Question for the linux gurus.

[Neutrino]

Well I just updated my system and decide to try some of the new Live linux CD distros.

Normally I'm used to madrake as a desktop linux so ofcourse i tried the new Mandrake Move, I also DL Knoppix since I heard some good things about it.


Now to my problem, it seem that both distros won't boot becuase I have a backup HD hooked up to an IDE controller (its a hightpoint ata 100). When I unplug the controller they will both boot up just fine so that is the problem.

I even tried Knoppix with failsafe boot (minimum hardware detection and it still failed). So I presume this particular controller has very poor linux support or maybe IDE controllers in general are not happy campers with linux(all the linux distros I've run before were on systems without any ide controllers so i never had to face with this issue).


Anyway do you guys have any ideeas or perhaps know of some distros with better IDE controller support?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[my3rdskyline]

that's very strange. is it possible that when you have that hard drive in it is affecting the boot order so it doesn't boot off of CD at all???
Does the live CD boot and then something fails when it is loading... or it just doesn't even boot?

I would think that when you have that hard drive plugged in something about the boot order gets messed up.

I had a problem like that in an old machine.
onboard SCSI
onboard ATA
PCI SCSI
PCI ATA RAID
and I wanted to boot off of the PCI SCSI... I could not do it unless I took out the PCI ATA RAID disks (not the card)... then i'd just plug the disks back in when the OS booted up (the drives are hot swapable).

Hope it helps.

[my3rdskyline]

and about the above mentioned setup...

I had onboard ATA hard drives in (non bootable)
a CD ROM drive off the onboard ATA (non bootable)
2 RAID 0's off the PCI ATA RAID (non bootable)
and finally a bootable SCSI drive in the PCI SCSI controller...

and in the BIOS I had it set up to boot off of SCSI, SCSI, SCSI and YES to try other boot devices...

I guess the order was too deep?

[Neutrino]

well its certainly not the boot order because it will boot both knoppix and mandarke move.

The freeze is early in the loading process. Also that HD has only regular files as such since its a backup drive(not even my os drive).

Basically right after I tell it to load linux it will freeze. In knoppix i manage to get a bit further by typing the command failsafe (minimum hardware detection) in the boot line but it still froze after a while.

But of course the moment I take the IDE card out they will both launch just fine. Its weird, i'm not even sure why they don't just ignore it if they don't support it well since the card is not necesary for them to load.

[my3rdskyline]

that is indeed odd.

[Neutrino]

ah well...its probably some weird conflict those linux distros have with this particular card.

thanks for the replys anyway

[my3rdskyline]

maybe you are like my friend will. he would come over my house and all my shit would stop working. just kill yourself

[Neutrino]

Originally Posted by my3rdskyline

maybe you are like my friend will. he would come over my house and all my shit would stop working. just kill yourself

LOL....not I'm not that type. If anything when i was working on campus as IT most times when someone called me for a problem it often disapeared when I was trying to duplicate it. Of course I've got all the "I swear it was doing this or that....." Of course to be a punk with the gusy I knew better I would pretend not to belive them.


And same goes for my home comp. Since I am so strict about what hadrware to get and what to install and how my systems have always been very stable. Of course now that started bragging about that my comp will probably explode randomly.

Its just from time to time I get some weird issue. Of course mainly with linux distros. Like my last mandarke 10.0 install when it would just not access the network no matter what. All was in order, drives for nic and everything else but no freakin access. Then i switched to redhat which made it a paint in the but to mount my NTFS partition and had a really anoing problem with GAIM.


Btw how is fedora, does it come with more stuff that the regular serious version of redhat?

[my3rdskyline]

Originally Posted by Neutrino

LOL....not I'm not that type. If anything when i was working on campus as IT most times when someone called me for a problem it often disapeared when I was trying to duplicate it. Of course I've got all the "I swear it was doing this or that....." Of course to be a punk with the gusy I knew better I would pretend not to belive them.


And same goes for my home comp. Since I am so strict about what hadrware to get and what to install and how my systems have always been very stable. Of course now that started bragging about that my comp will probably explode randomly.

Its just from time to time I get some weird issue. Of course mainly with linux distros. Like my last mandarke 10.0 install when it would just not access the network no matter what. All was in order, drives for nic and everything else but no freakin access. Then i switched to redhat which made it a paint in the but to mount my NTFS partition and had a really anoing problem with GAIM.


Btw how is fedora, does it come with more stuff that the regular serious version of redhat?

my future in linux is undergoing some major changes. I'm made a career decision to focus more on BSD than on linux. I'm trying to get more focused on boundary protection (firewalls) and BSD is simply THE hardened internet firewall to have. So I'm steering away from linux, although I still think it's a great project... but hom many corperations have linux firewalls vs. BSD firewalls? none of the one's i'd want to work for

Fedora is bloated bullshit just like redhat was. I realize this now. After years of swearing by redhat i finally relize that I was just sticking with it because i dug myself into a hole when i first started learning. I started out with redhat and i never left. In the past few weeks i've started to mess around with slackware which seems a lot better. thiner, more user intense. I dont want user friendly. I want a pain in the ass to get up, but once you do it's fucking bulletproof and fast system.

Here's what I managed to learn in two days while trying to overcome my redhat/fedora handycap

https://blacklinux.com

I hope to switch my firewall over to BSD sometime in the next month....

So should you run fedora? if your coming from windows... sure. if you need a half way there kind of solution. I'd say just dive right into something that requires more input. If I could go back and not waste the past 5 years running redhat I would. althought it's not a complete "waste", I've spent a lot of time learning things that I thought were unix/linux commands and programs, when in fact they were just proprietary redhat bullshit scripts and utilities that can not be applied to other operating systems.

things like chkconfig and Xconfigurator and everything in /etc/sysconfig/networking/ and /etc/rc.d/init.d/ .... complete waste of time.

Try gentoo or slackware if you want to learn. and just don't give up. Or if you just want to dip your toes in the water to see how it feels... run fedora.

[Neutrino]

Well I've been using mandrake for the most part in the past. The reason i've been using it it its probably laziness. Mandrake is like you say about fedora: bloated. And this is probably the reason i've been using it, due to laziness. Those bloated versions are full of drivers and easy graphical installs and utilities.

I think this is caused by their quest to take away Windows' share of the market and in the process they are becoming windows.


Your idea might just be the thing needed. Start off with something streamlined. I'll probably try some of those distros as soon as I finish uni (a few months) and I'll cobble togheter another system I can just experiment with.

[my3rdskyline]

lets just say this.
it feels very good when you format your file systems, compile your own kernel and just install the packages you need... there is no distro. you made it. and it's JUST what you need. and it works.

It's VERY difficult at first, but in the end it's worth it.

[my3rdskyline]

oh and whatever you end up doing... good luck. at least your not completely brainwashed like the millions of other users in the world.

[Oz]

Take....me....to....your...leader....

[Neutrino]

Originally Posted by my3rdskyline

lets just say this.
it feels very good when you format your file systems, compile your own kernel and just install the packages you need... there is no distro. you made it. and it's JUST what you need. and it works.

It's VERY difficult at first, but in the end it's worth it.

actually that sounds quite fun, i would really love an os where I know exactly what is running and why because i installed it there.

I'm sick of OSs doing stuff behind my back.

[my3rdskyline]

just how far into the matrix do you want to go? hahahha