A7N8X-E Deluxe SATA won't boot

pvgentoo · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 42

Hi,
I posted to the gentoo-user list as well, but no replies. When I look around here, it appears that I'm not the only one with this issue. Here's my details.

---

System:
-------
above mentioned AMD board
two brand spankin' new sata drives
no 3.5" drive
cdrom OK
network OK
radeon 9500+

First attempt:
--------------
Stage 1 install, manual kernel conf, grub
The first HD - to be used for linux - shows up as hde.
The second HD - blank at this point - shows up as hdg.
I setup the partition scheme much like page 23 of the installation guide.
/dev/hde1 is bootable
grub setup on (hd0,0) where root is hde5
restart
grub menu
begin load
error - kernel panic complaining about no hde5 found
*scratch head*
I attempted to boot into the system with the disc and poke around, but
could not relocate my grub.conf (or /boot/grub for that matter) - than
again, I'm inexperienced with chroot.

Second attempt:
---------------
Stage 3 install, genkernel, grub (after unsuccessful lilo), single SATA
I removed the extra hard drive.
I left the partition scheme the same, but also made hde5 bootable for
kicks. I was informed that this would take effect on boot.
Lilo failed to take - I don't have the error for that.
Grub install went smoothly again. Tabbing lead me to the same results as
before. However, the conf differed because I used genkernel (see page
53).
reboot
grub menu
begin load
new error - roughly the following:

*snip*

Mounting Filesystem
Device management daemon starting for /dev
Determine root device
Block device /dev/hde5 is not a valid root device.
Root block device is unspecified or not detected.
Please specify a device to boot or "shell" for a shell.
*/snip*

OK - so now I get the chance to enter some alternatives - sounds better.
I tried every partition on /dev/hde(1-9) as well as some others /dev/hda1,
/dev/hdb1, etc with no luck. I even tried /dev/ram0 and got a spiffy loop
on the screen. Under "shell" I found that this was the 'shell' of a
system without anything to really look into. Note that I'd taken the
precaution this time to backup /boot/grub to /GRUB_BAK, fwiw.

In any case, I'm up the creek at present. I know that a couple of you
recommended this board and I assume that you got it working with SATA.
I'm really curious to know how you did it.

--- msg 2 ---

Here's what I've done / found.

1 - added explicit (hd0,0) to both grub.conf lines to no effect.
2 - changed grub.conf to look for sda5 instead of hde5 - no effect.
3 - changed fstab to reflect sda changes - no effect
4 - entered my BIOS and set scsi as the boot devide after cdrom and before
HD0 - no effect

I see a scsi module in /etc/modules; I'm guessing it's loaded(?) by the
genkernel defaul kernel. I thought that with the genkernel, pretty much
the system was set on maxibloat-autodetect and therefore the SATA modules
would be loaded. However, I don't see them - well not in /etc/modules at
least. If this is at issue, which module is appropriate for this board?
The manual indicates "Hot Plug support for SATA and connections are not
available in this motherboard." If I need to get other modules, I'm
guessing I have to menuconfig the kernel manually rather than genkernel.

One more thing to note - when in the grub > shell, I noted that when I
'boot (' and tab, I get possible disks: fd0 through fd7 and hd0. When I
'setup (hd0' and tab, I get a list of possible partitions. They are
0,1,3,4,5,6,7,8 with 5 being listed as the unknown (swap). It's as though
the extended partition were spliced from the list - presumably making
partition num 4 be '/'.

For reference, the partition scheme I copied from page 23-24 was slightly
modified to:
/dev/hde1 /boot
2 /home
3 extended (containing 5-9)
4 unused linux primary
5 /
6 swap
7 usr
8 opt
9 var

--- now ---

So, I grabbed an old 8 G ide drive and popped it into the box. I reinstalled with /boot and the MBR in the new box. I could see this drive being identitified in startup, but again, the hde5 failed with:

Block device /dev/hde5 is not a valid root device.
Root block device is unspecified or not detected.

This, after loading about 10 modules, which don't entirely coincide with what I put in the modules list.

Is this a grub or linux issue?

When I read these forums, I see that people can make this work. Ideally, I just want SATA drives in there, but I'm flexible at this point. Any and all advice will be attempted. Got a cheap SATA controller I should check out? - let me know. Right now, I have an expensive paperweight waiting to replace a failing server.

Thank you,
Phil

() · l33t Joined: 25 Nov 2002 Posts: 610

First of all I think I'd use the libata driver, which is located under SCSI low-level drivers -> Serial ATA (compile it into the kernel, ie. not as a module). In my rig I have two SATA drives, the MBR and boot partition is located on the first and root on the second (no particular reason for this arrangement), so the interesting part of my grub.conf looks like this:

pvgentoo · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 42

OK - sounds like a new approach. Do you have the same board? I'm suprised the low level drivers work as I'm given to believe the silicon image 3112a is not a true hardware raid.

Phil

() · l33t Joined: 25 Nov 2002 Posts: 610

I got an A7N8X Deluxe (original version), none of these cheap controllers offer hardware raid as far as I know.
_________________
to be concerned is good

pvgentoo · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 42

What kernel? If needed I may want to drop you a line for more info....

P

() · l33t Joined: 25 Nov 2002 Posts: 610

I'm using 2.6.7-ck5, ck is the same as vanilla kernel in terms of the libata code though. What brand of SATA drives do you have? As far as I know, the throughput is throttled when you combine Silicon Image with Seagate drives, because of a quirk in the controller.
_________________
to be concerned is good

pvgentoo · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 42

I have hitachi / samsung - just wanted it to be quiet.

I'm currently trying a 2.4 kernel but will give your advice a shot in a little bit as I'd like to run 2.6.x.
That said, it would be a big help if I could get your sonfig file(s) for kernel and modules. Let me know if I can and how would be best.

P

pvgentoo · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 42

Well, this has been interesting. I setup the scsi sata drivers as you suggested. I'm using the gentoo-dev-sources, fyi.

root=/dev/sda4

didn't get very far. better luck with hde4:

note that I hde4 really is / in the new scheme. During book, it initially complained about the lack of an init, hence the above. When I tried the above with hde4, startup died a la:
also
net
ip
tcp
arp
net
acpi
kjournal
ext3fs : mounted fs w/ordered data mode
VFS: mounted root (ext3fs) readonly
mount_devfs_fs(): unable to mount devfs, err: -2
...freeing memory...
warning - unable to open initial console
kernel panic: no init found. try passing init= option to kernel.

So, i added init=/linuxrc and that helped. I get:

mounting sysfs @ /sys...
can't create lock file /etc/mtab+76
readonly filesystem (use -n flag to override)
Check root filesystem...
ext2fs_check_format:
no such file or dir while determining whether /dev/sda4 is mounted
fsck ext3: no such file or dir while trying to open /dev/sda4
/dev/sda4:
the superblock count not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem... try e2fsck?
filesystem couldnt be fixed (!!)
root password for maintenance or ctrl D.

I read this as an indictment of my fstab with refers to /dev/sdaN. in the morning, I'm going to mount the partition from the live disc and change fstab to see how it goes. odd that I'm ending up with hde stuff though. I loaded every silicon image driver i found - perhaps there's some preemption?

Phil

pvgentoo · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 42

OK - some good news - I GOT IN. There were banners and bunting and then I
passed out. < :-D

Here's what I've done (will also post in related forums thread).

I'm using gentoo-dev-sources.

I had to fstab setup a new dos partition table (option o, I think) - well,
I think I had to do this - the upshot was I could grub again after
re-fdisk-ing.

fstab uses /dev/hde style mount points

kernel was compiled with both Silicon Image drivers and low level scsi
sata support.

grub reads as
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/bzImage root=/dev/hde4 init=/linuxrc elevator=cfq
noirqdebug hdg=none

Only problem is that I think some stuff I compiled in - such as te yukon
drivers for ethernet - aren't doing their stuff. No network connection.
I'm not quite sure what the deal is here, but I'll sleep happy knowing i
saw a $ prompt.

BTW/ it doesn't seem to read the domainname.

() · l33t Joined: 25 Nov 2002 Posts: 610

I don't know about the other stuff, but I don't think its wise to compile in support for SATA under both IDE and SCSI, I'd stick with the SCSI section drivers (libata). The other option is deprecated. With only libata support for SATA, your drives will show up with an 'sd' prefix instead of 'hd'.
_________________
to be concerned is good

radonsg · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 4:17 pm Post subject:

I'm using the Silicon Image Chipset Support under ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support. My sata harddisk running nice as hde device.
_________________
Athlon64 3000+ on a MSI Neo2 Platinum (nVidia nForce3)
1 Sata Hitachi (HGST) 7K250
1 Sata Samsung SpinPoint
2 x 512MB TwinMos DDR400 Dual Channel
Geforce 5200

pvgentoo · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 42

2004.0 was the only only was I could do it. Else grub or vfs errors. All's well.

radonsg · Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 2:16 am Post subject:

u can edit your grub.conf file and add a line of code so that it won't probe your hdg drive to avoid the slow start.