Re: Failed 'null' Install On Intel 2.8G, Asus P4T533 System

On Sun, 2002-09-15 at 00:05, Robert L. Cochran Jr. wrote:
> I attempted to install 'null' on a system I built myself this week using 
> the following hardware:
> 
> Intel Pentium 4, 2.8 Ghz processor (this is the new one released earlier 
> this month)
> Asus P4T533 motherboard w/BIOS update version 1002. 533 Mhz FSB. Intel 
> 850E chipset. Onboard RAID (Promise Fasttrack) and audio.
> 512 Mb RIMM4200 RDRAM
> Western Digital WD1200JB (120 Gb) hard drive (8 Mb cache) as the primary 
> IDE master
> A second WD1200JB is plugged into the primary RAID IDE.
> (both drives brand new, not initialized)
> CompUSA 10/100 network card. This card uses the Realtek 8139 chipset.
> Asus 16x DVD drive.
> ATI Radeon 9000 Pro w/128 Mb video card.

I see trouble brewing already...  Sounds like a "broken promise" to me.
The Promise "RAID" controller probably requires proprietary drivers. I'm
not sure it will even work as a regular IDE controller, although there
is a pdcraid.o driver in the beta, so you could conceivably get lucky.
 
(snip)

> This got rid of the BIOS update...message, however now the machine 
> prints a PCI device listing and refuses to boot to the CD at all.

Odd, but not unheard of. 
 
> More research makes me believe I need to disable the Promise RAID in 
> order to install 'null'. Is this correct?

Try it and see. Then see if you can re-enable it post install.

> Any suggestions for getting it to boot to the CD so I can install 'null'?

Make a boot.img or bootnet.img floppy from the CD and install that way.

-- 
Chris Kloiber