Mini-ITX HD-and ainstall fraught with problems

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Mini-ITX HD-and ainstall fraught with problems
started by: Xehupatl

Posted by Xehupatl on Sep. 05 2005,19:08

Today I got my Mini-ITX system, and I'm as happy as can be.
What I've got:
VIA EPIA ML-6000EA motherboard
256MB PC400 RAM
Kingston 256MB USB-Stick
Samsung 40GB 2.5" Harddisk
note: no CD-ROM drive

So I went to another PC, ran DSL live-cd and put the darn thing onto my USB-Stick (USB-ZIP) using the appropriate tool.

The stick boots DSL on my mITX no problems; everything I need works (sound, screen resolution, internet!, etc.), and I'd like to perform a HD-install because on my old system this wasn't a problem at all and I was happy with it there.

Wasting no time, I went straight for the HD-Install script in my fluxbox menu - no luck finding the HD. Tried cfdisk, made a 20GB bootable (83) partition, a 1GB swap (82) partition and another 10GB (83) partition. Don't ask me why, because I don't know myself. Wrote the table, everything seems fine.

Then I do the HD-Install, running from the USB-stick in "toram" mode, and everything seems to work out fine. I don't think there were any problems, so it does its thing, then asks me to reboot, which I happily do.

I remove the USB-stick, set the boot priority to HDD0, and wait. The system POSTs (or whatever it's called), then goes to "Verifying DMI Pool Table" - and stops. I wait, 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 5 minutes - nothing.

GAAARARARARGGHH!!!

I just want this to work guys.

Posted by Your Fuzzy God on Sep. 06 2005,18:20

Sounds like you did not set the main partition as bootable or active. Try rebooting with the disk into run level 2 (dsl 2) and running cfdisk to make the main partition bootable.

Hope this helps,

Posted by Xehupatl on Sep. 07 2005,17:06

Well it seems that I've found the problem:

DSL doesn't like being installed to a HD from an USB-stick!

Yesterday I stuck the 2.5" HDD into an old computer, popped in my DSL CD and went to town! Worked like a charm. Put the HDD back into my mini-itx system and it booted right up.