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Re: Pavilion xt375 and linux

 
Mark Patelunas
New Member

Pavilion xt375 and linux

I have a pavilion xt375 with P4 2.2Ghz 40GB HDD (Ibm travelstar 4200rpm) 512mb ram ATI M6 Graphics adapter and internal 802.11b. My problem is that the harddrive is not being recognized properly with Red Hat 7.3 and Mandrake 8.1 or 9.0rc1. With Gentoo the keyboard quits working after the kernal boots and you need to make the first selection for the install. I have the HDD partitioned with partition magic and I have also partitioned it with GNU fdisk and I have. Mandrake sometimes sees the partitions properly but fails when trying to format. Red Hat complains of a bad partition table or wring info from the BIOS. When booting with a linux utility CD it complains of an error with the partition table yet in fdisk the partitions are all seen properly. Any suggestions? I really prefer Gentoo, it's what I an using on my old Compaq 1267 Laptop. I am stumped between the problem being with th Hard Drive and the BIOS or is it just impossible to install Linux on this laptop?
4 REPLIES 4
Kodjo Agbenu
Honored Contributor

Re: Pavilion xt375 and linux

Hello,

Try this :

=> Begin RedHat 7.3 install. At the partitioning step, remove all partitions, then create the partitions you need and write the new partition table.

=> After exited fdisk, REBOOT THE SYSTEM, then restart the install without entering the partitioning menu.

Good luck.

Kodjo
Learn and explain...
John Russell_6
Occasional Advisor

Re: Pavilion xt375 and linux

Hi,
I've also had problems when using Partition Magic and Linux. Not sure but I think the problem lies in that Partition Magic uses the drive parameters from the bios but linux takes them from the drive itself. I'd suggest deleting all the partitions you made with Partition Magic using Partition Magic and then recreating them with linux.
Hope this helps.
John.
Ted M Johnson_1
Frequent Advisor

Re: Pavilion xt375 and linux

I've also noticed on a few systems that the first partition, the Hidden Diagnostic Partition, is actually hidden from the OS by the bios.

Check your CHS or LBA settings against the HDD and make sure they match. If you have a hda1 that is a diag partition of a few megs, then the advice of completly fdisk'ing the HDD and starting over is good advice.
Don't use Disk Druid; use fdisk.

I've seen this on 2 omnibooks and one of the older e-pc's as well.


-ted
William G. James
Occasional Advisor

Re: Pavilion xt375 and linux

I have been attempting to install linux on the xt375 for about two weeks now without a whole lot of luck but I do know how to get around your problem.

If using Mandrake or Suse use boot parameters

linux ide=nodma idebus=66

If using Red Hat try

linux ide=nodma idebus=66 noapm noapic

The problem is compatibility issues with the IDE chipset and advanced power management.

Good luck