CentOS - Apr 2014 - CentOS 6.4 installation fails with message "No usable disks have been found"

Hi folks,

I inherited a very old computer (I guess about 8 years old) which I'd 
like to use for some training on CentOS. I downloaded images for CentOS 
6.4 i386 (DVD 1 and 2) and burned them onto discs. After inserting DVD 1 
into drive and booting, on the "Welcome to CentOS 6.4!" screen I
select
"Install or upgrade an existing system". I then skip the media test
and
start the installation. Then I get a graphical installer where I choose 
english language and U.S. international keyboard layout.

Then I'm questioned about "What type of devices will your installation 
involve"? where I select "Basic Storage Devices" and then
proceed. I get
a dialog "Examining devices" with the message "Examining storage
devices".

After a short while a dialog "No disks found" appears displaying the 
message "No usable disks have been found". I then go back and choose 
"Specialized Storage Devices" but I then get the same result (no
devices
are found).

Just to be sure that there are disks available and hardware works I 
installed a current Debian which works fine. From the BIOS and from 
Debian shell command "dmesg | grep -i ata" I see that there are two 
"Maxtor 6Y120L0" installed. Find output of "dmsg" below that
email.

Is it possible and what steps are necessary to install CentOS 6.4 on 
that "Maxtor 6Y120L0" hard disks?

Regards,

Meikel

---



Output of "dmesg | grep -i ata"

[    1.690559] pata_via 0000:00:11.1: version 0.3.4
[    1.690591] pata_via 0000:00:11.1: can't derive routing for PCI INT A
[    1.693019] scsi0 : pata_via
[    1.693396] scsi1 : pata_via
[    1.694434] ata1: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0xa800 
irq 14
[    1.694442] ata2: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0xa808 
irq 15
[    1.864541] ata1.00: ATA-7: Maxtor 6Y120L0, YAR41BW0, max UDMA/133
[    1.864549] ata1.00: 240121728 sectors, multi 16: LBA
[    1.864737] ata1.01: ATA-7: Maxtor 6Y120L0, YAR41BW0, max UDMA/133
[    1.864744] ata1.01: 240121728 sectors, multi 16: LBA
[    1.880389] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
[    1.896439] ata1.01: configured for UDMA/133
[    1.896738] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      Maxtor 6Y120L0   
YAR4 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[    1.897477] scsi 0:0:1:0: Direct-Access     ATA      Maxtor 6Y120L0   
YAR4 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[    2.068361] ata2.00: ATAPI: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4167B, DL11, max UDMA/33
[    2.068375] ata2.01: ATAPI: CD-956E/AKV, A99, max UDMA/33
[    2.084228] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/33
[    2.100283] ata2.01: configured for UDMA/33

Specialized storage devices are NAS or other remote storage array types of 
devices. So that is not a valid option on your stand-alone system. It looks like
your hard drives are visible to the Linux Anaconda installer, but you may want 
to check BIOS configuration and verify that they are configured correctly there.
Unplug the power connectors to the drives and reseat them, and data cables from 
both ends and reseat those as well. Ensure that the jumpers on these parallel 
ATA drives aer set soi one is "Master" and one is "Slave."
Other options may
work, but also may not. The "CS" option is to be avoided. Be certain
that the
Master is the drive you want to be /dev/sda and the Slave will be /dev/sdb.

Based on my experience the jumpers on the hard drives are the most likely cause 
of this problem.

AFAIK, there are no "special" steps to install CentOS on any
particular local
hard drive. So long as BIOS and jumpers are correct, it should "just
install."




On 04/06/2014 09:25 AM, Meikel wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I inherited a very old computer (I guess about 8 years old) which I'd
> like to use for some training on CentOS. I downloaded images for CentOS
> 6.4 i386 (DVD 1 and 2) and burned them onto discs. After inserting DVD 1
> into drive and booting, on the "Welcome to CentOS 6.4!" screen I
select
> "Install or upgrade an existing system". I then skip the media
test and
> start the installation. Then I get a graphical installer where I choose
> english language and U.S. international keyboard layout.
>
> Then I'm questioned about "What type of devices will your
installation
> involve"? where I select "Basic Storage Devices" and then
proceed. I get
> a dialog "Examining devices" with the message "Examining
storage devices".
>
> After a short while a dialog "No disks found" appears displaying
the
> message "No usable disks have been found". I then go back and
choose
> "Specialized Storage Devices" but I then get the same result (no
devices
> are found).
>
> Just to be sure that there are disks available and hardware works I
> installed a current Debian which works fine. From the BIOS and from
> Debian shell command "dmesg | grep -i ata" I see that there are
two
> "Maxtor 6Y120L0" installed. Find output of "dmsg" below
that email.
>
> Is it possible and what steps are necessary to install CentOS 6.4 on
> that "Maxtor 6Y120L0" hard disks?
>
> Regards,
>
> Meikel
>
> ---
>
>
>
> Output of "dmesg | grep -i ata"
>
> [    1.690559] pata_via 0000:00:11.1: version 0.3.4
> [    1.690591] pata_via 0000:00:11.1: can't derive routing for PCI INT
A
> [    1.693019] scsi0 : pata_via
> [    1.693396] scsi1 : pata_via
> [    1.694434] ata1: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0xa800
> irq 14
> [    1.694442] ata2: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0xa808
> irq 15
> [    1.864541] ata1.00: ATA-7: Maxtor 6Y120L0, YAR41BW0, max UDMA/133
> [    1.864549] ata1.00: 240121728 sectors, multi 16: LBA
> [    1.864737] ata1.01: ATA-7: Maxtor 6Y120L0, YAR41BW0, max UDMA/133
> [    1.864744] ata1.01: 240121728 sectors, multi 16: LBA
> [    1.880389] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
> [    1.896439] ata1.01: configured for UDMA/133
> [    1.896738] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      Maxtor 6Y120L0
> YAR4 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
> [    1.897477] scsi 0:0:1:0: Direct-Access     ATA      Maxtor 6Y120L0
> YAR4 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
> [    2.068361] ata2.00: ATAPI: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4167B, DL11, max UDMA/33
> [    2.068375] ata2.01: ATAPI: CD-956E/AKV, A99, max UDMA/33
> [    2.084228] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/33
> [    2.100283] ata2.01: configured for UDMA/33
>
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>
> -- 
>
>
> *********************************************************
> David P. Both, RHCE
> Millennium Technology Consulting LLC
> 919-389-8678
>
> dboth at millennium-technology.com
>
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> www.databook.bz - Home of the DataBook for Linux
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On 4/6/2014 6:25 AM, Meikel wrote:
> Just to be sure that there are disks available and hardware works I
> installed a current Debian which works fine. From the BIOS and from
> Debian shell command "dmesg | grep -i ata" I see that there are
two
> "Maxtor 6Y120L0" installed. Find output of "dmsg" below
that email.
>
> Is it possible and what steps are necessary to install CentOS 6.4 on
> that "Maxtor 6Y120L0" hard disks?
thats a parallel ATA aka IDE drive?   do you happen to know what sort of 
IDE controller it is plugged into?   is the IDE properly configured, so 
the two drives (you *do* have two drives, right?) are the master on the 
end connector of a 80 wire cable (I note dmesg says UDMA133), and the 
slave is in the middle connector?    IIRC, parallel IDE drives on 
UDMA100+ should be jumpered for 'cable select' and must use a cable that
has a black, grey, and blue connector, where the black connector goes 
into the motherboard, the grey connector is for the slave drive, and the 
blue connector is for the master drive.

you might try booting the CentOS DVD into single user mode (linux single 
at the boot prompt), and at the shell, `dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda 
bs=65536 count=65536', this should zero the first 4GB of the disk, it 
will take a minute or something.   repeat with /dev/sdb for good luck.

frankly, any time spent on this is worth more than these drives. PATA is 
a closed chapter of computer history.  SATA took over starting 10 years ago.



-- 
john r pierce                                      37N 122W
somewhere on the middle of the left coast