I've tried 3 distros and still no linux

[dlmo78]

Can someone please tell me which distro might work. I'm trying to make a dual boot system on my desktop and have tried suse 11.1, ubuntu 8.10, and debian 5.0.0. All x64 os. With suse I can go through the entire install up to the point where it tells me that I don't have a hard drive. Ubuntu gives me an I/O error unable to read cd drive yet I can boot computer from it. Debian tells me that there is a problem with my memory then lets me type all day long with no input or response to the typing. I even tried my factory suse 9.1 which is one OLD and two not seeing my hard drive either. PLEASE HELP
Here are my specs per SiSoftware Sandra:

Motherboard: xfx Nvidia 8200 series model MI-A78S-8209
Processor: AMD Phenom 8450 tri-core 2.10ghz L1:3x64kb L2:3x512kb L3:2mb
Memory: 2x Crucial 2gb dimm ddr2 pc2-6400u ddr2-800 (set on dual channel)
Video: ATI Radeon HD 3600 series (1gb, PCIe 2.00 x 16

Storage Devices:

WDC WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 (98gb ntfs for winxp, ~100gb unformated partition, rest unpartition)

HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H55N (ATT66, DVD+-R, CD-WR, 2MB cache)

LITE-ON LTR-482465 (ATA33, CD-RW, 2MB cache)

I was able to get the suse 11.1 live to load to ram and see the layout of the KDE4. If I can get help fixing suse that would be great, but if I can get help finding a distro that will run on my machine, that would be good as well. (prefer x64 os)

dlmo

[b2bwild]

Burn Ubuntu disk at slow/medium speeds. that would mostly fix the I/O error.
or the disk may be damaged. so when you write the image verify the data.

[Bemk]

You should also run an MD5Sum on the ISO Image to verify that the image is correct.

[minthaka]

Maybe it is silly, but just recently I had to install WindowsXP SP2 on a brand new laptop. It didn't recognize the HDD until I've turned off the native SATA support in BIOS. I'm not sure that this is solution in your case, but after having tried 3 different distros, the possibilities for software error is approaching 0%. Something may be wrong with your hardware, or at least with its settings. Linux is more sensitive for hardvare errors than Windows, since it uses full capabilities of your box. Have you tried to run a LiveCD. I would recommend you for that purpose PuppyLinux or Knoppix. If the live CD works, the problem may be with your HDD. Have you tried to format the entire disk?

[i92guboj]

With suse I can go through the entire install up to the point where it tells me that I don't have a hard drive.

Probably it doesn't recognise your sata controller, maybe it's too new. Using the compatibility mode in your BIOS might be a temporary fix, while you can look on how to fix your kernel or update it.

Ubuntu gives me an I/O error unable to read cd drive yet I can boot computer from it.

Broken cd or bad iso, always use md5sum to check when the sums are available (they are 99% of the times in the same download page), and if that fails burn at lower speed and/or change the brand of cds that you use.

Debian tells me that there is a problem with my memory

We would need to see the concrete error message to diagnose this one.

[dlmo78]

I think I found the problem. Here's what I found on the Western Digital website:


Where to download software, utilities, firmware updates, and drivers for WD products (from the Downloads Library).
Question
Where can I download software, utilities, firmware updates, and drivers for my WD product (from the Download Library)?
Answer


The latest software, utilities, firmware updates, and drivers are available from our Downloads Library in the list below.

Important: There are no downloadable USB, Firewire, or eSATA drivers available on our Downloads page. WD external drives use the resident USB and Firewire drivers in Windows 2000 SP4, XP SP2, Vista, and Mac 10.4.8 or higher; when they're installed on your system. eSATA drivers should come with the motherboard drivers, or the eSATA card. If you are having driver issues, please contact Microsoft or Apple for their recommendations.

In addition, any operating system not mentioned here, is not supported by Western Digital, including Windows XP 64-bit, Vista 64 bit, and Linux. Some operating systems may come with their own native USB, Firewire, eSATA drivers. If you are using an operating system not supported by Western Digital, please contact the vendor for help installing our hard drives on their systems.

I guest WD doesn't like open source programs?! I know this don't solve the Debian or Ubuntu problems, but looks like I would have ran into this problem with them anyway.

If you know of a way to get around this or a HDD that WILL support Linux, please let me know.

Thanks for trying.

dlmo

[i92guboj]

I guest WD doesn't like open source programs?! I know this don't solve the Debian or Ubuntu problems, but looks like I would have ran into this problem with them anyway.

They are not specially friendly, no. But that doesn't really matter either. A hard disk is a hard disk, you don't require a driver to use it. What you need a driver for is your chipset, which is a small silicon piece in your motherboard which controls all the I/O, there lives the IDE (or SATA in this case) controller. And that's the piece that you need Linux to support, not the HD itself. If your chipset is recognised and works you can attach any HD. In short, the HD is not your problem.

In short, the "problem" is the mother boards, not the HD.

If you can boot from a livecd, please, run "lspci" on the console and post here the output. That might be valuable info. Also, if you manage to find any livecd or install cd that can see your HD, you might want to run "uname -a" to see which kernel is it using.

Besides that, did you actually try to change the SATA settings in your BIOS setup? Try enablind or disabling things like AHCI and/or IDE compatibility mode if such settings exist.

[coopstah13]

that isn't entirely true, there are actually some problems with the seagate 1.5tb disks that require a firmware update to be installed onto the disk, this could be a similar problem

[i92guboj]

that isn't entirely true, there are actually some problems with the seagate 1.5tb disks that require a firmware update to be installed onto the disk, this could be a similar problem

If that's true then I stand corrected. This open a new possibility. I've never seen a similar thing since I started using IDE disks on the 386 era though. Now I am curious about this so I'll try to google about that to learn more about it. If you have any specific link with detailed info on the issue, please, feel free to share it as well.

Thanks for pointing that out.

[jmadero]

Did you put this machine together yourself? My ex roomate had a situation like this and he had built the computer himself using a good but discounted motherboard....it happened to be that the motherboard had a horrible SATA controller, he had almost an impossible time getting any Linux distro installed (I don't recall if he was ever successful but I know he spent a lot of time trying)