Debian Bug report logs - #24054
Can't install Debian on a Zip disk [fixed?]

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr

To: submit@bugs.debian.org

Subject: can't install debian on a Zip disk

Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 13:50:14 +0200 (CEST)

	Hi,
	I would like to install debian linux on a iomega Zip disk. The
kernel on the installation diskette (and also a custom kernel I have
put in) recognizes my Zip drive (ATAPI-IDE internal) as /dev/hdc.
However, the installation program dosen't allows me to mount any
partition on this disk. In fact when I ask to mount or initialise
partitions, no partition /dev/hdc? is listed.
	I have installed the redhat distribution on a Zip disk without
problem (a part from the fact one has to be careful to choose almost
nothing so that the distribution can fit on the disk). I knew there is
a problem to install lilo on the MBR of the Zip disk to make it
bootable, but there is no problem to put a root file system on the Zip
disk and boot from a floppy or the from MBR of the main hard disk. So
the question is why the debian installation program dosen't allow me
to do this ? Is this by purpuse or just a bug ?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PHAM Dinh Tuan                         | e-mail: Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr
Laboratoire de Modelisation et Calcul  | Tel: +33 4 76 51 44 23
BP 53, 38041 Grenoble cedex (France)   | Fax: +33 4 76 63 12 63
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message #12 received at 24054@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@ull.es>

To: Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr, 24054@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: can't install debian on a Zip disk

Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 18:55:33 +0100

On Mon, 29 Jun 1998 Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr wrote:
>         Hi,
>         I would like to install debian linux on a iomega Zip disk. The
> kernel on the installation diskette (and also a custom kernel I have
> put in) recognizes my Zip drive (ATAPI-IDE internal) as /dev/hdc.
> However, the installation program dosen't allows me to mount any
> partition on this disk. In fact when I ask to mount or initialise
> partitions, no partition /dev/hdc? is listed.

Which partitions are defined on the Zip disk?  Does /dev/hdc appears at the
devices list at the "Partition a Hard Disk" step?

	Thanks,
--
Enrique Zanardi						   ezanardi@ull.es

Message #17 received at 24054@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr

To: Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@ull.es>

Cc: 24054@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: can't install debian on a Zip disk

Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 09:32:52 +0200 (CEST)

Enrique Zanardi writes:
 > On Mon, 29 Jun 1998 Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr wrote:
 > >         Hi,
 > >         I would like to install debian linux on a iomega Zip disk. The
 > > kernel on the installation diskette (and also a custom kernel I have
 > > put in) recognizes my Zip drive (ATAPI-IDE internal) as /dev/hdc.
 > > However, the installation program dosen't allows me to mount any
 > > partition on this disk. In fact when I ask to mount or initialise
 > > partitions, no partition /dev/hdc? is listed.
 > 
 > Which partitions are defined on the Zip disk?  Does /dev/hdc appears at the
 > devices list at the "Partition a Hard Disk" step?

The Zip disk has only one partition 4 but I have also tried one with
partition 1 already formatted linux ext2. In fact the red hat
installation would hang if I tried to initiaized the Zip disk, so as a
precaution I formatt and initialize the partition befaore and only let
the installation program mount it. In the debian installation however
nothing works. The devices list at the "Partition a Hard Disk" step
dosen't contain /dev/hdc so there is not even possible to partition
the Zip disk (inside the installation program).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PHAM Dinh Tuan                         | e-mail: Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr
Laboratoire de Modelisation et Calcul  | Tel: +33 4 76 51 44 23
BP 53, 38041 Grenoble cedex (France)   | Fax: +33 4 76 63 12 63
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message #22 received at 24054@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@ull.es>

To: Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr, 24054@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#24054: can't install debian on a Zip disk

Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 10:24:07 +0100

On Fri, Jul 10, 1998 at 09:32:52AM +0200, Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr wrote:
> The Zip disk has only one partition 4 but I have also tried one with
> partition 1 already formatted linux ext2. In fact the red hat
> installation would hang if I tried to initiaized the Zip disk, so as a
> precaution I formatt and initialize the partition befaore and only let
> the installation program mount it. In the debian installation however
> nothing works. The devices list at the "Partition a Hard Disk" step
> dosen't contain /dev/hdc so there is not even possible to partition
> the Zip disk (inside the installation program).

That's really weird. I have received reports of the system successfully
identifying a Zip drive in a similar hardware configuration (/dev/hdd
instead of /dev/hdc). May you give me more details about your hardware?
When installing Debian, can you use the Zip disk from the shell at the
second virtual console?

	Thanks,
--
Enrique Zanardi						   ezanardi@ull.es

Message #27 received at 24054@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr

To: Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@ull.es>

Cc: 24054@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#24054: can't install debian on a Zip disk

Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 09:20:32 +0200 (CEST)

Enrique Zanardi writes:
 > 
 > That's really weird. I have received reports of the system successfully
 > identifying a Zip drive in a similar hardware configuration (/dev/hdd
 > instead of /dev/hdc). May you give me more details about your hardware?
 > When installing Debian, can you use the Zip disk from the shell at the
 > second virtual console?

Yes, it is weird. Using the second virtual console, I can fdisk
/dev/hdc, mount it, ... in fact do anything with the disk. The problem 
is just that the installation program don't see the device. The menu
"list partition table" lists only the partitions on my (first) hard
disk, i.e. /dev/hdax

My hardware is: processor AMD K6 at 233 MHz, main board TX Pro V4.1,
BIOS American Megatrend AMI BIOS 7/15/95, 1 ide UDMA hard drive (hda), 
1 CDROM ATAPI (hdb) and 1 internal Zip-ATAPI (hdc).

Note that at boot time, the bios recognizes the secondary master (my
Zip drive) as "floptical" (the primary master is recognized as ide
UDMA disk).


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PHAM Dinh Tuan                         | e-mail: Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr
Laboratoire de Modelisation et Calcul  | Tel: +33 4 76 51 44 23
BP 53, 38041 Grenoble cedex (France)   | Fax: +33 4 76 63 12 63
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message #32 received at 24054@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@ull.es>

To: Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr, 24054@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#24054: can't install debian on a Zip disk

Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 17:08:05 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On Mon, Jul 13, 1998 at 09:20:32AM +0200, Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr wrote:
> Yes, it is weird. Using the second virtual console, I can fdisk
> /dev/hdc, mount it, ... in fact do anything with the disk. The problem 
> is just that the installation program don't see the device. The menu
> "list partition table" lists only the partitions on my (first) hard
> disk, i.e. /dev/hdax

The install system tries to detect CD-ROM drives and ignores them. Perhaps
is recognizing your Zip drive as a CD-ROM drive. I have attached a little
C program. May you compile it, run it as root and tell me its output?

	Thanks,
--
Enrique Zanardi						   ezanardi@ull.es

[drive-detect.c.gz (application/x-gzip, attachment)]

Message #37 received at 24054@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr

To: Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@ull.es>

Cc: 24054@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#24054: can't install debian on a Zip disk

Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 11:47:39 +0200 (CEST)

Enrique Zanardi writes:
 > 
 > The install system tries to detect CD-ROM drives and ignores them. Perhaps
 > is recognizing your Zip drive as a CD-ROM drive. I have attached a little
 > C program. May you compile it, run it as root and tell me its output?

It prints

/dev/hcd is not a disk dirve nor a CD drive, errno = 5

This happens when where there is a Zip disk on the drive either mounted or
not. If there is no disk, there is an error message from the kernel
and the program prints

couldn't open /dev/hdc

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PHAM Dinh Tuan                         | e-mail: Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr
Laboratoire de Modelisation et Calcul  | Tel: +33 4 76 51 44 23
BP 53, 38041 Grenoble cedex (France)   | Fax: +33 4 76 63 12 63
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message #42 received at 24054@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@ull.es>

To: Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr

Cc: 24054@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#24054: can't install debian on a Zip disk

Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 16:21:55 +0100

On Wed, Jul 15, 1998 at 11:47:39AM +0200, Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr wrote:
> Enrique Zanardi writes:
>  > 
>  > The install system tries to detect CD-ROM drives and ignores them. Perhaps
>  > is recognizing your Zip drive as a CD-ROM drive. I have attached a little
>  > C program. May you compile it, run it as root and tell me its output?
> 
> It prints
> 
> /dev/hcd is not a disk dirve nor a CD drive, errno = 5

errno = 5 is EIO, Input/Output error. Your Zip disk shouldn't return an
error when sending it a valid request. I suspect it may be a hardware
problem.

	Thanks,
--
Enrique Zanardi						   ezanardi@ull.es

Message #47 received at 24054@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@ull.es>

To: Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr

Cc: 24054@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#24054: can't install debian on a Zip disk

Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 13:03:00 +0100

On Fri, Jul 17, 1998 at 09:26:38AM +0200, Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr wrote:
>  > errno = 5 is EIO, Input/Output error. Your Zip disk shouldn't return an
>  > error when sending it a valid request. I suspect it may be a hardware
>  > problem.
> 
> Well, I have used it over 6 months now and never notice any hardware
> problem. Also, the redhat distribution has no qualm about installing
> on it (only that it is somewhat too big for the Zip). How do you
> explain that ?

It's an orthogonal issue. The drive may be working fine, as the request I
was talking about is not used in normal operation. As it seems some other
devices show the same behaviour, I'm adding code to the CD-ROM detection
function to accept EIO as a valid answer from a non-CD-ROM device.

	Thanks for your help,
-- 
Enrique Zanardi						ezanardi@ull.es

Message #52 received at 24054@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Martin Schulze <joey@finlandia.Infodrom.North.DE>

To: Enrique Zanardi <ezanardi@ull.es>

Cc: 24054@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#24054: can't install debian on a Zip disk

Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 23:29:13 +0200

On Fri, Jul 17, 1998 at 09:26:38AM +0200, Dinh-Tuan.Pham@imag.fr wrote:
>  > errno = 5 is EIO, Input/Output error. Your Zip disk shouldn't return an
>  > error when sending it a valid request. I suspect it may be a hardware
>  > problem.
>
> Well, I have used it over 6 months now and never notice any hardware
> problem. Also, the redhat distribution has no qualm about installing
> on it (only that it is somewhat too big for the Zip). How do you
> explain that ?

Enrique:

> It's an orthogonal issue. The drive may be working fine, as the request I
> was talking about is not used in normal operation. As it seems some other
> devices show the same behaviour, I'm adding code to the CD-ROM detection
> function to accept EIO as a valid answer from a non-CD-ROM device.

May I assume that this bug is fixed now?  May I close the bug
report then?

Regards,

	Joey

-- 
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	-- motd of irc.funet.fi

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