How to fix Drive not ready for command error on boot?

[mco]

Hi

I just installed Knoppix onto hard disk, to co-exist with Windows 98 on the other partition. Install went fine but the system hangs towards the end of booting with the following text:

hda: dma_timer_expiry dma status==0x20
hda: timeout waiting for dma
hda: __idle_dma_test_irq called while not waiting
hda: status error 0x58 {DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest}
hda: drive not ready for command

Any suggestions greatly received.

Thanks

--mco

[fingers99]

I've only seen this (and not with a first HD) when cabling and jumpering were suspect and/or a slower drive was "upstream" of the drive reporting the errors.

Is dma enabled for the drive in the bios? Check cabling and jumpering.

[mco]

Thanks.

How can I find out if DMA is enabled?

I also noticed a few other things earlier in the boot text.

hda1 hda2 < hda5 hda6 >
ide late registration of driver

Also, looking at the disk with Partition Magic in Windows has it
complaining about some crossing of 1024Mb boundary.

Could this be a disk layout problem and not hardware/drivers?

Thanks

--mco