openSuse 10.2 Installation Issues

[hazza87]

Hi

I am having issues trying to install openSuSe 10.2
When attempting the install the boot screen comes up and when selecting any installation option (intsallation, safe mode ,acpi disabled etc) the linux kernel loads then comes up with a message saying no cd or dvd can be found starting manual installation
In the manual installation the cd cannot be recognised still and therefore the install cannot proceed.
I am using the 5cd option of openSuse 10.2 after downloading the X86_64 version.


My system set up is as follows
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3P Motherboard
2Gb DDR2 667 RAM
Samsung DVD RW
Nvidia 7600GT Graphics Card
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit

I am a relative newcomer to linux but have succesfully installed ubuntu 6.10 on this pc before with no real issues

any help would be much appreciated thanks!

[Jen]

Welcome to PressF1

Do you just have the single optical device? On what IDE channel is it set? Eg Primary/Secondary, Master/Slave?

Did you confirm the SuSE disks were downloaded without corruption by comparing your md5sums to the official ones?

[Graham L]

Many installation scripts give an option to test the CDs to be used. It would be worth trying that (it might be in an "expert" menu, but the last one I saw was just one option in the main menu).

It shouldn't matter what the IDE settings are. If a CD drive is there, it shoud be found. (Things were more "interesting" in the days when there were a lot of incompatible CD drive interfaces).

[hazza87]

There is just one optical drive and it is set as the master on the ide cable and there is nothing connected to the slave connection
The hard drive is SATA

I cannot check the cds although the option is there as it does not think the cds are in the drive when they are.

I have checked the checksums and all are correct.

Thanks

[Graham L]

Is it actually complaining about the absence of a drive or is it complaining that it can't find the next CD?

Can Windows read the directories of the CDs? If they have one file each with an .iso extension ... ...

[hazza87]

After loading the Kernel it says cannot find installation cd/dvd, so it cant find the first cd despite loading from it in the first place
In windows the cds contain a variety of folders and seemingly appropriate files

[Graham L]

This could be one of the subtle nasties ...

Often the installation requires each disk to have a fixed, known, label, so it knows the right disk is there . This is where the name you see associated with the CD icon in the "My Computer" of Windows comes from when there's a CD present. Sometimes, if whoever is preparing the downloadable images is human, errors creep in.

Again, see what Windows says. The "Properties" of a CD should show the label, I think, if it doesn't appear with the icon.

"suse cannot find installation cd/dvd" to Google might give some hints.

[hazza87]

The cds are named "SU1020.001" etc to "SU1020.005" which seem reasonable
After googling your suggestion i have found a method which i will test later which involves using the boot parameter "insmod=ide-generic"

[hazza87]

In case anyody else has a similar problem i solved this by going into bios and changing onboard sata controller (JMicron Controller) to ACHI instead of ide compatibility mode. then using the boot parameters insmod=ide-generic and insmod=pata_jmicron when installing.

This problem seems to have been caused by the intel 965 chipset on some motherboards used with intel core 2 duo cpus. It seems to be reasonably common in installs of opensuse10.2 and other distros with modern motherboard s combined with ide dvd drives.

Thanks for all the help

[Jen]

Thanks for the update and the solution you figured out for yourself in the end.