Booting Centos 5.4 Issue

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Navin
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Joined: 2010/01/21 06:29:52

Booting Centos 5.4 Issue

Post by Navin » 2010/04/03 05:49:51

Hi,

I have been using CentOS 5. for around 3 months. It was all fine and was having a pleasant experience using CentOS.
Today when i turned on my computer and booted CentOS i am having the below error:

Grub comes up, allows me to select CentOS 5.4 kernel image. and displays RedHat Nash version:
and then the below error occurs:

ata 2.00: exception EMask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 act
ata 2.00: cmd c8/00:08:f9:e5:3f/00:00:00:00:00/e1 tag 0 dma 4096 in
ata 2.00: BMDA stat 0x25
ata 2.00: status : { DRDY ERR}
ata 2.00: error : { UNC }
EXT3-fs: can't read group descriptor 3
mount : error mounting /dev/root on /sysroot as ext3:Invalid argument
setuproot: moving /dev failed : No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /proc : No such file or directory
setuproot: error mounting /sys:
switchroot: mount failed : No such file or directory
kernel panic - root syncing: Attempt to kill init !

System Information:
Intel x86 HyperThread Processor
Hard Disk 1: SeaGate SATA 500GB
Hard Disk 2: IDE 80 GB

have dual boot OS with the follwoing info:
CentOS is installed on Hard Disk 1 which is the primary and Windows XP is on Hard Disk 2. ie IDE
I am sending this report using Windows XP as CentOS doesn't come up.

I was using both the OS with no problems until the above error occured today.

kindly do provide suggestions of what could be the problem.

-navin

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toracat
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Booting Centos 5.4 Issue

Post by toracat » 2010/04/03 10:49:21

It sounds like your Seagate drive (or the SATA controller) is failing. Download the diagnostic software SeaTools from Seagate and try running it to check the integrity of the hard drive.

Navin
Posts: 13
Joined: 2010/01/21 06:29:52

Re: Booting Centos 5.4 Issue

Post by Navin » 2010/04/03 17:30:41

hi ,
thanks torocat. ran the seagate diagnostic tools and found that the hard disk had run into problems. when i ran the seagate short/long test utility it shows errors in the hard disk.

Replaced the defective disk with another new SATA disk, and was trying to install centos 5.4 on it.
Booting from the bootable centos 5.4, it gives the boot prompt and runs until the query :

Where does the CentOS 5.4 image lie:
- Local CDROM
- Hard Disk
- NFS Image
..
..

selected Local CDROM, then the error "CentOS CD Not Found.Insert One".

I dont know why it throws an error like this?
Downloaded the CentoS 5.4-bin.DVD.torrent and used bittorrent to download 3.72 GB file.
Burnt the image onto the DVD using Nero in Windows Xp by selecting the burn image option in Nero 7.
Tried 2 DVDs hoping the media can be a problem?
Even the earlier working used CentOS 5.3 DVD media is now throwing an error like the above?

Am i missing any steps?

Also kindly do help to use the IRC chat. new to IRC Used Chatzilla (from Mozilla) from Windows XP and was able to login into irc.freenode.net and was able to login into the #Centos channel using the login name "navin". But was unable to post any message to the irc users as whenever a message is posted it displays the message " #CentoS- channel is a registered . Unable to send to the channel". how should i register my name "navin" into the channel? Was trying to get help from the people in the IRC chat for the above problem.

thanks.

navin

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toracat
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Re: Booting Centos 5.4 Issue

Post by toracat » 2010/04/03 23:08:39

[quote]
Navin wrote:

selected Local CDROM, then the error "CentOS CD Not Found.Insert One".
[/quote]
Is this an IDE drive? If so, try "linux hda=cdrom" at the boot: prompt. (you may need to replace the "a" with b,c,...)

[quote]
how should i register my name "navin" into the channel? Was trying to get help from the people in the IRC chat for the above problem.
[/quote]
After you have connected to the server, type:

/msg nickserv register [i]password[/i] [i]email address[/i]

As you noticed, #centos does not allow you to speak unless you are registered. :-(

Navin
Posts: 13
Joined: 2010/01/21 06:29:52

Re: Booting Centos 5.4 Issue

Post by Navin » 2010/04/06 09:58:32

[quote]
toracat wrote:
...
Is this an IDE drive? If so, try "linux hda=cdrom" at the boot: prompt. (you may need to replace the "a" with b,c,...)
[/quote]
Yes its an IDE drive. Tried appending the string linux hdc=cdrom

From The log messages of booting figured out it detects the media drive as
hdc:Sony DVD RW IDE Atapi CD

But i still get the error
"CentOS CD not found in any of the media drives . Insert a Centos CD and press OK"

Navin
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Joined: 2010/01/21 06:29:52

Re: Booting Centos 5.4 Issue

Post by Navin » 2010/04/06 10:03:49

Also the step for media check also doesn't show up?

chuina
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Joined: 2009/12/11 10:25:56

Re: Booting Centos 5.4 Issue

Post by chuina » 2010/04/08 07:02:38

[quote]Navin wrote:
Also the step for media check also doesn't show up?[/quote]
There might be an option [b]linux mediacheck[/b] at boot prompt, can't remember now, you may try.

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Re: Booting Centos 5.4 Issue

Post by pschaff » 2010/04/08 12:35:25

I've pretty much given up on Sony drives as the last couple I have bought have had problems of various sorts, including not being usable for install media and not working correctly with Linux CD/DVD burning apps, and I have heard others complain as well. Any chance of swapping it for another IDE DVD drive? Might also have a look at [url=http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey]How to Set Up a USB Key to Install CentOS[/url] as a work-around. Only other thing I can suggest is to check BIOS settings related to CD/DVD devices.

Navin
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Joined: 2010/01/21 06:29:52

Re: Booting Centos 5.4 Issue

Post by Navin » 2010/04/11 09:06:15

Thanks pschaff. thanks for the clue. Did the following after seeing your message:

My environment of CentOS 5.4 DVD:

- Downloaded the DVD.torrent file and used bittorrent client to download the CentOS5.4.bin.DVD file around 3.72 GB.
since bittorrent is used, it would have validated the md5sum,shasum of the downloaded DVD binary.
Its been done using Windows XP.

- My DVD is Sony DVD RW AW-G170 IDE ATAPI

- Burnt the DVD image using Nero Smart Essentials using Windows XP. Selected the Disc Image option to burn the image.
Nero showed that the burning is successful and even the verification of the burnt image as successful.
wait nero was fooling me would explain that below...

- Booted the above DVD and tried to install CentOS 5.4. Got the error "CentOS 5.4 image not found in any of the media drives"
Tried around 6 DVD media the above, before realising my follow, there is something going tricky here.

- Booted into Windows XP and tried to read the burnt image using Windows XP explorer. didnt see anything the dvd showed empty.
nero fooled me successfully....
hence understood there is something wrong with my DVD settings

- Did some googling and found things could go wrong in the IDE controller . Things can change the settings of IDE controller to PIO Mode
even though the Windows XP would show that as as DMA Mode.
Did changed the windows registry as explained in the link :
http://sniptools.com/vault/getting-back-to-dma-mode-in-windows-xp


- After the changes was done as explained in the above link: ie remove MasterIdDataChecksum,SlaveIdDataChecksum from the registry,
all the 6 DVDs burnt earlier with the CentO S5.4 image now showed the all CentOS 5.4 folders in all the 6 DVDs.
From this i feel some settings with the IDE Controller had wrong wrong due to some reasons, because of which the contents
of the DVD image was not been showed in Windows XP.

- having solved that i thought now the change would help to resolve my booting problem. The same DVD media which showed the contents
of the image, now again displayed the same error "CentOS 5.4 image not found in any of the media drives".

- Then i remembered i did made changes only to the windows xp registry. ie only toWindows XP.

How to reflect that change to CentOS install set up or to my BIOS to help in detecting the DVD contents which has all the contents of CentOS 5.4?

My BIOS settings are as follows:

Drive Configuration:
SATA Port 0: ST3500418AS (my comment: SATA Hard Disk 500 GB. wanted to install centos 5.4 on this.)
PATA Primary master : ST380011A (my comment: IDE hard disk containing windows XP)
PATA Secondary Master: SONY DVD RW AW-G170A
Type: [Auto]

Configurations options selected by BIOS: (My comments: i cant change the below. no options to change it)
LBA Mode : Supported
PIO Mode : Mode 4
Ultra Mode : Mode 4
Cable Detected: 80 Conductor

Any clues of how to make the DVD image to be detected by CentOS installation software?


pschaff, i havent yet tried the USB based setup. seems i still need DVD installation media for that . just cheked the prerequisites for that. it says so.
kindly correct me if my understanding is wrong.

Thanks
Navin

pschaff
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Re: Booting Centos 5.4 Issue

Post by pschaff » 2010/04/11 14:10:23

Not having any better ideas, I'd try temporarily removing the Windows drive and putting the DVD as the master. If that fails, then either replace the DVD drive, or go to the USB approach.

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