FC4 disk 1 install -- kernel panic??

External Since: Jul 21, 2005 Posts: 4

On a Asus P5AD2-E Premium board, I am using SATA (setup to AHCI not RAID) 300GB
HDD and a SATA Plextor DVD-RW. There is a 2nd HDD on the ITE (red) ATA (?)
header set to regular ATA (?) (I mean non-RAID) operation. This is the HDD I
want to install Linux to. Currently it is booting W2K/DOS for testing
purposes.

Fedora Core 4 CDROM #1 on bootup gives me kernel panic. (I've used this disk
elsewhere to install FC4 so it's not bad).

I read that I might need to enable AHCI on the setup's kernel, and re-burn the
modified CDROM.

Is this an AHCI/SATA issue, or is it something else on the motherboard that
requires to be enabled in the setup kernel such as the ITE drivers, the SiI
drivers, the WiFi, the 2x networking, what can it be??? If I disable something
in the BIOS, will that do the trick?

BTW I am a complete newbie, so I have NO IDEA how to make another kernel, nor
do I have a working Linux system to do it on... I need something pre-made!

Also I tried to step down to FC3. The FC3 CD-ROM #1 boots, but says I need
more drivers. Selecting AHCI drivers doesn't do it.

TIA

External Since: Jul 04, 2006 Posts: 15

"H. Brown" wrote:
>
> On a Asus P5AD2-E Premium board, I am using SATA (setup to AHCI not RAID) 300GB
> HDD and a SATA Plextor DVD-RW. There is a 2nd HDD on the ITE (red) ATA (?)
> header set to regular ATA (?) (I mean non-RAID) operation. This is the HDD I
> want to install Linux to. Currently it is booting W2K/DOS for testing
> purposes.
>
> Fedora Core 4 CDROM #1 on bootup gives me kernel panic. (I've used this disk
> elsewhere to install FC4 so it's not bad).
>
> I read that I might need to enable AHCI on the setup's kernel, and re-burn the
> modified CDROM.
>
> Is this an AHCI/SATA issue, or is it something else on the motherboard that
> requires to be enabled in the setup kernel such as the ITE drivers, the SiI
> drivers, the WiFi, the 2x networking, what can it be??? If I disable something
> in the BIOS, will that do the trick?
>
> BTW I am a complete newbie, so I have NO IDEA how to make another kernel, nor
> do I have a working Linux system to do it on... I need something pre-made!
>
> Also I tried to step down to FC3. The FC3 CD-ROM #1 boots, but says I need
> more drivers. Selecting AHCI drivers doesn't do it.
>
> TIA

FWIW, this seems to be a problem that goes all the way back to the
beginning, FC1. It was bug#121819 which has been closed and duplicates.
See https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=121819#c122
Apparently the kernel makes a test to check which motherboard is
involved and failed for the asus p4p800 It also fails for Compaq systems
like mine that use the i845G chipset and it looks like your Asus is also
a victim. If somebody doesn't have one of the effected systems, then
they aren't even aware of the problem. I have either the DVD or the CD#1
for FC4, FC3, FC2, FC1 and they all fail in the same way.

There is a lot of misinformation out there on this topic and I see
reports of people reburning the install CD's to get around the problem.
Those reports from usually reputable people. Not the problem!

There are some kludges that have worked for some people, but not for me.
That includes typing "mediacheck" to create an error message and then
typing "linux mediacheck" and other variations.

Bob