOOONG time since I've had a desktop PC, so ....

Are you sure that both HDs have the jumpers set correctly for 'master' and 'slave'?

Yes - and the BIOS recognises them correctly

[waverider]

Re: Disc not recognised

Anyway, if the other hard drive has an MBR, it may be interfering with GRUB (maybe).

Possible - How do I remedy this? I have access to the disc from Windows but not Linux. BTW I use disc caddies for the different OS's - the second IDE disc remains in the machine - not that this should make any difference to the problem I am having I wouldn't think as everything worked fine with Feisty

[integr8e]

Re: Disc not recognised

Try this (no guarantees, but no harm either) - connect your extra hard drive, and either boot to Recovery Mode (if you can) or boot to the Live/Alt. CD. Then, run the command "sudo grub-install hd0"; that should re-install GRUB to your MBR, and allow you to boot from either hard drive. Again, it's not guaranteed to work, but it won't hurt anything either.