Unable to see harddrive after booting off LiveCD

[bandoba]

Hello,

I have been using Knoppix for long time now. Normally I use it on my server machine with WinPartition method. Now I am trying to revive one of the old machines that I have. Knoppix works fine if booted off LiveCD. It sees my hard drives as well. But it can't mount any of the partitions. In fact when I do cfdisk or qtparted, it just gives me error saying failed to open device.

The problem disappears if I try cheatcode pci=off. But with this cheatcode, my network card (eth0) disappears too. Other than pci=off, no other cheatcode allows me to access any of the two hard drives I have. Is there any way to resolve this issue? Am I missing something here?

TIA.

Here is exact error message from cfdisk and some more info.

For cfdisk /dev/hda command, it shows error:
unknown partition table type.
Do you want to restart with new partition table?

I have tried answering yes to question above. In that case, it allows me to create new partitions etc but it fails while writing the changes. It just hangs in there. Any idea what could be wrong?

[|enouf|]

Try:
sudo fdisk -l /dev/hda
and
sudo cfdisk

....post back any relevant info

also paste output of;
sudo lspci -vv

and ALSO tell us what your intentions with this box are -- i.e.; wipe HDD, install Knoppix (install Debian of Kanotix orK/Ubuntu instead), dual boot ?, etc

[bandoba]

Thanks for your help. Here is the info requested...

$sudo fdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 13.7 GB, 13701316608 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 26548 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Disk /dev/hda doesn't contain a valid partition table


$sudo cfdisk

Unknown partition table type
Do you wish to start with a zero table [y/N] ?

$sudo lspci -vv

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 620 Host (rev 02)
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Step
ping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort
- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64
Region 0: Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: [c0] AGP version 2.0
Status: RQ=32 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ ITACoh- GART64- HTrans- 64
bit- FW- AGP3- Rate=x1,x2
Command: RQ=1 ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA- AGP- GART64- 64bit- FW- Rate=<n
one>

0000:00:00.1 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE] (rev d0)
(prog-if 80 [Master])
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Step
ping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort-
<MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 16
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 14
Region 0: I/O ports at <ignored>
Region 1: I/O ports at <ignored>
Region 2: I/O ports at <ignored>
Region 3: I/O ports at <ignored>
Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=16]

0000:00:01.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS85C503/5513 (LPC Br
idge) (rev b1)
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle+ MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Step
ping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort
- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0

0000:00:01.1 ff00: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] ACPI
Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Step
ping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort
- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-

0000:00:01.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller
(rev 11) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Step
ping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort
- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64 (20000ns max), Cache Line Size: 0x08 (32 bytes)
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 3
Region 0: Memory at e5901000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

0000:00:02.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Virtual PCI-to-PCI bri
dge (AGP) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Step
ping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort-
<MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
Memory behind bridge: e5800000-e58fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: e5000000-e57fffff
BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA- VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-

0000:00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Lite-On Communications Inc LNE100TX (rev 21)
Subsystem: Netgear FA310TX
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Step
ping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort
- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
Region 0: I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
Region 1: Memory at e5900000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Expansion ROM at e4000000 [disabled] [size=256K]

0000:00:0f.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10
)
Subsystem: C-Media Electronics Inc CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Step
ping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort
- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64 (500ns min, 6000ns max)
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
Region 0: I/O ports at e400 [size=256]
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot
-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

0000:00:0f.1 Communication controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10)
Subsystem: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Step
ping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort
- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 3
Region 0: I/O ports at e800 [size=64]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk+ DSI- D1- D2+ AuxCurrent=55mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2+,D3ho
t+,D3cold+)
Status: D3 PME-Enable+ DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 530/620 PCI/AGP VGA Display Adapter (rev 2a) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS530,620 GUI Accelerator+3 D
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Step ping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort - <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64 (500ns min)
Region 0: Memory at e5000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=8M]
Region 1: Memory at e5800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Region 2: I/O ports at d000 [size=128]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 1
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot -,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Capabilities: [50] AGP version 1.0
Status: RQ=2 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA- ITACoh- GART64- HTrans- 64b it- FW- AGP3- Rate=x1,x2
Command: RQ=1 ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA- AGP- GART64- 64bit- FW- Rate=<n one>



I would like to run KNOPPIX on this machine eventually. But the way I want to run it is like WinPartition method except Windows partition. Here is how I would do it...

1. Create a small partition of around 700 MB and copy KNOPPIX ISO file on that partition.
2. Create swap partition.
3. Create additional data partition with ext3 file system for KNOPPIX use.
4. Create a FAT32 partition to share data between KNOPPIX and other OSes.

After partition creation, I normally install GRUB on that machine and ask it to boot off ISO file on first partition - just like what it does in case of WinPartition method.

The main reason to do this - I can easily upgrade version of KNOPPIX later just by repalcing the ISO file on first partition. Also by keeping ISO file on HDD, the speed of booting is much faster than booting off CD because I have got a very slow CD drive on this machine.

Does all this makes sense? Please suggest if there is any better way to do this. And yes, first we need to resolve these HDD issues.

[|enouf|]

Thanks for your help. Here is the info requested...

[info snipped]

I would like to run KNOPPIX on this machine eventually. But the way I want to run it is like WinPartition method except Windows partition. Here is how I would do it...

1. Create a small partition of around 700 MB and copy KNOPPIX ISO file on that partition.
2. Create swap partition.
3. Create additional data partition with ext3 file system for KNOPPIX use.
4. Create a FAT32 partition to share data between KNOPPIX and other OSes.

After partition creation, I normally install GRUB on that machine and ask it to boot off ISO file on first partition - just like what it does in case of WinPartition method.

The main reason to do this - I can easily upgrade version of KNOPPIX later just by repalcing the ISO file on first partition. Also by keeping ISO file on HDD, the speed of booting is much faster than booting off CD because I have got a very slow CD drive on this machine.

Does all this makes sense? Please suggest if there is any better way to do this. And yes, first we need to resolve these HDD issues.

Hi - you're welcome yes - it makes sense (But - I think installing Debian 3.1r1 (Sarge) -or- (K)Ubuntu, Kanotix, MEPIS, SLAX, whatever, etc is a much better option - the installation process will let you create your own partitions /sizes, etc...it can be a little bit tricky on 1st try, but...)

Ok- so we can wipe the HDD ?? and you're sure it's the only HDD ?(or sure it's /dev/hda ?)
If so - then we can Zero out the disk - yes?
Either let Cfdisk do it or (answer Yes);
Boot to Knoppix LiveCD (which version are you using ?)....then at boot: type in knoppix26 1
Once booted to text mode as root (runlevel1)...type in
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 this should zero out the MBR/MPTs - you can now reboot and install whatever you like ( I haven't booted to LiveCD in a while, so I forget exactly if you use ' exit ' or ' init 6 ' or 'ctrl-alt-del' or ' shutdown -r now ' to resart the system)... Note; you shouldn't need to add ' sudo ' in front of the ' dd ' command.

I'm just not that familiar with the WinPartition procedure (though I know about it)

I installed Debian Sarge not too long ago and having a full install has it's advatages (and some headaches ) -- but I really like this "Kpackage" thing instead of apt-get or aptitude -- makes for a nice GUI for Installing ANY deb packages , updating, upgrading and sorting.

YMMV

Edit;
Oh ..while the lspci -vv is very informative -- please do this instead (much less output)
sudo lspci -n - post the info HERE and into this websites box http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/index.cgi
It's a Linux Hardware compatability helper site;

[bandoba]

Partitioning is not a problem. I can easily handle it. I tried Ubuntu, Puppy Linux and other stuff and it works fine. But I would really like to know why I am unable to install KNOPPIX when any other distro just works fine. It is kind of challenge for me to find out what is wrong and why KNOPPIX doesn't understand the setup.

About zeroing out the disk - no problem with that. I tried dd and it just hung while writing to the disk. In fact as I mentioned before, I have tried answering yes to cfdisk question of "start with new partition table". But later on it fails while writing new partition table.

The main thing that I don't understand is why it can't read even existing partition table. The existing partition table is valid. It was created when I installed Ubuntu and right Ubuntu is still there. I am trying to replace it with KNOPPIX. But for some reason, KNOPPIX just doesn't see existing stuff on the disk. Any thoughts/comments?

[bandoba]

Edit;
Oh ..while the lspci -vv is very informative -- please do this instead (much less output)
sudo lspci -n - post the info HERE and into this websites box http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/index.cgi
It's a Linux Hardware compatability helper site;

I tried lspci -n. Here is the output...
0000:00:00.0 0600: 1039:0620 (rev 02)
0000:00:00.1 0101: 1039:5513 (rev d0)
0000:00:01.0 0601: 1039:0008 (rev b1)
0000:00:01.1 ff00: 1039:0009
0000:00:01.2 0c03: 1039:7001 (rev 11)
0000:00:02.0 0604: 1039:0001
0000:00:09.0 0200: 11ad:0002 (rev 21)
0000:00:0f.0 0401: 13f6:0111 (rev 10)
0000:00:0f.1 0780: 13f6:0211 (rev 10)
0000:01:00.0 0300: 1039:6306 (rev 2a)


I ran it throught the link you provided. As per the results there, all appears to be OK. May be you can check and see if I missed anything. Thanks.

[bandoba]

One more question: what exactly does pci=off cheatcode do? I am wondering because as soon as I use that, KNOPPIX sees all my hard drives correctly. Can read the partition table. In fact it even uses the swap partition that is already there. But with that cheatcode, it doesn't see my network card anymore.

[|enouf|]

I tried lspci -n. Here is the output...
0000:00:00.0 0600: 1039:0620 (rev 02)
0000:00:00.1 0101: 1039:5513 (rev d0)
0000:00:01.0 0601: 1039:0008 (rev b1)
0000:00:01.1 ff00: 1039:0009
0000:00:01.2 0c03: 1039:7001 (rev 11)
0000:00:02.0 0604: 1039:0001
0000:00:09.0 0200: 11ad:0002 (rev 21)
0000:00:0f.0 0401: 13f6:0111 (rev 10)
0000:00:0f.1 0780: 13f6:0211 (rev 10)
0000:01:00.0 0300: 1039:6306 (rev 2a)


I ran it throught the link you provided. As per the results there, all appears to be OK. May be you can check and see if I missed anything. Thanks.

I am as perplexed as you are atm - the hardware seems all supported as per that url check

One more question: what exactly does pci=off cheatcode do? I am wondering because as soon as I use that, KNOPPIX sees all my hard drives correctly. Can read the partition table. In fact it even uses the swap partition that is already there. But with that cheatcode, it doesn't see my network card anymore.

Not certain - but nopci or pci=off is likely very similar to Failsafe (basically nothing loaded)
Have you booted with Knoppix LiveCD to Knoppix26 1 or even just Knoppix 1
Above is very important when trouble-shooting also to access unmounted drives/file systems (IIRC)
Try using e2fsck (it's like a Check Disk for ext2,3 file systems)
type in info e2fsck for info and options (I'm not good at using that one yet )

You are being quite vague about your system setup and HDD info.....
Do you have some funky HDDs ? or external or RAMDrives or somesuch ?
Perhaps HDDs attached to an SCSI or RAID controller? or UltraATA/IDE PCI Card or something ?
Using LVM (Logical Volume Manager) or NFS (Network/ed File System?) drives ?
What Version of Knoppix ?? and which Kernel ?? CD or DVD version ??
What other OSes are installed ?
What File Systems are you using ext2, ext3,
Did you at one time put LILO into the MBR ? or LoadLin ?
>>some silly questions<<
How many HDDs are in the box ??
Is this a Macintosh ??
A Laptop ?

Post *some* of this output;
sudo hdparm -I /dev/hda (that's a Capital letter "I" as in Eye, not an L, not a 1)

and *all* of this one;
sudo dd if=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 | xxd

and *all* of this one;
sudo cat /etc/fstab

and all of this;
sudo mount

BTW - Knoppix is NOT meant to be installed to HDD
Besides AFAIK; you would need to boot to 'knoppix 1' and then run the installer anyway - the installer won't do anything from within a fully booted knoppix (GUI)

[|enouf|]

$sudo lspci -vv
[...]
0000:00:00.1 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE] (rev d0)
(prog-if 80 [Master])
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Step
ping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort-
<MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 16
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 14
Region 0: I/O ports at <ignored>
Region 1: I/O ports at <ignored>
Region 2: I/O ports at <ignored>
Region 3: I/O ports at <ignored>
Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=16]

not sure if this is anything or not - but that IDE I/O port ignored *may* be an issue;

FWIW -- here's mine for comparison;

0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01) (prog-if 80 [Master])
Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64
Region 4: I/O ports at 1000 [size=16]

[bandoba]

Not certain - but nopci or pci=off is likely very similar to Failsafe (basically nothing loaded)
Have you booted with Knoppix LiveCD to Knoppix26 1 or even just Knoppix 1

I am booting from live CD. It is version 4.0.2 (20050923). This version by default boots with 2.6 kernel so never used knoppix26 cheatcode. Also instead of knoppix26 1, I used knoppix 2. Hope that won't make a huge difference. But will try with knoppix 1 also.

Above is very important when trouble-shooting also to access unmounted drives/file systems (IIRC)
Try using e2fsck (it's like a Check Disk for ext2,3 file systems)
type in info e2fsck for info and options (I'm not good at using that one yet )

Will try this out tomorrow.

You are being quite vague about your system setup and HDD info.....
Do you have some funky HDDs ? or external or RAMDrives or somesuch ?
Perhaps HDDs attached to an SCSI or RAID controller? or UltraATA/IDE PCI Card or something ?
Using LVM (Logical Volume Manager) or NFS (Network/ed File System?) drives ?
What Version of Knoppix ?? and which Kernel ?? CD or DVD version ??
What other OSes are installed ?
What File Systems are you using ext2, ext3,
Did you at one time put LILO into the MBR ? or LoadLin ?

Sorry about not providing all the info.
About the machine and hardware:
- this is an old e-machine desktop with Intel Celeron 333 MHz CPU with 384MB RAM and 2 hard drives.
- hda is 12GB IDE hard disk with 4 partitions (2 of them with ext3, one swap and one FAT32). Right now it contains Ubuntu. When I installed Ubuntu, it did put GRUB on the system. Though I don't think it matters because I am booting off a knoppix live CD (version 4.0.2).
- hdb is 4GB IDE hard disk with 1 FAT32 partition and Windows ME.
- I believe the knoppix Live CD version 4.0.uses kernel version 2.6.
- Both hard drives are fine, they are correctly recognized by BIOS, Windows ME, Ubuntu, Puppu Linux. Both are IDE drives connected to primary IDE on motherboard.
- No external or SCSI or RAID HDDs.
- Not using LVM of NFS.
- As I said above, Ubuntu installation did put GRUB on MBR. So I boot off first hard disk, I see GRUB menu giving me option of booting to Ubuntu or Windows ME on 2nd hard drive.

Hope this explains all. Please let me know if you need more info.

>>some silly questions<<
How many HDDs are in the box ??
Is this a Macintosh ??
A Laptop ?

- There are 2 HDDs - see above for more details.
- This is a Windows ME machine originally but now Ubuntu & WinME dual boot.
- This is a desktop machine, not laptop and not macintosh.

Post *some* of this output;
sudo hdparm -I /dev/hda (that's a Capital letter "I" as in Eye, not an L, not a 1)

and *all* of this one;
sudo dd if=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 | xxd

and *all* of this one;
sudo cat /etc/fstab

and all of this;
sudo mount

I will post the results of these commands in separate post.

BTW - Knoppix is NOT meant to be installed to HDD
Besides AFAIK; you would need to boot to 'knoppix 1' and then run the installer anyway - the installer won't do anything from within a fully booted knoppix (GUI)

[/quote]

As I mentioned earlier, I am far away from installing anything. For now, I just want to see my hard drives with correct partition table. Just like when I see those with pci=off cheatcode. Once I can see existing partition info, I will move ahead to re-partitioning and pesudo install procedure as I explained in 2nd/3rd post.

HTH and thanks for all your help.