Re: [Sheflug] Installation hangs during disk format

[Robert E B Holland BEng CEng FIEE <xxxxx [at] xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tuesday 17 September 2002 20:40, you wrote:
> On Tuesday 17 Sep 2002 10:28 pm, Robert E B Holland BEng CEng FIEE wrote:
> > gone away and had my tea just in case I am too impatient!) Using Yast in
> > manual mode or Yast2 - same results.
>
> Have you used a SuSE safe mode install? This disables DMA and such like for
> IDE drives, which are usually the cause of your problems.

Thanks to Will & Craig on this...

Yes - you can get a shell under SuSE but when the system hung any commands 
issued were (apparently) waiting for the operation to complete (presumably 
the IDE controller was busy). Tried to kill the hung process but this didn't 
appear to work.

Disabling DMA appears to have fixed the problem I thought I had already tried 
this when installing SuSE  8 and found the same problem but I am doing a 
couple of machines (the other has a boot problem) so I may have got mixed up. 

I am currently installing SuSE 7.3 & it is now happily installing the 
packages. I couldn't find a safe mode on this, so used...

manual ide=nodma

...on the command line & this seems to have worked.

A few points to note then from this experience as someone still fairly new to 
Linux...

1 - A lot of people are trying it but get very frustrated by this type of 
problem - particularly with older hardware - one of the main areas where it 
can really help. This doesn't help to build confidence. People quickly forget 
of course that only a few years ago it was a real pain to get a DOS or 
Windows installation working (probably on the same type of hardware). Most 
people's experience of PC's is of having a pre-installed version of Windows 
which is fixed all too often by re-installing the manufacturer's CD-ROM. 

2 - The newer installations such as SuSE 8 appears to remove much of the 
control. This is great if the installation goes ahead without difficulty, 
which I am sure it does in the majority of cases. This of course will 
increase appeal to new users so I can't knock this approach.

3 - The fact that the system was still alive was not immediately apparent. If 
I had been a new migrating user I would not have even considered switching to 
another console to look at error messages, access shells etc. & would 
probably have just given up.

4 - There is some really useful documentation around providing you (a) know 
where it is and (b) can get to it. It is generally a bit heavy going though & 
assumes a lot of previous knowledge.

5 - I spent a lot of time here being stupid and not thinking about the 
problem from my own past experience. I want to know more but do not have the 
time available to find out by trial and error. This must be true of many 
potential users. We have already identified that there is a lack of suitable 
training in the area. Is there anyone out there who would be interested in 
putting a 'workshop' together. It would need maybe four 'tutors' & would be a 
bit more formal than the install fest approach. The aim would be to get a 
number of people clued up sufficiently to address basic installation 
'gotchas' such as this - highlight some practical do's and don'ts etc. I 
could probably find some funding for this to run it at various locations in 
the area.

Thanks once again

Bob Holland




 



 












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