[wplug] RH Linux CD ROM Installation problems

[Michael Shafer]

Hi All,

Having some problems with doing a CD ROM install with RH 9.0 on some
circa 1998 Vintage HP Vectra Series 5 P 166 machines.
I updated the BIOS to the last release HP has for these so they
recognize up to an 8GB hard drive. Also I've installed Linux on these
boxes in the past and they run well enough. I have 8 of these rascals
and want to use them as various text boxes.

Problem: Installation won't recognize the CDROM

Notes and Attempted Solutions:

1. HP BIOS setup recognized the CDROM and setup has CDROM set as
bootable device.

2. I've tried the following CD sets all of which have proven bootable in
the past on other machines:
RH 7.1 (Boxed commercial distro set); RH 8.0 (burned from ISOs) and RH
9.0 (burned from ISOs)
No joy with any of these. All I get is an "-" for a cursor in the upper
left corner of the screen.

3. Created boot disk  without CDL parms and tried at boot: linux
hdc=cdrom where the CDROM is the first (master) device on the second
controller. Either way the installer can't find the CDROM.

4. Searched for CDROM drivers but couldn't find anything specific to the
situation. According to RH generic CDROM drivers are already in the boot
disk image.
During boot from the boot disk it shows that the CDROM is being
recognized at an ATAPI device. Problem comes when in the installation
area. Also have tried using both graphical and text modes for
installation.

5. Tried three different CDROMs


One Solution: 

1. Using an old GoldStar 8x CDROM and passing boot: linux hdc=cdrom
finally worked.


Question: Any thoughts on the above? Ways to get other CDROMs to work? I
did quite a bit of searching the Red Hat site and Google without much
luck.


TIA-

Cheers!


Regards,

Mike Shafer
Pittsburgh, PA USA
ms at its-secured.com
Off: +1(412)351-3127
Cell: +1(412) 889-2287