Hi all,

I've got an acer e500 desktop pc, and decided to install slackware on
it, but somehow it doesn't seem to correctly find my harddrive.

I use a slack 11 boot dvd, and have one 200Mb sata disk (afaik,
windows xp system hardware isn't that clear about it), but when i boot
and start cfdisk it can't locate any other partitions than the 3000 Mb
rescue partition on it (/dev/hda1). It doesn't show my winxp and vista
ntfs partition, or the empty space on the same disk. And when i start
cfdisk (or fdisk) i get a "opened disk read only, you haver no
permission to write" error.

I did use partition magic 8 to resize/create new partitions and create
empty space for linux, so it might have something to do with that (non
regular partition formats or disk usage). But from what i've seen in
the past cfdisk is able to deal with weird disk/partition formats, and
i've often used it to clean up messed up disks which couldn't be fixed
with any other tool, so i doubt that.

I've also tried to boot several other kernels, but hat doesn't seem to
solve the problem either.

Has anybody seen something like this before, and/or does anybody have
any idea on how to deal with this problem and install slack on this
pc, or are there known issues with these acer pc's and can i forget
about it.

Thanks in advance for any help on this.


Best regards,
Eric

Eric wrote:

> I've also tried to boot several other kernels, but hat doesn't seem to
> solve the problem either.
>
> Has anybody seen something like this before, and/or does anybody have
> any idea on how to deal with this problem and install slack on this
> pc, or are there known issues with these acer pc's and can i forget
> about it.

I have in the past found that the installation disk from Mandrake has a
very useful partitioning tool. It has, for me anyway, been able to detect
a variety of operating systems and re-partition the hard drive/s for not
only its own system, (GNU/Linux), but the BSD's and other systems also.
Your local LUG may be able to supply you with a disk you can borrow or
copy.
--
Two Ravens
"...hit the squirrel..."

On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 08:46:16 +0000, Two Ravens
<two-ravens@operamail.com> wrote:

>Eric wrote:
>
>> I've also tried to boot several other kernels, but hat doesn't seem to
>> solve the problem either.
>>
>> Has anybody seen something like this before, and/or does anybody have
>> any idea on how to deal with this problem and install slack on this
>> pc, or are there known issues with these acer pc's and can i forget
>> about it.
>
>I have in the past found that the installation disk from Mandrake has a
>very useful partitioning tool. It has, for me anyway, been able to detect
>a variety of operating systems and re-partition the hard drive/s for not
>only its own system, (GNU/Linux), but the BSD's and other systems also.
>Your local LUG may be able to supply you with a disk you can borrow or
>copy.

Right now, the hd has already been partitioned, and has enough empty
space for cfdisk to create a linux and swap partition. The problem is
linux can't "see" these partitions, or the free space, so it can't be
installed right now. And even if i created the linux partitions with
another tool, it wouldn't be able to run the slackware setup because
it can't see the destination hd/partition it has to install the files
onto.

It almost looks like the hd has some kind of read only tag, and the
ntfs partitions are invisible to cfdisk. Or it uses some kind of
disc/partition structure that is not known.

I've tried to boot from win2k and winxp install cd's, and they also
don't detect the hd so i guess it is some kind of SATA driver problem.
:-/


Best regards,
Eric

On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 09:27:06 +0100, Eric wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I've got an acer e500 desktop pc, and decided to install slackware on
> it, but somehow it doesn't seem to correctly find my harddrive.
>
> I use a slack 11 boot dvd, and have one 200Mb sata disk (afaik,
> windows xp system hardware isn't that clear about it), but when i boot
> and start cfdisk it can't locate any other partitions than the 3000 Mb
> rescue partition on it (/dev/hda1). It doesn't show my winxp and vista
> ntfs partition, or the empty space on the same disk. And when i start
> cfdisk (or fdisk) i get a "opened disk read only, you haver no
> permission to write" error.
>
Are you sure you are looking at the hard disk, not the CD. Try this:
boot the setup CD to the prompt, then issue:

# fdisk -l

<snip>
> I've also tried to boot several other kernels, but hat doesn't seem to
> solve the problem either.
>
> Has anybody seen something like this before, and/or does anybody have
> any idea on how to deal with this problem and install slack on this
> pc, or are there known issues with these acer pc's and can i forget
> about it.
>
Yes. Some very new boards have been uncooperative in terms of onboard
hardware and BIOS setup. Sometimes a big hammer is required to install.
;-)
>
> Thanks in advance for any help on this.
>
>
> Best regards,
> Eric
>
Note: comments inline.

I have been trying to download your board's manual from ACER. That site
must be hosted on an old 486 with 56k I/O pipe.

--
Douglas Mayne

On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 09:27:06 +0100, Eric <no@mail.com> wrote:

>I use a slack 11 boot dvd, and have one 200Mb sata disk (afaik,
>windows xp system hardware isn't that clear about it), but when i boot
>and start cfdisk it can't locate any other partitions than the 3000 Mb
>rescue partition on it (/dev/hda1).

That's the slack install DVD image You need to work with /dev/sda?

Grant.
--
http://bugsplatter.mine.nu/

On Sat, 03 Feb 2007 06:58:15 +1100, Grant <g_r_a_n_t_@dodo.com.au>
wrote:

>On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 09:27:06 +0100, Eric <no@mail.com> wrote:
>
>>I use a slack 11 boot dvd, and have one 200Mb sata disk (afaik,
>>windows xp system hardware isn't that clear about it), but when i boot
>>and start cfdisk it can't locate any other partitions than the 3000 Mb
>>rescue partition on it (/dev/hda1).
>
>That's the slack install DVD image You need to work with /dev/sda?

Indeed it is. I feel really stupid now. I had never used a SATA system
before and kind of assumed it to be on /dev/hdx :-/ Anyhow, after
using /dev/sda everything worked just fine.

Thanks @ everybody for your help!

Best regards,
Eric