A8N SLI installation problems

[AvixK7]

Hey everyone.

I just got a new computer and I'm ready to try out Mandrake.

Problem is the installation is freezing on me:

My specs are AMD athlon 64 3200, Asus A8N-SLI mobo, 1GB Shika Ram, 120Gb SATA Maxtor HarddriveD (I wanted a Western digital ), a second IDE 8GB HD (which is where I want to install Linux), MSI 6600GT and a microsoft optical mouse.

I burned the 3 ISO CDs of Mandrake 10.1 without any noticeable problems.

My first problem was the installation not detecting the mouse, I fixed that with the PnP O/S in the bios.

After restarting, I selected the Language and accepted. It then said:

Installing driver for disk/ide|scsi|hardware_raid|firewire card Nvidia corp.

it stays frozen right there. Any ideas guys? I really want to get into linux and this is a real bummer.

I don't want a raid configuration, don't know if this helps or not. the spare HD is set to Slave although I don't think it makes a difference. thanks for the help

Dan K7

[AlexK]

Heres what you do.

In the bios, disable any reference to RAID. Also read your motherboard manual to see if there is any jumper setting to disable raid.
Set the 8G hard drive to master.
In the bios, make the 8G hard drive the 2nd boot device and the 120G hard drive the 3rd boot device. (CD ROM is 1st boot device)
During Install, if you are asked to install any SCSI drives, say yes. This is required to get your SATA disk running. If it still hangs, select no for this option.

Seting the spare hard drive to slave does make a difference.

I assume you are going to install Windows onto the 120G, if so install windows first and then linux.

[AvixK7]

thanks for the advice, I'm currently using the system with windows right now, so one OS is already installed.

In the bios, make the 8G hard drive the 2nd boot device and the 120G hard drive the 3rd boot device. (CD ROM is 1st boot device)

I'm guessing this would be for the installation only, right? Afterwards I would reset 120 as first boot then 8Gb second, then CD-rom, correct?

anyways thanks for your help, I'll post soon on the result.

[AlexK]

I'm guessing this would be for the installation only, right?

The short and simple answer is no. This is the simplest way to setup a multi hard disk linux installation. You can still boot into windows, all you need to do is point lilo to the windows partition and windows will still boot fine.

[AvixK7]

Well, setting the 8Gb HD to Master freezes windows boot . I get teh mobo splash screen and it stays there. I checked the bios for the boot priorities and I can't seem to be able to select which HD I want to boot first. only whether or not I want to boot first by cd then Hard drive, etc. I can't however, be specific about which HD loads first...

I also tried a text install and at the same place where it usually freezes I get teh additional text: Disabling IRQ #26.

[AlexK]

I suggest you check your motherboard manual to see if there is a setting by which you can select which hard disk loads first. It is usually something like SATA loads first or something similar.

[Armor]

I know this is a late question. Many of the issues faced here, I am facing now.
I have a system with the A8N SLI momboard w/ a single 40GB SATA Western Digital drive. I have the dual GeForce 6600 PCIe video cards with a Lite-On DVD drive. I have no ancilliary IDE drives. I do have 4GB of Ultra PC3200 4x1024MB RAM. I am using the AMD 64 3200 Dual Core.
I defaulted the BIOS to the most basic defaults to load the AMD64 version of Mandriva 2006 x64.
I picked the "vgalo" install from the "F1" choices. I also tried "text" install, in case it was video issue.
I am trying now the best combination of BIOS settings to allow me to install to the SATA.
Comments/Guidance please.

[Chief]

Well, setting the 8Gb HD to Master freezes windows boot . I get teh mobo splash screen and it stays there. I checked the bios for the boot priorities and I can't seem to be able to select which HD I want to boot first. only whether or not I want to boot first by cd then Hard drive, etc. I can't however, be specific about which HD loads first...

I also tried a text install and at the same place where it usually freezes I get teh additional text: Disabling IRQ #26.

I have this same motherboard as you (Ai series correct?), you should be able to change the hard drive boot order: Boot--> Hard Disk Drives