I am trying a manual install becuase this is my only option left:

I followed the wiki on a manual install and have saved the config, then reloaded it and then started the install. The format starts on /dev/hdc1 but stays at 0%.

The only part I didnt do from the wiki is the:
# mke2fs -j -O sparse_super -m0 -i8000000 -L myth -M /myth /dev/hda4
becuase I want the ext3 filesystem it should be installing from default.

In the config file I changed the drive to hdc1
and also I went into HD_MAP and added the following:
/dev/hdc1:/ /dev/hdc3:/myth

Is this the reason I am not able to start a format on this drive??

I also wipped the partitions and started with a blank hard drive and repartitioned afraid that the partitions may have become corrupted.

I am trying to format a 300GIG ide drive which is on /dev/hdc and the IDE cdrom is on /dev/hda. Anyone run into this problem??

Why do you have you CD as /dev/hda ? Why not make the 300GB the Primary Master and the CD the Secondary Master then you can do a automatic install? Sounds to me you have a basic enough of a setup to not have to use manual install. I don't suggest manual install unless you have SATA or some other weird partitioning/setup need. Even LVM is cake using an automatic install.

Also KM only uses 3 partitions now since R5B7 / =5GB, SWAP 1.5x RAM and remainder for /myth.

http://www.mysettopbox.tv/pamphlet.html

Reason is becuase when i put the hard drive primary master (hda) and cdrom either on hdb or hdc when it checks for the cdrom it keeps looking in hda instead of where it should be looking

Can you manually format hdc1?

What I'm doing right now is low-level (zero fill) formatting the drive. I noticed when I put my 6 gig back into the machine as hda and the cdrom as hdc then the detection process actually looks for the cdrom on hdc.

I have a feeling the response time of the drive may be causing knoppmyth to skip it. Even though right before its says searching for CDROM it displays turning on DMA both on hda(hard drive) and hdc (cdrom).

Really wierd.

AHA!!

After zero-filling (the new low level formtting term) my 300g seagate. The knoppmyth install detects the cdrom on hdc and the hard drive on hda.

What I think is the knoppmyth detection process mayb see something on the drive it doesnt like like maybe a corrupt MBR or a bad early sector which caused it to only look on hda for the cdrom.

It is hard to know exactly how knoppmyth reacts to different hardware situtions and/or hardware failures.

Finally I dont see looking for cdrom in : /dev/hda even though its on hdc. It has now gone though the format and is currently copying files which I never saw prior to this post.

What I did is an auto install which much easier of an install procedure.

Thx for your help Cesman and tjc.