A7N8X Deluxe

Linux can be installed in about 4minutes so if it's taking 24 hours there is definitely a hardware problem somewhere.

Are you sure your 2nd HDD is in good shape?

Do you get any IO errors during the install process?

What are the exact errors you're getting?

I have a couple of those boards and they work, although some versions had ACPI problems, BIOS, USB and possibly SATA issues. One of them has been running Linux for 5-6 years.

GL  

I had an A7n8X deluxe. The problem that I had with it was its incredibly **** ACPI implementation. It was so bad that I couldn't even install windows XP, and trying to load any liveCD or install CD for linux would fail. The way I got around that was I went into the BIOS and disabled anything having to do with ACPI and APIC. Then, when you want to boot a Linux install disk or LiveCD, you have to give it the following parameters at the end of the boot parameters list:

acpi = off noapic nolapic

This worked perfectly for me, and that computer was an otherwise good machine, with the exception of the ACPI/apic problems. Be warned: disabling this stuff most likely means you will not be able to use suspend on your machine since that is controlled by ACPI. I can't tell you what specific stuff to change in the BIOS because that motherboard died about a year ago and I had to replace it on the machine that had it.

Hope this helps.

--Zorak

P.S. I didn't find out about the evil ACPI problems until i had searched everywhere and failed, and then asked a buddy of mine at engineering school about it, and he told me about the problem (he had the same mobo).

The errors are during the install scroll, some lines are stating 'ERROR' or 'ERR'
I'll have to try installing again to get more detail.

My 2nd drive is fine, its a Seagate 80gb.

Hmm. I have an A7N8X-E Deluxe (which is supposedly slightly newer?) and it installed Linux just fine. The only issue with the board is that it will not flash the BIOS no matter how I try to do it- floppy, FreeDOS CD, built-in BIOS flash utility.

I wonder if you don't perhaps have memory errors. Have you run Memtest86 on your machine?

memtest is a great idea  

Most Linux distributions have memtest on the installation disk.

On Ubuntu there is a menu option for it, on many others you can type in "memtest" at the boot: prompt.

Good luck  

K7s won't scale their frequency if they overheat- they just shut off. It was P4s that scaled frequency when they overheated.

Error corrected. Thanks MU_Engineer  

Thanks for the tip on Memtest. I was not aware it was on my Ubuntu disk.

I ran Memtest and memory (1gb) is working fine.

The following is a typical scroll during install, the box numeric [xxx.xxxxxx] varies like line numbers...

Exception Emask
Initrams Emask SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
Buffer I/O Error device sdb logical block 0

[xxx.xxxxxx] ata 3.01-status {DRDY}
[xxx.xxxxxx] exception Emask 0x0 s act 0x0 Serr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
[xxx.xxxxxx] cmd c8/00.000.000.00.00/00f0 tag 0 dma 40s6 in

[xxx.xxxxxx] ata 3.01-status {DRDY}
[xxx.xxxxxx] exception Emask 0x0 s act 0x0 Serr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
[xxx.xxxxxx] cmd c8/00.000.000.00.00/00f0 tag 0 dma 40s6 in

[xxx.xxxxxx] ata 3.01-status {DRDY}
[xxx.xxxxxx] exception Emask 0x0 s act 0x0 Serr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
[xxx.xxxxxx] cmd c8/00.000.000.00.00/00f0 tag 0 dma 40s6 in

[xxx.xxxxxx] ata 3.01-status {DRDY}
[xxx.xxxxxx] exception Emask 0x0 s act 0x0 Serr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
[xxx.xxxxxx] cmd c8/00.000.000.00.00/00f0 tag 0 dma 40s6 in

This will continue for hours until it locks up.

Sounds like you are having ATA errors. It sounds like you either have a bad driver, controller, or disk. I'd boot the machine from a live CD and run smartctl on the disk and look for SMART errors to rule out the disk.

Yes MU_Engineer is absolutely right, it seems your SATA / ATA interface is freezing up and this is the reason it is taking 24 hours to install and doesn't get done.

This can be caused by a defective SATA cable, a failed drive, faulty controller or a flaky driver.

Start by replacing the SATA cables and make sure you're using an SATA power cable and not a 4 pin molex.

The smart command for checking the drive that MU_Engineer mentioned is

sudo su -

/usr/sbin/smartctl -T permissive  -T permissive -T permissive -T permissive -d ata --all /dev/sda

/usr/sbin/smartctl -T permissive  -T permissive -T permissive -T permissive -d ata --all /dev/sdb

Please post or PM me the results.

The "-T permissive" argument is normally optional but it will do no harm.

Fedora Core 7 i686 with the 2.6.23.15-80.fc7 kernel works on my board, it is version 2.0.

The SATA controller is an Sil 3112 and it is using the sata_sil kernel module.

Good luck  

Now that I have Ubuntu installed, and running (I swapped out my HD cables), I ran a muck with another cliche.

After logging in with my user name, and password. Doing the updating, and loading in more applications, and rebooting due to a lock up from an application that did not work to my expectations - The screen does a little flicker, turns copper color, and where my Desk Top Icons should be seen is now just a solid white screen with the mouse curser on center screen but functional to mouse movement.

Durning Boot I have a choice of OS. What is the difference between Kernal 2.6. 24-23, and 2.6 24-16?

Can you post a screenshot on flickr for us to look at?

If you hit the "print screen" key, the system should take a screenshot.

2.6. 24-23 is the newer kernel and 2.6 24-16 is the older kernel, probably the failsafe option for recovery, this is in case something breaks, which shouldn't happen.

 

Well not really, I have sense reinstall Ubuntu. I believe it had something to do with installing a driver and it fouled up my screen. If you hold a white sheet of paper up to the a light source, draw a little arrow in the center, you should sort of see what I was saying. The reinstall this time pointer out that my AMI Radon 3300 is propitiatory and Ubuntu does not support it so it now loaded a different driver. I think. I'll have to see how this plays out. At least a reinstall here is not as bad as a Microsoft Windows.

Ok, cool  

Keep the questions coming  

Nvidia cards usually work better, although some are quirky.