Topic: After install, server responds with "01 01 01

[christina]

I downloaded the install, successfully, had no problems with the cd burning, and was able to install e-smith on my machine with no problems.  Since I'm used to Windows, of course I was impressed at the ease of install...

...Until I rebooted my new server.  When it came up, all it did was scroll 01 01 01 01 01 ad infinitum.  What on earth does this mean and what might I do to fix it?

It's a Pentium 100, 64M RAM, 1.2 G Samsung HD, 3Com 509B and 905 NICs... If this isn't enough info let me know and I'll fill in more details.

I'll keep searching this board until I hear from someone or find an answer.

TIA for suggestions,

Christina.

[christina]

Oh, wait a sec, I just found out elsewhere that the error is a LILO error that basically means, "LILO can not find the drive specified in the BIOS".

So now I'm going to try and figure out why e-smith found the drive even tho my BIOS didn't.  Will keep looking, and if anyone has suggestions I'd be grateful.  I may be playing "swap the HDs and figure out which one still works and will work on which one of my old Pentiums" the rest of the weekend...

christina.

[Lasse Johansson]

christina wrote:

> Oh, wait a sec, I just found out elsewhere that the error is a
> LILO error that basically means, "LILO can not find the
> drive specified in the BIOS".

To play as safe as possible, try to install E-Smith on a SINGLE hard drive connected to "primary master" or "primary slave" in your computer. (Disconnect any outer hard drive if you have more...)

I would be surprised if your problem wouldn't be a memory from the past after that!

...Of cours, it's allways good to tell the bios what hard drive you have.

//Lasse

[christina]

>try to install E-Smith on a SINGLE hard drive connected to "primary master"
>
> ...Of cours, it's allways good to tell the bios what hard drive you have.

I made sure to do that, and also put the info in the BIOS.  This is why I'm confused about the 01 01 01 problem; my BIOS  knew about the drive before I installed e-smith, and the installation went without a hitch.  I would'nt expect it to then all of a sudden not recognize the HD but I've seen weirder things.  

In any case I know I"ll figure it out and plan to have a functioning server later today.

thanks for your suggestions.  

christina.

[Charlie Brady]

christina wrote:

> I made sure to do that, and also put the info in the BIOS.
> This is why I'm confused about the 01 01 01 problem; my BIOS
> knew about the drive before I installed e-smith, and the
> installation went without a hitch.  I would'nt expect it to
> then all of a sudden not recognize the HD but I've seen weirder
> things.

Your BIOS knew about the drive, but that doesn't mean that it, LILO and linux all agreed about its size and shape. If all else fails, you might like to tell the BIOS the disk is 1024-16-63, non LBA - it'll only show up as 520M in the BIOS, but linux will find the whole disk, and you should avoid any geometry problems. I've run a 10G disk in an old 486 that way.

Charlie

[Joseph Morrison]

Hello Christina,

I'm not certain what's going on here, but it looks like the BIOS is having trouble dealing with the hard disk that it's supposed to boot from. The installation worked because the BIOS just had to boot from the e-smith diskette, then Linux was able to deal with your hard disk.

Did you create an emergency boot diskette during installation? As a workaround, you should be able to boot from that, and the server should work perfectly.

I'm not sure why your BIOS can't deal with your hard disk though. The e-smith installer creates a small boot partition, so it's unlikely the 1024 cylinder limit is being exceeded. And a P100 motherboard should be able to deal with a 1.2 Gb hard disk. Is there anything nonstandard about how the disk is configured in the BIOS? Is the BIOS choosing the geometry automatically?

Best regards,
- Joe