HD Install :: In some computers, installation get stucked

Good afternoon,

I had to install DSL in 19 machines here at my company. On 14 of then, it worked finely. But on 5 of then i´m having problems, the same problem.

I´ll take one of these 5 computers as a "study case". It´s a Pentium 233mhz with 64mb RAM. (the other computers are all very similar, including the ones that worked fine)

Now, here's the problem:
When the boot screen appears, I type "install" and it starts the typical script. When it gets to the
"Scanning for Harddisk partitions and creating /etc/fstab..."
After ~ 1 minute, it shows the messages below, and continues the start up normally.
"modprobe: modprobe: can´t locate module xfs
modprobe: modprobe: can´t locate module minix
modprobe: modprobe: can´t locate module hfs
modprobe: modprobe: can´t locate module efs"

In the Install Menu i choose install to harddisk (option 3).
I choose single user mode, then ext2 mode, and then the install asks me:
"Last chance to exit before destroying any data on /dev/hda1!!
Continue (y/..)?"
I answer "y" and the installation get stucked in the following message (and never get out of it): "Creating filesystem ext2 on /dev/hda1..."

Does anyone have a clue?

?

I've tried also to type 0 in the Install Menu (exit him) and typed "fdisk -l" (as root), but i got:
"Disk /dev/hda: 6400mb, 6400235520 bytes
255 heads,63 sectors/tracks, 778 cylinders
Units= cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk /dev/hda doesnt contain a valid partition table"

and also if I try "fdisk hda" i get:
"Unable to open hda"

PS: i´m sure that the HD is on hda

Thanks in advance for you all,

Fernando

To do the fdisk you need to (as root)
fdisk /dev/hda
which will start the fdisk. You can then create the required partitions and then run the installer.

Hi,
folow steps below:

1- boot dsl with "install" option
2- choose 0 to exit installer
3- type cfdisk /dev/hda
4- confirm question about zero partition table
5- create one partition
6- choose "write" and confirm by typing "yes"
7- quit cfdisk
8- try type and run: "mke2fs /dev/hda1"
9- type and run dslintall
10- choose 3 and try install dsl on hda1

now it would work ok, and to finish sucessfully

You should also add a small swap partition (e.g. 32-64 MB).

first of all thanks,

I tried the "cfdisk /dev/hda" but when i chose "WRITE" and typed "yes" the system stucks on "Writing partition table to disk..." and don't get out of it anymore.

I had to boot again, and tried the "mke2fs /dev/hda1", but no it stucked on "Writing inode tables: 6/48".

There's one more information that i might have forgotten on the last post: i think that the problem with these computers that doesn't work with DSL isn't the HD, because if i take one of these HD's and put it in another computer, it works finely!

I´m affraid it might be something like the IDE Controller of the MoBo, or somethink like that.. (like BIOS or some)... what do you think?

It seems that these computers "can't control" the HDs... does anyone have ever seem this?

thanks again

Next Page...
original here.