# 2 problems after install

## pr0vidence

I have installed Gentoo on a somewhat older machine. Here's an idea of the machine.

Tyan Tomcat Dual, Dual processor motherboard with twin P200MMX

96MB Ram

4.3GB hard drive.

Things mostly went well, except for 2 things.

1) it seems DMA access is not supported on that board. It is turned on by default. I noticed while installing that when I mounted the CD-ROM it gave me a few DMA "drive not ready for command" messages (but seemed to work fine) I remedied that with "hdparm -d0 /dev/hda" and "hdparm -d0 /dev/hdd" That fixes it, but only temporarily, after rebooting, DMA is turned back on, each time it boots, it pauses for a few seconds, I get the following messages.

hda: timeout waiting for DMA

ide_dmaproc: chipset supported ide_dma_timeout func only: 14

had: status error: status:0x58 {DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest}

hda: Drive not ready for command

then it pauses again, gives me the same messages again, repeates the process a third time, and then goes about it's business loading everything else as though nothing were wrong. The question all that is leading up to is: how do I turn off DMA permanantly? OR is there something I can do to make DMA start working on this machine?

Whew, the second problem shouldn't be so lengthy   :Very Happy: 

2) I followed installation procedures to the letter for installing grub. but after the reboot, the PC tells me that there is no bootable (active partition) drive on the system. I have had working bootable linux installations on this machine before, using both lilo AND grub (using RedHat) so I don't think it's a compatibililty thing. for now I boot off the gentoo boot CD and do "linux root=/dev/hda3" which works, but I would rather boot off the hard drive, any ideas?

Thanks all, I appreciate any and all help.

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## tkdack

 *pr0vidence wrote:*   

> I have installed Gentoo on a somewhat older machine. Here's an idea of the machine.
> 
> Tyan Tomcat Dual, Dual processor motherboard with twin P200MMX
> 
> 96MB Ram
> ...

 

There should be some options to set in the kernel config to "enable dma by default"

If they don't work you can add you hdparm lines to /etc/conf.d/local.start and they will be run after all other init scripts, this won't stop the pauses, but at leat it will turn dma on.

 *pr0vidence wrote:*   

> Whew, the second problem shouldn't be so lengthy  
> 
> 2) I followed installation procedures to the letter for installing grub. but after the reboot, the PC tells me that there is no bootable (active partition) drive on the system. I have had working bootable linux installations on this machine before, using both lilo AND grub (using RedHat) so I don't think it's a compatibililty thing. for now I boot off the gentoo boot CD and do "linux root=/dev/hda3" which works, but I would rather boot off the hard drive, any ideas?
> 
> Thanks all, I appreciate any and all help.

 

Hmmm ... grub can be a bit tricky to diagnose with out seeing how your partitions are setup, bes bet is to jump on IRC and see if someone there can help.

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## pr0vidence

Hey, thanks for the help.

My partitions are set up the same way as they are in the Installation procedure on the Gentoo web site.

/dev/hda1  /boot

/dev/hda2  SWAP

/dev/hda3  /

in grub I did

grub> root (hd0,0)

grub> setup (hd0)

grub> exit

If that helps at all.

I created a grub boot floppy. If I boot off the floppy and do.

grub> root (hd0,0)

grub> kernel /bzImage root=/dev/hda3

grub> boot

the machine boots like it should, that's not so bad, at least I'm using the right kernel. I just don't understand why it's not booting off the hard drive.

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