Install won't find hard drives

[Was_Just19]

How many SATA connections are there on the motherboard?

Is it possible to try a totally different pair?

Have you tried with just one HDD attached?

Is there any thing in the BIOS ...... like some sort of emulation mode for the SATA drives which might be affecting things?

I suppose the two drives are showing in BIOS and on the POST page before Grub launches?

(yes I am grasping here ... )   

[craesz]

How many SATA connections are there on the motherboard?

4 total

Is it possible to try a totally different pair?

Yes, but that seems a stretch....

Have you tried with just one HDD attached?

No.... I guess I can, but what do you think this will affect?

Is there any thing in the BIOS ...... like some sort of emulation mode for the SATA drives which might be affecting things?

Not that I can tell other than the changing the AHCI setting for Linux (results posted above)

I suppose the two drives are showing in BIOS and on the POST page before Grub launches?

They both show in the BIOS settings when the setting is SATA not AHCI.... Neither show when it is AHCI (regardless of Linux setting). I thought that might be it initially because I had it set for AHCI the first time I tried to install. Unfortunately, even with the setting on SATA instead of AHCI, the install refuses to see them.

(yes I am grasping here ... )   

Me too. Thanks for trying.

I think I'll see if I can find an upgrade to my BIOS...... maybe that will help.

[Was_Just19]

Based on your answers above I would set the BIOS for SATA, and look closely for anything that might indicate that it is setting the SATA drives to appear like PATA/IDE drives --- to accommodate Windows installs.
I would definitely try with just one drive connected just to see if there is something about either one of that that might be affecting things.

I would also try with said drive connected to a different port ........  one is never quite sure what the manufacturer may have set one or two of those ports for. I had a motherboard where one port would not work .....  apparently it was only for esata use ....  I was not aware there was any difference ....  but all worked when I unplugged from that port. Another M/koard had a port specifically marked for RAID .......  again I have no idea why and never did investigate. I only recount those as examples of why I suggest swapping the cable to a different port.

regards.

[craesz]

Tried booting with only one drive connected... same result. Moved ports.... same result. It may be seeing them as IDE but so long as they are visible, I don't get it. The live cd should find them. I regularly use a live cd to fix Winblows boxes.... Linux is better than this in my opinion.

This is frustrating me quite a bit as the kernel I'm under now (or HAL or whatever) sees them [I reconnected everything and rebooted, ran fdisk as su --- see below]

This is quickly driving me insane (which was a short trip apparently   )

Thanks for trying to help. Hope someone can come up with an answer or I'm in serious trouble.

[djohnston]

In your first post, you said: "Finally checked the workaround for truecrypt for my work machine." Has truecrypt been applied to the drives you are trying to install to?

You also said, "This morning when I tried to download the latest ISO, I got an error message about not having permission with ibiblio.org.... I went to my repository instead (one of the indiana.edu ones... I'm home in the middle of trying to get to a graduation ceremony....) and downloaded 2010.1 ISO." I'm trying to understand the "not having permission with ibiblio.org" issue. Do you mean you could not download the iso due to inability to access ibiblio's site?

And you said, "My KDE 3.5 system works fine." Are you booting KDE3.5 from one of the questionable drives or are you booting KDE 3.5 from a liveCD?

I have a mobo with nVidia disk controller onboard. Different model than yours, though. Mine is a MCP61. Like yours, the controller handles both IDE and SATA. In PCC, the SATA module for the controller shows as ‎sata_nv. The IDE module for the controller shows as pata_amd.

Since fdisk isn't working for you, can you give us a summary of your hard drives? Only concerned with the internal drives, as I assume those are the ones you want to install to. Can you give a summary of partitions on them, filesystems and operating systems used, and any drive encryption used, or anything else out of the ordinary?

I've been wrong before, but I don't believe this is a controller issue. I think it is more specific to the drives themselves.

[Old-Polack]

craesz:

With the OS that sees the drives, check in PCC --> Hardware --> Browse and configure hardware to see which module is being used to detect the SATA controllers, then from the liveCD modprobe that same module, then follow with the fdisk -l command.

[Old-Polack]

In your first post, you said: "Finally checked the workaround for truecrypt for my work machine." Has truecrypt been applied to the drives you are trying to install to?

You also said, "This morning when I tried to download the latest ISO, I got an error message about not having permission with ibiblio.org.... I went to my repository instead (one of the indiana.edu ones... I'm home in the middle of trying to get to a graduation ceremony....) and downloaded 2010.1 ISO." I'm trying to understand the "not having permission with ibiblio.org" issue. Do you mean you could not download the iso due to inability to access ibiblio's site?

And you said, "My KDE 3.5 system works fine." Are you booting KDE3.5 from one of the questionable drives or are you booting KDE 3.5 from a liveCD?

I have a mobo with nVidia disk controller onboard. Different model than yours, though. Mine is a MCP61. Like yours, the controller handles both IDE and SATA. In PCC, the SATA module for the controller shows as ‎sata_nv. The IDE module for the controller shows as pata_amd.

Having a somewhat similar problem, I used modprobe to load the pata_amd and amd74xx modules, when my IDE drives weren't seen. Next fdisk -l command they were then present. The problem seems to be between hardware detection and choosing which controller modules to load. When the correct modules are loaded, the drives can be seen.

Since fdisk isn't working for you, can you give us a summary of your hard drives? Only concerned with the internal drives, as I assume those are the ones you want to install to. Can you give a summary of partitions on them, filesystems and operating systems used, and any drive encryption used, or anything else out of the ordinary?

I've been wrong before, but I don't believe this is a controller issue. I think it is more specific to the drives themselves.

[djohnston]

Having a somewhat similar problem, I used modprobe to load the pata_amd and amd74xx modules, when my IDE drives weren't seen. Next fdisk -l command they were then present. The problem seems to be between hardware detection and choosing which controller modules to load. When the correct modules are loaded, the drives can be seen.

Ah. The further we go, the more we learn. I'm hoping to see another great "OP-tutorial" out of this one.

[Was_Just19]

Having a somewhat similar problem, I used modprobe to load the pata_amd and amd74xx modules, when my IDE drives weren't seen. Next fdisk -l command they were then present. The problem seems to be between hardware detection and choosing which controller modules to load. When the correct modules are loaded, the drives can be seen.

Ah yes .....  I was getting hung up on a controller problem rather than a controller module missing ....

[craesz]

In your first post, you said: "Finally checked the workaround for truecrypt for my work machine." Has truecrypt been applied to the drives you are trying to install to?

Nope. Just need it for my files. Without truecrypt working, I can't upgrade to 2010 as I will lose my backup scheme which I absolutely can't do. Once I resolved truecrypt working, I need to do the upgrade. Since it won't allow the install because it can't find my hard drives, I'm up a creek without an operating system.

You also said, "This morning when I tried to download the latest ISO, I got an error message about not having permission with ibiblio.org.... I went to my repository instead (one of the indiana.edu ones... I'm home in the middle of trying to get to a graduation ceremony....) and downloaded 2010.1 ISO." I'm trying to understand the "not having permission with ibiblio.org" issue. Do you mean you could not download the iso due to inability to access ibiblio's site?

That had something to do with ibiblio..... I thought I posted that I downloaded later from ibiblio....maybe I've lost my mind.

And you said, "My KDE 3.5 system works fine." Are you booting KDE3.5 from one of the questionable drives or are you booting KDE 3.5 from a liveCD?

I am booting from one of the drives. Earlier today I posted my fdisk results which shows that 3.5 doesn't have a problem finding the drives but 2010.1 does.

I have a mobo with nVidia disk controller onboard. Different model than yours, though. Mine is a MCP61. Like yours, the controller handles both IDE and SATA. In PCC, the SATA module for the controller shows as ‎sata_nv. The IDE module for the controller shows as pata_amd.

Since fdisk isn't working for you, can you give us a summary of your hard drives? Only concerned with the internal drives, as I assume those are the ones you want to install to. Can you give a summary of partitions on them, filesystems and operating systems used, and any drive encryption used, or anything else out of the ordinary?

I posted my fdisk results which show my partitions. There is no encryption on them (that is only for the backup to an external 200GB USB drive). Nothing else out of the ordinary. sdb1 is /home/chris, sda1 is /boot, can't remember all of it (I'm at home now) but one is /usr one is /home (have another user that needs to share) and one is / (root) on sda...

I've been wrong before, but I don't believe this is a controller issue. I think it is more specific to the drives themselves.

Frankly, I'm just glad you're trying to help. This is beyond confusing.

[craesz]

craesz:

With the OS that sees the drives, check in PCC --> Hardware --> Browse and configure hardware to see which module is being used to detect the SATA controllers, then from the liveCD modprobe that same module, then follow with the fdisk -l command.

Will be a little bit. I'm stuck out of the office tomorrow. Will do this as quickly as I am able and post the results.

[craesz]

Having a somewhat similar problem, I used modprobe to load the pata_amd and amd74xx modules, when my IDE drives weren't seen. Next fdisk -l command they were then present. The problem seems to be between hardware detection and choosing which controller modules to load. When the correct modules are loaded, the drives can be seen.

Ah yes .....  I was getting hung up on a controller problem rather than a controller module missing ....

This sounds like something that is extremely plausible.

[Old-Polack]

craesz:

With the OS that sees the drives, check in PCC --> Hardware --> Browse and configure hardware to see which module is being used to detect the SATA controllers, then from the liveCD modprobe that same module, then follow with the fdisk -l command.

Will be a little bit. I'm stuck out of the office tomorrow. Will do this as quickly as I am able and post the results.

Fair enough... we'll be here... not holding our breath, though.  

[craesz]

In case I forget.... Thank all of you for helping. This is the best part of Linux. Well... the help from the community, the fact that I'm not tied to M$ monopoly structure and that I'm as much in control of my computer as I can be. Muchas gracias.

[djohnston]

In case I forget.... Thank all of you for helping. This is the best part of Linux. Well... the help from the community, the fact that I'm not tied to M$ monopoly structure and that I'm as much in control of my computer as I can be. Muchas gracias.

Es nada. Y bienvenido.