Hello-

Ok, I am going to give up. I am trying to set up a manual installation on hdd not the usual hda. What I was told was to go into the manual installation, make the four partitions, load the config, then config, save the config, manually change the config <cntrl><alt><F3>, nano the saved file and change the hda references to hdd. (I really hope I am not losing anyone.) Load the new saved config and install. It seems to install correctly onto the hdd4 (for some reason it loads on the largest partition) but it goes bad right after it copies the files. I get some sort of error about "Directory not found" and something about Shadow something something (about 10 errors). It then says Installation successful with an ok button. I click it and it goes immediately back to the command line. Upon reboot, lilo is not installed and goes back into XP (on hda). I am a COMPLETE and total noob knowing hardly anything about linux. I have installed mandrake but you have to be pretty bad if you can't get that one working. Basically be easy and VERY detailed with me if you can...

Thanks,

Spiffy

Is swapping the drives an option? I.e. put the current one on the secondary and move the new one to the primary?

Yeah I suppose I could swap them but that would kind of be a pain. Think I could just turn off the other three drives in the bios and do an automatic?

Although now that I thnk of it, the third drive (the one I want to install to) is also connected to the cd-rom. Yes yes, I know, a hd connected to a cd is bad... I just wanted to try knoppmyth out first before I build my multimedia box.

I'm pretty sure that disabling them in the BIOS won't work...

no disabling them won't work, because the secondary master will still be hdc and secondary slave will still be hdd regardless if anything else is turned on or not.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

Hi,
I am just wondering if you got around the problem of these ...shadow... errors, as I am getting the same errors. I cannot swap disks though as I am getting the errors after doing a manual install to my single SATA drive.

I get something like:
/mnt/hdinstall/etc/shadow not found ... directory not found ... about 10 errors as you have. But they only flash up for an instant before it says installation complete. Rebooting without the CD in the drive gives an 'Error loading Operating System' message

I have checked and this file does exist.

Yeah I believe I figured that one out. You have to edit the config file. If you save your configuration, go to the command line (control alt F3 I believe?) and edit it with nano, you have to change the map listings. Aka, you have to change them to things that exist. It tries by default to access hda. You have to change them to whatever drive you are installing to. Didn't fix my lilo problem though. Goes through the installation fine it seems but never boots into the lilo. I have looked PAINFULLY around these forums and I haven't found anything that works for me. Anyone have any ideas??? Being as specific as possible?

Btw, if I completely lost you, just reply and I will give further info. Personally, I just gave up. I need the drive space more than an another impossible installation of a linux distro. That is why linux has not taken off ladies and gentleman. And that is highly unfortunate. They are getting better I suppose but not enough that you don't have to be trained in linux to figure it out.

I just reread your msg. Did you load the SATA config file for your hard drive? Not sure but that may be your problem.

Hi,
I selected the knoppmyth-sata config file in option 4 of the install menu. This file has only 2 references to the hard drive - in HD_CHOICE and HD_MAP, so this wouldn't have been too painful to change if I had to, but they are set to /dev/sda1 as required. It makes me think I am looking at the wrong file? Am I? I don't have to do anything special to load it do I, just hit return after typing the new filename in..?

It formats the disk correctly, and then proceeds to copy all the files, the progress bar reaches 100%, then runs fstart (or something similar?) without error.. then it gives the errors while it says "Converting Knoppix to Debian"

Yeah that is the file and the HD_MAP is the thing I changed. And I believe (extreme noob here so take it as it is) that got rid of the problem. I typed in the new partitions there (Swap, /, cache and mythtv?). Just emulate what is already there but point to your partitions on the correct drive instead. And if it does fix it and you get it working, PLEASE PLEASE tell me how to fix the lilo. I think that is my problem. I tried to do the apt-get update and ran through each of the servers but didn't connect to any of them. Any ideas all?

Oh yeah, and after you change it, save it with a different filename (I like to have a backup) and go back into the installation and load the new file. Then install. Not sure about the converting to debian thing though. Haven't gotten that far.

I only have the 2 partitions: /cache and /myth in HD_MAP. The HD_CHOICE setting is the only one that refers to /dev/sda1 and the swap drive is not referenced, though it detects this on boot (if it's partitioned before I boot from the CD).
I don't think there is anything I can change to improve this file. I tried inserting a / mapping to sda1 but it just said it's already mounted - I don't think that is the problem.

The converting to debian bit is the title in the progress bar (very briefly) when it gives these ..shadow.. errors that you said you had - this is still before the reboot. (I am confident it is the same problem you desribed). It then tells me it installed successfully, and when I reboot it just says Error loading operating system.
It doesn't get to a boot manager.

Pardon my ignorance - I am an extreme newbie to Linux, and I am trying KnoppMyth after failing getting everything to work with FC3. But I do remember that I couldn't get the boot manager to load correctly unless it was installed on the hard drive (I don't think a separate partition was necessary) rather than on the MBR, then I had to ensure that the BIOS was set to boot to SATA, and that the drive was connected to the 1st SATA port on the Motherboard. I guess you've probably tried this as there are only 2 options to choose from.

If you actually have the same problem as me, then I think that there is still a problem with the installation such that the boot manager is not being written anywhere.

Well, after intense research I overheard that v4 lilo is broke somehow. That may be your problem. http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=741 is supposed to fix it. It didn't for me. Tell me if it works for you.

And btw, ditto on the newbie linux thing. I am just shootin in the the dark.