Linux is a No-Go on My System :(

[jsimmons]

I've been tryng for over a week to get Ubuntu 6.06 installed onto my system, and the Ubuntu people (both forums and IRC channel) can't help (but not for lack of trying). I figure I must have either a defective hard drive, or a defective motherboard. Here's my tale of woe

System:
ASRock 939Dual Sata2 motherboard with 2.10 BIOS
AMD64 3500 Winchester (not overclocked)
1GB Patriot PC3200 RAM (not overclocked)
eVGA 7900GTX (not the overclocked one, and not overclocked by me) (brand new)
hda=new Seagate 200gb EIDE (brand new)
hdb=80gb Western Digital EIDE
sda=SATA1 160gb Western Digital
sdb=SATA2 160gb Western Digital
cda=LITE-ON CD/DVD writer (brand new)
keyboard and mouse are PS/2
19-inch LCD monitor with native resolution of 1280x1024.

Other info:
1) I'm using the onboard NIC and sound components.

2) I'm NOT using raid.

3) I'm NOT using the SATA2 controller at all, but it's set to "IDE " and is disabled in BIOS.

4) I'm NOT dual booting.


Observations:
1) Windows 2000 Pro runs flawlessly on this box. In case you're wondering, I have Wndows installed on a separate boot drive (80gb Western Digital EIDE), and I swap the two boot drives using a removable drive tray setup.

2) The Ubuntu 6.06 live cd boots up fine (even sees the NIC and sound components)


Problems:
1) If I try to install with the SATA drives connected, the install freezes at seemingly random spots near the end of the install process (88-97%).

2) If I disconnect the SATA drives, the install hangs after I click "restart computer" in the final dialog box. It hangs when it's trying to "shutdown the LVM volume groups". If I do a cold restart, it will start to boot into Linux, but will hang at "loading hardware drivers".

3) Last Monday, I got it installed, and it even booted into the OS, but I had other Windows things to do, so I shutdown and swapped the boot drives out. I used Windows for the rest of the week.

4) Just this last Saturday, I swapped the boot drives and tried to boot Ubuntu and it hung up at "loading hardware drivers". I haven't been able to boot or reinstall successfully since.


Things I've Tried:
1)Physically disconnecting the SATA drives

2) Disconnecting all USB devices

3) Turning off legacy USB and USB 2.0 support in the BIOS

4) Burning the distro CD at speeds from 8x to 48x

5) Burning to different brands of writable media

6) Installing the amd64 version of the distro

7) Non-graphical installers

8) Installing other distros (including older versions of Ubuntu).

I've tried everything I know to try, and some things other people have suggested, but the box is simply rejecting any install of Linux.


[b]Conclusion:

I consider myself to be pretty freakin' savvy where building a PC is concered - I've been doing it since about 1986 - but this has me completely stumped. Since there's no incompatible hardware in my setup, I think that one of two things is wrong:

1) The motherboard is flakey

2) The 200gb hard drive that I'm trying to install Linux on is flakey

My first instinct is to say that the act of installing Linux has somehow exposed a flaw in the motherboard, but at this point, it's just a guess since the live-cd boots without any problems at all.

Can anyone here provide any guidance?

[Michael]

I've tried out the 939Dual-SATA2 on Fedora Core 5 and (I think) one of the earlier Ubuntu Dapper builds... Based on your comments, it sounds like it could potentially be a flaw with the motherboard. Had you tried the IDE driver in an alternate computer?

[Patrick]

It sounds like there is something wrong with the SATA/IDE controller on the MB. Have you tried using hdparm to enable/disable DMA/32BitI/O for the target drive? Have you tried using a controller add-on card?

[jsimmons]

I've tried out the 939Dual-SATA2 on Fedora Core 5 and (I think) one of the earlier Ubuntu Dapper builds... Based on your comments, it sounds like it could potentially be a flaw with the motherboard. Had you tried the IDE driver in an alternate computer?

I have a server, but it's full up (and in use) as far as drives go.

[jsimmons]

It sounds like there is something wrong with the SATA/IDE controller on the MB. Have you tried using hdparm to enable/disable DMA/32BitI/O for the target drive? Have you tried using a controller add-on card?

I don't have any controller cards to try, and it would cost almost the same money to just replace the motherboard.

Disabling performance features isn't the best approach (afterall, I paid big bucks for that performance).

[Patrick]

Disabling performance features isn't the best approach (afterall, I paid big bucks for that performance).

Have you checked that DMA is enabled? I had problems installing slackware on an older IBM until I enabled DMA for the installation drive.

[arcturus]

I had an IRC chat with the developer of Kanotix not long ago, Kano. He warned me the ULI chipset isn't very compatible and doesn't behave all that well with linux, even with some of the bleeding edge stuff he's using with that distro.

[jsimmons]

I had an IRC chat with the developer of Kanotix not long ago, Kano. He warned me the ULI chipset isn't very compatible and doesn't behave all that well with linux, even with some of the bleeding edge stuff he's using with that distro.

The review here said that my motherboard was very Linux-compatible. Others with this motherboard have also said that. What gets me is that the live CD boots up without a single complaint, but the install won't complete... Makes no sense at all.

[Michael]

Also, had you tried flashing the BIOS or taking any other steps?

[1c3d0g]

Dude, have you tried Xubuntu? Try the alternate install iso, as the graphical one has a glitch that prevents a complete install. If it still fails, then your PC officially doesn't want any *Buntu installed and you should look at another distro (Arch, Slax, SUSE etc.) :)

[jsimmons]

Also, had you tried flashing the BIOS or taking any other steps?

The BIOS is already at the latest version. Nothing to flash.

[jsimmons]

Dude, have you tried Xubuntu? Try the alternate install iso, as the graphical one has a glitch that prevents a complete install. If it still fails, then your PC officially doesn't want any *Buntu installed and you should look at another distro (Arch, Slax, SUSE etc.) :)

Dude, that's the only one I haven't tried, and I'm not inclined to try when all the rest (including, as already stated, the alternate installs) have failed miserably.

At this point, I think the motherboard is toast (well, maybe not toast, but certainly incompatible with Linux in its current state), and I'm trying to decide if a) Linux is worth this much hassle right now, and b)if I decide to get a new motherboard, do I get another copy of the one I have, or a different brand. There are pros and cons no matter which way I decide:

1) If I get another Asrock 939Dual, I don't have to reinstall Windows on my other drive, and it might allow me to install Linux, but as we all know - if you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.

2) If I get a different brand (considering a Gigabyte board), Linux compatibility might improve, but I'd have to reinstall Windows (and that's a freakin hassle).

I don't want to buy another Asrock just to find out that it's just plain not compatible, and I don't want to get a different brand because i'd have to reinstall windows. It looks like I'm stuck between ASRock and a hard place. (I love puns :) .)

[Michael]

jsimmons,

What did you end up trying? Any successes yet?

~ Michael

[jsimmons]

jsimmons,

What did you end up trying? Any successes yet?

~ Michael

As far as hardware, nothing yet. With the impending price decrease on 939 chips, I'm gonna upgrade to a faster (dual core) CPU, so I decided to wait to order a new motherboard so that I'd get everything at once. Once I get the new motherboard, I'll RMA the existing one (it's always nice to have a backup motherboard laying around).

I've pretty much decided that I don't want to reinstall Windows yet again, so I'm just going to go ahead and get another ASROCK 939Dual Sata2. If it doesn't work with the new board, I guess I'm gonna have to wait for a new version of Ubuntu to be released, and try again.

[jsimmons]

Ordered a new m/b (the same brand/model) a shiney new 4200 X2 ($199!!), and another GB of Patriot XBLK RAM from egghead this morning. Should get them next week, so we'll see if the new M/B fixes my install problems.

Silver lining: If nothing else, Linux will fail to install at a faster pace. :)

[jsimmons]

Well crap - it still won't install...

[Michael]

Same problem, or what challenge are you now facing?

[jsimmons]

Same problem, or what challenge are you now facing?

It stopped at "Completely removed ntfsprogs" (the progress bar stuck at 97%). This is just one of the places it might hang during install...

Tomorrow, I'll try installing windows on the drive to see if that works. That will at least rule out the drive being bad. If Windows Installs, I'll try installing Linux in a dual boot setup on that drive. It'll be downright dirty shame to give up so much hard drive space (by having a windows partition) just to make it work...

The new motherboard came with bios v1.9 on it, and i'm almost positive that flashing it to 2.1 won't help/matter.

My question is how in the hell did Phoronix get Linux installed on this motherboard because it sure ain't workin' for me.

[Michael]

My question is how in the hell did Phoronix get Linux installed on this motherboard because it sure ain't workin' for me.

Fedora Core 4 and Fedora Core 5 with Anaconda had installed without fault using that ASRock motherboard. Perhaps there is some other compatibility conflict with your system?

[1c3d0g]

jsimmons: I think you should at least try out a live CD first (like Slax) and see if it boots into a GUI. There may be something fundamentally wrong with your PC that makes it unable to run Linux.

[jsimmons]

jsimmons: I think you should at least try out a live CD first (like Slax) and see if it boots into a GUI. There may be something fundamentally wrong with your PC that makes it unable to run Linux.

It boots the Ubunutu Live CD just fine (including sound and NIC support).

[1c3d0g]

Now that's just weird. I think your PC might be possesed by a M$ demon...

[Mark Knecht]

It boots the Ubunutu Live CD just fine (including sound and NIC support).

So is the issue really the Ubuntu installer not working? If you are not completely oriented around Ubuntu then consider Gentoo. If the Gentoo LiveCD boots you can do the Gentoo install from a console and skip all the fancy stuff.

I cannot say how many times I had similar problems with Fedora installs not understanding hardware. Never had after 3+ years a Gentoo install fail yet.

Good luck whatever you do.

[hkBst]

I've tried a _lot of_ distros the past week, since I was convinced there exist distros simple enough that even my mom can install them. Unfortunately the simpler a distro, the more it tries to hide, such as boot messages. I tried Ubuntu, Suse, Knoppix, Ark Linux (rc2) and Mandriva and they all made it difficult to do troubleshooting. I needed ide=nodma boot option, but even with that I suspect my cdrom drive was flaky as a lot of installs would fail at random points. Eventually I decided to do the install myself and use Gentoo, since I've had good experience with it. I cached the install cd (docache) and proceeded with the install. I had to redo mke2fs of my partitions, because they failed the first time because of some strange dma error (even with ide=nodma). The good thing is that I was right there to see what was going wrong and fix it trivially. No automated installer does that (yet). I've also had very good experiences with knoppix in the past, but for some reason I couldn't get it to work even with ide=nodma this time. Oh well.

[jsimmons]

Well, I tried to install XP on the same 200gb drive, and configured it to only use a 50gb partition. It would not finish the install. So, my new 200gb hard drive just mighht be defective. I'm going to take it back to Best Buy for an exchange, and see if things don't work a little better.

I'll be back with an update later dtoday.

If nothing else, I'm tenacious (or if you could say I'm too stupid to quit).

:)

[jsimmons]

I'm cursed.

This weekend, I exchanged my hard drive for a new one, and tried to install Fedora Core 5. It installed, but it wouldn't boot.

It froze up after it started some sort of log. I know, I could stand to be more precise, but I'm rapidly loosing interest.

[Michael]

Did you try using Ubuntu or any other distributions?

You seem to be having lots of bad luck, unfortunately.

[jsimmons]

Did you try using Ubuntu or any other distributions?

You seem to be having lots of bad luck, unfortunately.

I started with Ubunutu 6.06 (burned at 48x, 24x, and 8x), tried the Ubuntu Alternate CD, XUbuntu, 64-bit Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu 5.10, Knoppix, Suse 10.1, Debian, and finally Fedora Core 5. This means I've tried kernel versions from 2.6.13 through 2.6.17. I've tried two copies of the same motherboard with BIOS versions from 1.50 to 2.10, tried enabling and disabling various items in the BIOS, exchanged a harddrive, increased and decreased the amount of memory in the box, and even different CPUs.

I think you can say I've pretty much tried everything. Most of the time, the install process wouldn't complete, but if it did, the machine wouldn't boot.

I'm aware that other people have gotten Linux to run on this motherboard, but IMHO, it's generally incompatible.

[jsimmons]

Well, I thought Fedora Core had a kernel newer than 2.6.15, but it doesn't. I'm going to try Mandriva 2007 (beta) next. It uses 2.6.17. I'll report back...

[jsimmons]

Still no-go. Mandriva hung with 10 seonds remaining on the "Installation" phase. I just don't get it.

I guess I'll try Gentoo next, but I'm not optimistic...

[Andrew]

Still no-go. Mandriva hung with 10 seonds remaining on the "Installation" phase. I just don't get it.

I guess I'll try Gentoo next, but I'm not optimistic...

Sorry to hear you're having such a hard time getting linux going, the only thing I can suggest it double check all bios settings, disable everything not needed in bios to ensure nothing is screwed up, make sure AGP apature size is the same as the amount you have on your gfx card (if you have PCI-X then this doesn't apply)...apart from that, ditch the mobo and buy a new one.

Or set FSB to 10,000 and turn it into a microwave...

[pipe13]

Ummmm.... does it memtest86 okay? :)

[DJiNN]

Hi there.....

Don't know if this will help, but i had a major problem installing Xubuntu (& various others ) on my old PIII (1000) which was weird because i had previously been running it.... :)

Anyway, long story short, after much mucking about & trying different things, and even re-building the machine with different parts & cables etc, i got a result when i put my original memory back in the machine, and all worked perfectly well.... so it was duff memory all the time.... it crashed every install of every OS that i tried....

Might help.... hope it does. Good luck :)

DJiNN

[arcturus]

About the review on the AsRock Dual last December ...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=355&num=1

Did the reviewer test to see whether the network controller functioned properly? Everyone seems to be complaining even now about the lack of driver support including many in the Fedora forums. I took delivery of one not long ago and have had no success getting the controller to work right.

[Michael]

About the review on the AsRock Dual last December ...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=355&num=1

Did the reviewer test to see whether the network controller functioned properly? Everyone seems to be complaining even now about the lack of driver support including many in the Fedora forums. I took delivery of one not long ago and have had no success getting the controller to work right.

Yes, it had functioned appropriately with Fedora Core 4/5. I don't believe we had to do anything special for the onboard LAN support.

[arcturus]

Ok then any ideas why most are having problems while your's didn't?

[Michael]

Could you post some more information on your confirmation? What kernel are you using? (Did you try upgrading to 2.6.17 or 2.6.18 (though it should work with the older kernels, might as well try the new ones anyways))? What are all of the steps you have tried so far?

[tommcd]

I've been following this thread with intrest, as I own the Asrock 939 Dual board also. I just installed ubuntu-dapper on this board, and it installed without a problem. I set it up as dual boot with winXP. Everything works, including NIC and SATA controller. Full specs of my rig:
Asrock939 dual sata2
AMD64 3200+ venice
crucial DDR400 1GB
EVGA nvidia gforce 6600 PCI-E
Seagate 120GB 7200rpm hard drive SATA1
LiteOn DVD burner
samsung floppy
OP, have you considered the possiblity that something else on your system is bad/incompatible? (RAM perhaps). My SATA controller is set to IDE mode. If yours is not, try that and see if it helps. Also, since you have several hard drives, try disconnecting all of them except the one linux is being installed on. Sorry if any of this has already been discussed. Hope this helps.

[arcturus]

Could you post some more information on your confirmation? What kernel are you using? (Did you try upgrading to 2.6.17 or 2.6.18 (though it should work with the older kernels, might as well try the new ones anyways))? What are all of the steps you have tried so far?


I tried it without luck on a newer version of PCLinuxOS .93A which I think comes with 2.6.17.

Then tried Ubuntu Dapper and it worked just fine, at least the LiveCD. Looks like a distro thing ... some support it, others don't.

[jaybie]

i once tried to install linux on an asrock mb too about 4 yrs ago, encountered problems, emailed asrock, and they said they're mb is not compatible. recently our office bought again about a dozen units, and i can't install ubuntu 6 again. somehow i got ubuntu 5.10 running, but i needed some of the upgrades in 6. i was able to install ubuntu 6 only on my laptop (ibm) and 3 units with diff mb.

[1c3d0g]

Asrock is the cheap version of Asus, I suggest everyone to stay away from them.

[jsimmons]

nsidered the possiblity that something else on your system is bad/incompatible? (RAM perhaps). My SATA controller is set to IDE mode. If yours is not, try that and see if it helps. Also, since you have several hard drives, try disconnecting all of them except the one linux is being installed on. Sorry if any of this has already been discussed. Hope this helps.

I've tried all of those things and more. The board simply refuses to accept a linux install. I've even tried two different 939 dual-sata2 boards. The only thing I haven't done is remove the video card (nVidia 7900GTX).

I know some of you are going to suggest changing the vid card out to something less stout, but I'm tired of reducing the capabilities of my machine just to see if Linux will install. Removing/disconnecting hardware is ludicrous and I shouldn't have to do that *at all*.

Every live CD I've tried boots up just fine, so logic dictates that it should be able to install. I now have a choice between waiting for a distro with a 2.6.18 kernel or just buying another motherboard (defintitely with a nForce4 chipset). A new motherboard means I have to reinstall Windows again, and I'll do pretty much anything to avoid that chore.

I'm not trying to be argumentative or anti-Linux, and I'm certainly glad for everyone's efforts to help me out. I'm just frustrated as hell...

[Michael]

The 2.6.18 kernel was released yesterday, so some distros should be offering it in the coming days. You can probably grab the nightly Ubuntu Edgy Eft ISO in a day or two and that will likely have 2.6.18. Or you could grab 2.6.18 off Rawhide and remaster the FC6T3 ISOs with the new kernel -- or doing similar steps for pretty much any distribution.

[posomm]

You need the latest bios to read large partitions correctly. I do not believe anything is wrong with your hard drive. I can only boot ubuntu with acpi=off. After atempting to install Ubuntu my bios changed and no longer reads usb drives. There's nothing wrong with the drives if I place them in another machine they work fine. Something is happening to the bios when Ubuntu installs. Now I can't read or see any of my usb devices. So the question should be which motherboards and or bioses are compatible with ubuntu linux. Can ubuntu handle large hard drives with large and multiple partitions?

[Michael]

Ubuntu itself should have no problems handling large hard drives with large and multiple partitions, as long as it's a supported Linux filesystem.

The latest BIOS should be best off with Linux. Are you using Ubuntu Dapper Drake or Edgy Eft?

[posomm]

ubuntu 6.06, everything was fine until attempted to install ubuntu, now i have no bios support for usb at all not even in windows, I've ever heard of a computer losing usb support. But the ubuntu install did just that when it hung. When the time changes like that you know its some type of bios hiccup. The time has been reset and holds but still no usb suupoort from the bios Pheonix 3 v6

[tommcd]

Well, perhaps it is just dumb luck, but I recently installed ubuntu edgy 6.10 on my Asrock939Dual board with no problems. I am on the BIOS that came with the board (1.40) and I have no problems, including usb support.
I have one pesky issue with edgy. Mplayer will not play mpeg videos for some reason. Everything else is tip-top. My BIOS has not changed after the install.

[tommcd]

Also, the nvidia 7900GTX is listed as compatible with ubuntu:
http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Nvidia
So I doubt that is the problem. Wish I could figure out what the problem is.

[jsimmons]

Well, I'm replacing the motherboard with an EPOX 9NPA3 Ultra this coming week. If anyone wants them, both of my ASRock 939Dual SataII are for sale - $50 for the pair.

[jsimmons]

It took just 1 hr 45 minutes to tear the old system down, rebuild it ( with a new primary psu and a 8800GTX), and reinstall Win2K. I expect to attempt an install of Ubuntu 6.10 sometime Friday.

On a down note, before I started reinstalling Win2K, I tried the Ubuntu 6.01 (Drake) live CD, and it doesn't appear to like the 8800gtx at all. Hopefully, 6.10 won't be so fussy.

[jsimmons]

Well, Ubuntu 6.10 doesn't like my video card or my hard drives for some reason. However, Fedora Core 6 installed smooth as butter. I think Ubuntu is goin' backwards...