[plug] Trying to install Red hat 6.2 on a new box

[Craig Ringer]

> The machine has a 40gb HDD as primary IDE master (ATA-100) and the cdrom as
> secondary master (ATA-33).  I've tried a different cd drive, same results.
> I've tried a cd rom as primary slave, same result, but then on a warm boot
> it actually booted from the cd.  The boot failed while loading vmlinuz tho'
If I understand you correctly, you've got 3 (4?) ATA ports, supporting 6/8 
drives. Drives are arranged accordingly:
	ATA33 (ide0)	MASTER: none		SLAVE: none
	ATA33 (ide1)	MASTER: cdrom?	SLAVE: none
	ATA100 (ide2)	MASTER: hdd		SLAVE: none
	ATA100 (ide3)	MASTER: cdrom?	SLAVE: none

If the cdrom is on ATA33/1, move it to ATA33/0 (I've seen one bios that 
refuses to read the rest of the ATA bus if the primary master is empty).

If its on ATA100/1 move it to ATA33/0 (many biosen won't boot off the 
tertiarty ata100 controllers and have fits trying to access non-hdd devices 
off them if they're really crap).

> I'm thinking that there's either something in the bios, maybe a delay, 'cos
> it almost worked an a warm boot over the ATA-100 channel, or maybe a cable
> problem in the second IDE cable that I'm using to the cd-rom.  I don't have
> a spare to hand, so I can't check that at the mo'.
BUY A PAIR OF NEW ATA/100 RATED CABLES SUPPORTING CABLE SELECT. Or if you can 
come around to the Subiaco POST Newspapers, 2 Kiehtley Rd Shenton Park, I'll 
give you a couple.


Alternately, make sure your cd is squeaky clean. If you can do so on another 
machine, duplicate it and use the new copy. Its possible your is damaged in 
the early sectors, confusing the cd-rom or linux kernel.


That said, your problems are downright strange given that windows installs 
and runs OK. Try booting into windows and checking if you can read the red 
hat cd. Yick, I know, but it can't hurt read-only-media *grin*.

Good luck