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Fedora not installing ?

sharris

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Fedora not installing ?
« on: January 05, 2011, 09:22:52 pm »
Hello everyone,

Here i go again ... Since I got my new systems (spec's below) I tried many time (when I first got them around the end of November 2010) to install Fedora 12, 13 and 14 and they all froze  after installation.  The dialog box say something like "Reboot to Finish".  So I click the button and the system hangs.  I have to pull the plug to reboot to GRUB, than Fedora.  Arch-2009-08 is on partition-7 with GRUB so I'm all good.

Arch-Core-2010 will not install also.  It runs great as an Live-CD but that's about it.

Only Arch-2009-08, FreeBSD 8.1, PcBSD 8.2, Windows-Vista, Windows-7 (32), and Windows-7 (64) *NEVER* gave me an installation problem what-so-ever on GA-880GA-UD3H.  I re-installed ALL of them nearly 20x already.  These days I plan for the future because if something isn't right or not sized perfect for me to remember for years to come, I re-do it.  I do a full "dd" and re-partition every time, because once done, I'll know for sure there are no rennets in my MBR and it will be used forever and ready for any max-secure up-grade until QUANTUM arrive.

Anyway, I'm back to try again just now, but this time I took some notes.  It always freeze at this group of lines and others.  After so many retries, this time I pull the plugs on the keyboard and mouse so that I could see what's above that information .... nothing is ever below but about the mouse, keyboard or USB, above.

If more is needed to help solve these small issues that i am a total noob about (but not forever), I'll type it up and post it.

....
....
....

ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
scsi 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
scsi 0:0:0:0: [sda] 1953525168 512-byte logical block (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
scsi 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Potection is off
scsi 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
 sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 <sda5  sda6  sda7  sda8  sda9  sda10  sda11 >
sda2: < bsd: >

sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
Freeing unused kernel memory: 1324k freed
Write potecting the kernel read-only data: 6344k

dracut: dracut-002-13.4.git8f397a9b.fc12
dracut: dracut-002-13.4.git8f397a9b.fc12
dracut: FATAL : No or empty root= argument
dracut: Refusing to continue
dracut: FATAL : No or empty root= argument
dracut: Refusing to continue

Signal caught!

Boot has fail, sleep forever.

A few more line before and after about USB and Mouse and Keyboard and that's it!!!

Input: Chicony USB Keyboard as ... bla bla
Input: mouse as ... bla bla


....
....
....

This set-up ran great on my BIOSTAR TA790GX A3+ AM3 .  Fedora 12 is my favorite so I am not about to give in anytime soon.  Would anyone have any ideas of what I need to do.  I am willing to turn off everything but speed.  These machines will only used for testing and bench-marking small programs written for FreeBSD, PcBSD and maybe Linux.  I'm through with Windows breaking apps back-to-back with each new version.  Now I like raw-hardware even more after finding this forum.  I have no need to use these machines for music, games or TV, so whatever you could suggest it will be done and I'll post the results ASAP.  I wish we  could print-screen on a dead-lock.

Thanks in advance


MACHINE (1):
Code: [Select]
Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H  AMD 880G/SB850;  Video DDR3 1866 +  SATA 6GB       x16PCIe, 1394a, HD Dolby
Patriot Viper II Sector 5 Series 306:2  8GB 2X4GB DDR3 1600MHZ PC3-12800 8-8-8-24 1.65V Dual
Phenom II X4 965 Black Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 140W Quad-Core

MACHINE (2):
Code: [Select]
Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H  AMD 880G/SB850;  Video DDR3 1866 +  SATA 6GB       x16PCIe, 1394a, HD Dolby
Patriot Viper II Sector 5 Series 4GB (2x2GB) Dual DDR3, PC3-10666  1333MHz
Phenom II X4 955 Black Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core[code]

PS: Someone please tell Gigabyte sHarris said "NO", you can't have them back, EVER :)

About this thread.  1333 Mhz and all the dual is more than I ever really knew existed.  I'm not discourage.  Great things are still possible and much more will be coming.  I got patience and I'll be ready for round-2.

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=2515.0
[/code]

sharris

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Re: Fedora not installing ?
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2011, 02:23:00 am »
Correction:  It been over two months and I just notice I purchased two difference boards:

Board-1  "Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H"

Board-2  "Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H"

Christoph

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Re: Fedora not installing ?
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2011, 03:12:19 am »
is that a new HDD?

you formatted the HDD before the installation?

did you use a particular allocation unit for it? did you use the default that is 512?


I had a similar problem just like yours, although it can be something else, try re-formatting using the default 512


hmm, i didn't quite get something, you mean you have others OS in that same HDD right now? if so, why don't try installing Fedora first and adding entry's for the other OS...

« Last Edit: January 06, 2011, 03:18:11 am by Christoph »

sharris

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Re: Fedora not installing ?
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2011, 05:45:11 am »
Thanks for the reply Christoph,

You only get 4 PRIMARY partitions per HDD.  I make three and the forth as EXTENDED.  On EXTENDED
I go as high as Drive-T You need not waste a PRIMARY drive for LINUX because they can live anywhere
by default.  Windows must have at lease one PRIMARY and he want the first unless you got trick ...  than
you can put other versions of Windows on any of the EXTENDED partitions.  FREEBSD can't live anywhere
but on a PRIMARY partition  Same goes for PcBSD unless of course any OS is in a virtual machine where ALL
are force to live anywhere by command.  You can bet, Windows is working on a way to screw that up and
force all to buy his way of VM.  Fedora on the PRIMARY (1) is out the picture and should not matter in this
case anyway.  Besides, I gave that to FreeBSD, where PcBSD and FreeBSD build upon one another.
Arch is the boss, Fedora is the protector.  I don't care much for Windows anymore other than XP.

Standard hardware is standard hardware.  A HDD has 15 years of live, 40years in real time if you
treat it right... Clean-house every other year, so that is not the issue.  It may even work on your
machine as is.  It's only 9 months old.  I never encounter any problems until I tried to do the same
for Gigabyte.  It will work once I find out what Gigabye is doing or not doing.


Seem to be right here, but what and why !!!

enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA

Which may have casue this to happen ...


dracut: FATAL : No or empty root= argument
dracut: Refusing to continue
dracut: FATAL : No or empty root= argument
dracut: Refusing to continue

Signal caught


Once you do this, you'll never turn back ... VM is cool.  Drive 12 is where my's live, but some VM do have limitation.
I need it all and only one at a time that has access to Drive 11 for each.


Code: [Select]
PRIMARY (1) FreeBSD
PRIMARY (2) Windows Vista
PRIMARY (3) PcBSD
EXTENDED (4)
EXTENDED (5) Arch
EXTENDED (6) Swap
EXTENDED (7) Fedora

EXTENDED (8) Windows-7/32
EXTENDED (9) Windows-7/64
EXTENDED (10) data-disk
EXTENDED (11) sharris office
EXTENDED (12) vBOX for fun
etc
etc
etc


Quote
did you use a particular allocation unit for it? did you use the default that is 512?


I use Partition Commander to create my partions, than I let UNIX do the rest, like zero-out the drive,
notrunc,noerror to insure no virus just in case and re-formanting.  As long as you have room to relocate
files and entire OS's and are careful to you are only adding life and security to your HDD, not taking it away.


Quote
I had a similar problem just like yours, although it can be something else, try re-formatting using the default 512


I don't really unerstand but I just do stuff by the instrustions.  I guest Commander take care of the 512  1M is best here.
16M is slow.   Until I write a good script to run as I sleep, this is what i do. Linux and BSD are great, they even take
care of Windows homes and back-ups and he never said Thanks.

I Clean House First.. Than the HDD is like new again:


Erase the whole hard drive
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M
or virus and cross-links
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M conv=notrunc,noerror

I build partitions with Commander and install Arch on P-5 Than i install
Fedora, FreeBSD and PcBSD.  Than i:


Make a copy of  full MBR:
dd if=/dev/sda of = /9/mbr-complete bs=512 count=1
Make a copy of bootloader only
dd if=/dev/sda of = /9/mbr-boot.loader bs=446 count=1
Make a copy of  table or disk signature only:
dd if=/dev/sda of = /9/mbr-table.only bs=1 count=64 skip=446 seek=446

............... For Later
...............

Restore full MBR
dd if=/9/mbr-complete of = /dev/sda bs=512 count=1
Restore  boot-loader only
dd if=/9/mbr-boot.loader of = /dev/sda bs=446 count=1
Restore table or disk signature only:
dd if=/9/mbr-table.only of = /dev/sda bs=1 count=64 skip=446 seek=446
« Last Edit: January 06, 2011, 06:35:33 am by sharris »

Christoph

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Re: Fedora not installing ?
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2011, 08:42:59 am »
in bios you set the drive to SATA? right?

try with AHCI...

sharris

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Re: Fedora not installing ?
« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2011, 10:01:22 pm »
Quote
in bios you set the drive to SATA? right?
No.  I never touch a thing in the BIOS.  It just don't install on Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H and maybe even others.  With this information I I would suggest the the company be made aware of this.  If they plan to build for Windows only, I will be the first to jump-ship.  Fedora is free.  Have you or Gigabyte tried to install it to see for yourself.

I don't even know where to go to set a drive in the BIOS, so all I can do is guest.  I see a lot of controllers under Integrated Peripherals.

Quote
try with AHCI...
Not sure if this is the right one but "Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode" is set to "IDE", I change it to "AHCI" as requested, .  I got same results at boot time.  Still don't work.  BTW, I see another "ACPI" setting under "Power Management Setup".  It has a setting of [S3(STR)].  Could this also have anything to do with it?

.........................................................
Sorry for taking so long to respond but I had to do some more testing so I can give you a full report.

I download the latest Fedora-2010-11-02 and it quit in the middle of installation saying it cannot install.  I been computing since PC Junior in 1983 and I know what I'm doing.  I a use new CD, I know the burn is perfect, and it install on my other AMD and i686 machines with-out a problem.  Common since dictate it's a Gigabyte issue and it don't seem they know about it.  You would think they test more than just WINDOWS-7.

..........
..........
..........

OK, I did another test.  I think I have narrowed it down to something in the VGA department of the Mother-Board or BIOS.  Out the box Gigabyte may be too powerful for some OS's who don't expect to be "FORCE" to use such powerful default setting of the MB or BIOS... It seems like a bug in the BIOS.

This is what I did and it works WORLD-WIDE for all other systems::  I made a copy, I mean IMAGE of Fedora-12-i686-L off my working P4 machine and "dd" it over to the Gigabyte machine partition-7 (visa a Flash Drive), which is 20GB in size also...  Having partitioning order and same sized partitions on all my machines is now paying off ... Hey Hey Hey

As you know, ArchLinux (the Boss) already owns GRUB to boot any OS  including Fedora.  The command are already set!

Christoph, check this out ... It booted all the way up to the log-in screen but I could not see it because -> big horizontal zebra-stripes  were across the entire screen.  BOTTOM-LINE; this prove that the boot process was leaving the Console-Mode and switching to Graphic-Mode or GUI.  What-ever the BIOS or Mother-Board bridging is dishing out, it's killing Fedora.  I hope I'm making a point to where you can draw the better picture to a Gigabyte BIOS/SWITCHES solution.

For what I think, it's a video/vga or (whatever it is call) issue for Fedora-12-i686-L and all the rest.  GA-890GPA-UD3H was the latest and the greatest but something just ain't right.

QUESTIONS:

So how do I set low level stuff in the BIOS so that FEDORA will detect "THE KNOWN STANDARDS" like vga or svga but nothing more powerful like TV and CABLE and super-bridging functions?

How do we turn off some unneeded Bridges to super video stuff and what-nots?

What to replace UMA+SidePort with?
Can I turn-off SidePort?
Do I really need SidePort?
Do I have to use D-SUB/DVI or D-SUB-HDMI for a simple computer monitor?

Should I turn them off.

How about the VGA core?

Would setting it lower solve the problem?
VGA core 200 shut-down my other Gigabyte machine so what is a safer lower default?

Why have Gigabyte not tested Fedora-LINUX?
Do they already know it don't work???

Are there other sections in the BIOS that can be adjusted to meet  Fedora-Linux so that she may have some life on planet Gigabyte?

The only thing I want to keep is my CPU and Memory speed and VGA resolution from 800x600 up to 1024x768 ... and not a fraction more if possible.  Fedora needs no bells and whistles.  What is the minimum setting in the entire BIOS that I can try.

Is there any hope?

Christoph

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Re: Fedora not installing ?
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2011, 02:51:20 am »
no, is not fedora

you did clear the bios right? using the jumper? and you are at defaults settings?

maybe try with sideport OFF

don't worry about the D-sub/dvi, just use the one you want

but the thing is that you booted up from a copy, containing different controllers, as the VGA



 you gonna have to get the vga driver into that saved copy, or try installing from scratch


sharris

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Re: Fedora not installing ?
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2011, 04:05:56 pm »
I bla-bla-bla so much I'm sure many miss the part where I said I installed many ISO burned to cd from many versions of Fedora downloads long before I copy an image from one of my older machine.

It's not Gigabyte fault, it's Fedora and I proved it but did not understand until now.   Fedora been  doing something shady and she detect something about the MAN -- AMD/GA-890GPA-UD3H, than she back-off, leaving him to blame.  Just like my X !   Sorry Gigabyte, I now see the light.  It was not you ... it was her.

Whatever the case, I got Arch-Linux, FreeBSD, PcBSD and ALL of Windows installed on a single Gigabyte machine with absolutely no problem and I'm not about to throw that away for a cheating W&6*^$&.  Either that or it Fedora had a bug all along.  It might work with MOBO but not 890GPA.  BET!

Christoph, what a great personality you have. Thanks for keeping me sane.  It been rough, 24/7's.

Christoph

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Re: Fedora not installing ?
« Reply #8 on: January 08, 2011, 08:06:24 pm »

actually I did see when you said installing many times from the CD...


but at this point it can be anything, and yeah it probably doesn't support the chipset, but like I said you should get the driver from AMD, there's a driver for the chipset...


or maybe is a bad CD copy, try burning the CD with the lowest speed you can get from the CD burner

but installing from CD you get another different  problem with the HDD, for which I would try with AHCI support from bios, you can set either IDE, SATA or AHCI support

ohhhhhhhhhh, but that's the thing, you mentioned that you had it set to IDE, right? try SATA or AHCI, one of those settings is the key

sharris

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Re: Fedora not installing ?
« Reply #9 on: January 09, 2011, 05:12:11 am »
I don't even have time to re-read my own two threads and re-quote myself.  Sometime it's hard to make your question clear.  I only have 2 threads and it may be in there some where. I think I told the world that no version of Fedora over Fedora-12 would not even install on my old Intel machines AND AMD BioStar TA790GX.  Meaning only Fedora-12 worked.  I guest my point went no where.

I thought all of my hardware was out of date, including the BioStar.  Then when I got these new Gigabyte, just invented yesterday, I thought my problems were over.  It did not work.  I wasted to much time trying to make it work.  I must be the only one around this forum who owns the 890GPA.  Everyone has the 880GPA which is most popular here.  The 880GPA was the one where I had the first problem when I screw-up the BIOS on my on and threw in a question about the NUM_LOCK.  It was my first thread and you told me how to fix it.  It was January 03, 2011 near mid-night.

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,3984.0.html

That machine was down for a week before I decided to join any/this  Forum to  ask about it.  I had put that machine on the back-burner at the time and I did not fix it because I been working with Fedora on the 890GPA ever-since.

I tried everything you said and some, prior to your last post.  Bottom line... Fedora don't work and no one else with the same system has verified if it does or not because most people use Gigabyte for Windows and super-gaming.  Since i'm using 890GPA it must have the lattest changes I believe, and may not match others version.

This is about the only other thread here about Fedora who verify that Fedora is having stability issues with Gigabyte.  Just like I been saying all along since 13 and 14 for INTEL and now 12 with AMD Gigabyte.

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,2918.msg22579.html#msg22579

Wow, so that mean it must at lease half-way work on the GA-MA785GT but having RAM issue.  I'm running on my 890GPA a Viper sec-5 8GB-single stick and now even that may be ANOTHER issue for Fedora.  No one else but you and I are trying and you are not in position to test because were are not using the exact same system to be sure.  I'm not about debug Fedora or hunt for a drive that no one else has found to work.  I did not buy these machines for that.  They are for dedication to PcBSD and FreeBSD (I will be posting benchmarks about it here, etc, for the record).

That is where my Gigabyte technology concerns will go but no one will ever be able to help me here because most every one only do Windows.  For me, Fedora is only a "I like to keep around OS", just like Windows is to me, and that's as far as it goes.  Now you know the WHOLE-STORY.

I guest we can give other more productive threads some breathing room because Fedora is going no where fast.

I'm burn-out.  I give up.  I'm cashing her in -- > RIGHT-NOW.

Thank for all Christoph
« Last Edit: January 09, 2011, 05:42:18 am by sharris »

Christoph

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Re: Fedora not installing ?
« Reply #10 on: January 09, 2011, 05:31:29 am »
what?

giving up?

well yeah I can't test along side with you cuz different systems, but I actually got Fedora working on my old 790GX motherboard


and I think I got it...  come on, one last try

get into windows and install AMD "RAID Xpert" once installed log into the set up page and Enable 'NCQ' for the HDDs, then set in BIOS the HDD controller to AHCI, and then try installing Fedora from the CD

sharris

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Re: Fedora not installing ?
« Reply #11 on: January 09, 2011, 06:21:20 am »
It's too late.  I got rid of Windows who need to be on a PRIMARY and they are all in-use now by FreeBSD, PcBSD and PRIMARY-3 is a UFS fileSystem holding important BSD files.  I will be installing vBox by next week-end on EXTENDED-Partition (11), where I will install, Windows Vista, Win-7/32, Win-7/64 ... but Fedora must be on a real partition, which is partition-7 if/when I try again.  Now the issue would be will Windows do this from VM ??? Darn, if it's not one thing, it's another.

Quote
get into windows and install AMD "RAID Xpert" once installed log into the set up page and Enable 'NCQ' for the HDDs, then set in BIOS the HDD controller to AHCI, and then try installing Fedora from the CD

Class starts Tuesday.  I wasted my whole vacation on organization of all my HDD's, than Fedora kill my last two weeks.  Now I got to prepare for class which comes first.  I always get two chapters ahead before class begin.  I done no reading to date.  I have ran out completely of time.  It be next week before I can even think.  I'll try again one way or the other by next week.  Wait a minute, there still hope, I forgot about the down 880GPA that has nothing important on it, give me a few days.  I'll do stuff as I sleep :)

Thanks again

btw:  I was right. It been a {B}.   Look at all that stuff you had to go throgh just to get it install.  But at lease you found a way... Right-On MAN!!!  Once done, you got to call Fedora to save her assies for the future.  Please post any addition notes if found as you go.  I be up and running  by Thrursday the very latest.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2011, 06:40:34 am by sharris »


sharris

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Re: Fedora not installing ?
« Reply #13 on: January 09, 2011, 08:54:44 am »
Maybe not... I do not yet have any of my machines connect to a home LAN yet and they all have a single sata drive in each machine with a lot of partitions and it is not raid.  I should have indicated that before but I know nothing of raid other than what I read.  But that's good information for the future.  Btw: it not a single stick of Viper 8GB, it's 2x4 ... My mind is gone.  And arch is on extended-5, not 7.  Seven is reserved for Fedora.  

Single 8GB stick would be a dream come true at the cost of those things.  Anyway I'm searching the forum to learn how to jump the cmos to clear it and one thread say you can use a butter knife.  Is this true.  I know the machine need to be un-plug.  Should I take out the battery too before doing that?

http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?PHPSESSID=053f093b3b86d5b628704dfcfc9aae0f&topic=1895.msg8507#msg8507


Nevemnind.  I get it now, it's like a car.  I found this about BIOS setup and OC:
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?PHPSESSID=053f093b3b86d5b628704dfcfc9aae0f&topic=563.msg2456#msg2456
« Last Edit: January 09, 2011, 09:36:29 am by sharris »

Christoph

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Re: Fedora not installing ?
« Reply #14 on: January 09, 2011, 11:10:34 pm »
as for the bios, there's a blue jumper on a 3 pin connector labeled like this 1 - 2 -3  the jumper is on the 1 - 2 pins, so you only have to move that jumper pulling it off the connector and put it on the 2- 3 pins, wait for a few seconds, switch the jumper back to normal position and then PLUG the computer to the wall power connector and turn it on


as for the RAID xpert, it is not only for Raid set up as is for the monitoring of HDD being an array or not, from where you can switch on  'NCQ' and 'write cache' for every single HDD that is connected to that computer, this monitoring works too over the LAN

of course you can do this without that application, but I find it useful as is monitoring for bad sector in the background for which you can set once a week, month or any day you want to start the monitoring