hanging on bootup: scanning for harddisk partitions

[mln]

:( Knoppix 3.7..3.9 hang on my Toshiba Satellite 1800-400 laptop by booting:
My harddisk partioning table looks corrupt. Only winxp en winme have no problems
by knoppix 3.7 with kernel 2.6 (knoppix26) don't hang and with fdisk I can see the harddisk table only mounting is not posible
With knoppix 3.9 failsafe works but with fdisk I can't see /dev/hda only in low resolution
Perhaps there is a solution for this problem

[rwcitek]

Can you boot with boot: knoppix 3? Do you get a shell prompt? If you do, can you post the results of 'cat /proc/partitions'?

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org/

[mln]

With Knoppix 3.2 there where no problems. The harddisk was fully accessable.
The contents of /proc/partitions was:



major minor #blocks name

3 0 14749056 hda
3 1 6160896 hda1
3 2 1 hda2
3 5 5630751 hda5
3 6 2955928 hda6
~
~
With later versions of Knoppix I have problems with accessing my harddisk
with 3.8 and 3.9 knoppix hang by booting on: "scanning for Harddisk partitions and creating /etc/fstab..."

Hopefully there is an option by booting

Hans

[rwcitek]

With Knoppix 3.2 there where no problems. The harddisk was fully accessable.
The contents of /proc/partitions was:
major minor #blocks name

3 0 14749056 hda
3 1 6160896 hda1
3 2 1 hda2
3 5 5630751 hda5
3 6 2955928 hda6

If I understand you correctly, the above was created with Knoppix 3.2. However ...

With later versions of Knoppix I have problems with accessing my harddisk
with 3.8 and 3.9 knoppix hang by booting on: "scanning for Harddisk partitions and creating /etc/fstab..."
... you were not even able to get to a shell with Knoppix 3.8 or 3.9. Is that correct?

Hopefully there is an option by booting
Probably. Your partitions do not look out of the ordinary. So, I suspect it may be something other than your harddrive, but that's just a guess.

To troubleshoot this, let's stick with Knoppix 3.8 for now. Try booting with boot: knoppix debug -b 3 Using that boot command will cause Knoppix to pause at various stages in the boot process. Just type 'exit' at each shell prompt to move on to the next stage. You will know that you are at the final stage when typing 'exit' does not do anything. If you get that far, type 'init 5' to go into graphics mode.

How far do you get?

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org/

[mln]

With knoppix 3.8 and 3.9, I must stop at stage 3 else the computer hang on the known failure point.
In stage 3, I can give command: init 5 ; startx
To go to X11. But startx stops with error message
When I give the command: cat /proc/partitions the output is:


major minor #blocks name

3 0 14749056 hda
240 0 1966656 cloop0


when I give the command: fdisk /dev/hda
The computer hangs and display continuely: "hda: lost interrupt"

When I boot knoppix 3.9 with the command: failsafe
Knoppix startup very quickly in grafical mode
Only the harddisk is not recognized.
The commands: 'cat /proc/partitions' and ' fdisk /dev/hda'
gives the same output as above.
Now I can break simple the console application: fdisk

Sorry not a possitiive result

regarts:
Hans

[rwcitek]

With knoppix 3.8 and 3.9, I must stop at stage 3 else the computer hang on the known failure point.
So with the knoppix boot label you only get to stage 3 ...

When I boot knoppix 3.9 with the command: failsafe
Knoppix startup very quickly in grafical mode
... but with failsafe you get all the way into graphics mode. So one or more of the cheatcodes that's in the failsafe kernel label helps you boot. My guess would be some combination of nodma, noapm, noapci, acpi=off, but that's just a guess.

Try booting with boot: failsafe debug -b 3. As before, just type 'exit' at each shell prompt to move on to the next stage. When you are at the final stage, type
hdparm -Cbvg /dev/hda
dmesg | tail
Can you post the output of both of those commands?

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org/

[mln]

Hello Robert,


1.
Here the requested outputs of knoppix 3.9 after:


hdparm -Cbvg /dev/hda
multcount = 16 (on)
IOSupport = 0 (default 16 bits)
Unmaskirq = 0 (off)
Using dma = 0 (off)
Keepsettings = 0 (off)
Readonly = 0 (off)
Readahead = 256(on)
Geometry = 29264/16/63, sectors = 29418912, start = 0
Drive state is: active/idle
Busstate = 1 (on)

dmesg | tail

FAT: invalid media value (0xcd)
VFS: Can’t find a valid filesystem on dev hda.
.... the rest is for other things such as CD: ISO9660 memory etc ...

2.
When I start up knoppix 3.9 with option ‘no dma’:
Knoppix fb1024x768 screen=1024x768 no dma
Then the laptop startup normally but the harddisk is not accessable

hdparm -Cbvg /dev/hda

multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 29264/16/63, sectors = 29498112, start = 0
drive state is: active/idle
busstate = 1 (on)

dmesg (not interesting parts are removed)

Linux version 2.6.11 (root@Knoppix) (gcc-Version 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-12)) #2 SMP Thu May 26 20:53:11 CEST 2005
........
........
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
ALI15X3: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:04.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:04.0[A]: no GSI
ALI15X3: chipset revision 195
ALI15X3: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xeff0-0xeff7, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xeff8-0xefff, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
Probing IDE interface ide0...
hda: TOSHIBA MK1517GAP, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hdc: TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-C2502, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
Probing IDE interface ide2...
Probing IDE interface ide3...
Probing IDE interface ide4...
Probing IDE interface ide5...
hda: max request size: 128KiB
hda: 29498112 sectors (15103 MB), CHS=29264/16/63
hda: cache flushes not supported
hda:hda: task_in_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: task_in_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hda: task_in_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: task_in_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hda: task_in_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: task_in_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
unknown partition table
hdc: ATAPI 24X DVD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
.......
.......



3.
Now when I do the same with knoppix 3.2 (may 2003)
The three partitions are accessable now.
failsafe debug -b 3.  No debugger (normal booting knoppix 3.2)

after booting: knoppix screen=1024x768 The output of:
hdparm -Cbvg /dev/hda

multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 8 (on)
geometry = 1836/255/63, sectors = 29498112, start = 0
drive state is: active/idle
busstate = 1 (on)


and

dmesg (not interesting parts are removed)

Linux version 2.4.20-xfs (root@Knoppix) (gcc version 2.95.4 20011002 (Debian prerelease)) #1 SMP Mit Mär 26 15:37:36 CET 2003
...
ide_setup: hda=scsi
ide_setup: hdb=scsi
ide_setup: hdc=scsi
ide_setup: hdd=scsi
ide_setup: hde=scsi
ide_setup: hdf=scsi
ide_setup: hdg=scsi
ide_setup: hdh=scsi
....
....
PCI: No IRQ known for interrupt pin A of device 00:04.0. Please try using pci=biosirq.
ALI15X3: chipset revision 195
ALI15X3: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xeff0-0xeff7, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xeff8-0xefff, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
hda: TOSHIBA MK1517GAP, ATA DISK drive
hdc: TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-C2502, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
blk: queue c032bfc4, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hda: 29498112 sectors (15103 MB), CHS=1836/255/63, UDMA(33)
ide-cd: passing drive hdc to ide-scsi emulation.
Partition check:
hda: hda1 hda2 < hda5 hda6 >
.....
.....




Greetings
Hans

[UnderScore]

Just a thought.
The Cheat Code to disable DMA is 'nodma' not 'no dma'.

[mln]

:( Sorry but with the command: knoppix nodma the system is hanging on the same point.
But with the command: knoppix no dma the system is booting so as told

[UnderScore]

As seen in your post:
When I start up knoppix 3.9 with option ‘no dma’:[/b]
Knoppix fb1024x768 screen=1024x768 no dma
Then the laptop startup normally but the harddisk is not accessable

hdparm -Cbvg /dev/hda

multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 29264/16/63, sectors = 29498112, start = 0
drive state is: active/idle
busstate = 1 (on)

Emphasis mine.
OK, so to summarize:
To turn on/enable DMA: knoppix dma
To turn off/disable DMA: knoppix nodma

'knoppix no dma' with a space between 'no' and 'dma' does not disable DMA but instead enables it. None of the Cheat Codes (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes) have spaces in it.

[Harry Kuhman]

:( Sorry but with the command: knoppix nodma the system is hanging on the same point.
But with the command: knoppix no dma the system is booting so as told
It will do the same thing then with the command knoppix dma no or knoppix chaneyrunsthecountry dma or just knoppix dma. Unrecognized commands are ignored. no is unrecognized. My understanding (thanks to James) is that dma was enabled by default in version 3.4 through 3.7 (maybe 3.3. also, I'm not sure). Versions 3.8.x and 3.9 have gone back to nodma being the default, as it was in versions like 3.1. If knoppix no dma lets you boot then you are using a version where nodma is the default and your systems needs dma to boot properly, the no is being ignored.

[mln]

Ok, Thank you. The laptop starts good with DMA but the harddisk partition table or partitions types is not recognized under Knoppix 3.7 .. 3.9 But in Knoppix 3.2 the harddisk is accessable
I hope you can help me to resolve this problem

[pestie]

I have a very similar laptop to yours and I've never been able to solve the problem. I think 3.4 was the last version of Knoppix that worked correctly for me. I did determine that the "nofstab" cheat code allows me to boot the system, but that's because it doesn't access the hard drive in that case. I've tried every miserable cheat code and kernel parameter you can imagine: nodma, acpi=off, pci=biosirq - nothing works! It's hard drive access that causes the problem somehow. For example, boot into command line only mode, like this:


knoppix 2 nofstab

Now try, for example, to read the partition table on the hard drive with fdisk, but use strace to print out the system calls that fdisk is performing:


strace fdisk /dev/hda

You'll see that it dies when it attempts the read() system call to actually read the partition table from the disk. It calls read() and it never returns. This leads me to suspect the kernel rather than anything specific to Knoppix.

I had Mandrake 10.1 on that laptop, running Mandrake's 2.6.8 kernel, and it was fine. I recently wiped Mandrake and installed Ubuntu, which worked fine with their stock 2.6.10 kernel and a custom-compiled 2.6.12 kernel. So either it's something specific to 2.6.11 or it's something about the way the kernel has been compiled for Knoppix. At this point I've pretty much given up - I don't know what else I can try to help diagnose the problem. If you ever find a solution I'd love like hell to hear it. At least one other user on this forum has the exact same problem, too - it was he who originally clued me in to using strace to see exactly where fdisk was hanging.

[rimjob4work]

any help out there? It keeps hanging up on scanning for harddisk partitions... I have tried several of the cheats and cannot figure out how to work around it... Anyone else able to beat this....

[maxIT]

What happend to my desktop instead are some sporadics hangings at boot on casual points of boot itself, with an average of one time every four/five boots. Nothing so tragic, when it happen I push reboot button and solve the problem. I'm courious if someone else have experienced that issue and if there's a way to investigate reasons.