[5531] in Release_7.7_team
Re: stock answer for install problems with Dell gx620 for both Athena and RHEL
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (andrew m. boardman)
Fri Jul 14 15:26:47 2006
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To: Heather Anne Harrison <aurora@MIT.EDU>
cc: wdc@MIT.EDU, release-team@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 14 Jul 2006 08:13:20 EDT."
<20060714081320.7rkagdtdu46ccocw@webmail.mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 15:26:43 -0400
From: "andrew m. boardman" <amb@MIT.EDU>
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> Here are the stock answers. Let me know if they need any
> updates.
Thanks! Since they're split, the text from the Athena answer of "The
Athena installer will automatically deal with the X problem." is somewhat
baffling; I'd add "...which affects stock RHEL4 installs."
> The information on the actual problem seems a bit scant.
Problem statements follow; feel free to work them into the stock answers
as appropriate.
RHEL:
The stock RHEL4 install (currently update 3) does not correctly configure
X11 during the installation process, and requires this manual change
after installation for X11 to work properly. [Also change the
instructions to be "When the install is complete, reboot into single-user
mode, edit..." so they don't get stuck looking at a broken display they
can't do anything at.]
Athena:
Some recent computers with new versions of the SATA hard drive interface
(notably the Dell gx620) have problems installing Linux Athena due to the
current version of the install image (version 5) not properly recognizing
installed drives. Usually, changing BIOS disk controller settings to
"compatability" or "combination" mode will let the installer see them as
generic IDE disks and complete the install. Note that this problem does
not affect all SATA-equipped computers, and this change is only necessary
when the installer fails with the error "No hard drives have been found."
These instructions are specific to the gx620, but other computers should
have a similar interface.
