SuSE 10 installation crashes after CD1 is installed

[gilthanaz]

[Problem]
You probably also ran into those problems when installing SuSE 10 on a SATA drive:
http://www.das-werkstatt.com/forum/werk ... .php?t=288
http://www.das-werkstatt.com/forum/werk ... .php?t=289

After those two are "fixed", SuSE will install from CD1 and then reboot. But when trying to boot from the Harddisk, it will exit with an kernel panic (unable to mount root partition). A few lines up you also see what the problem is - the same as before. The module for the sata_uli is loaded, but does not recognize the SATA disks. Of course, the system cant mount it's partitions now and panics.


[Solution]
Just boot from CD1 of the SuSE10 Installation Disks again. Choose the normal Installation in the bootmenu (Or Safe settings if you have problems with ACPI/APIC). Right after it started, cancel the installation. You will be thrown back to a shell text menu. Change Shell now (Using Alt+Ctrl+F[1-9]) - in my case only shell 9 (F9) worked, tho all i got was a > prompt. Once again, we have to remove and reload the SATA module manually to get the disks recognized.

Code: Select all

> rmmod sata_uli
> modprobe sata_uli

After you made sure the Disks are recognized now (using dmesg), change back to the shell where the installation utility is running in, and choose the "Boot installed system" entry. Pick the disk and the root(!) partition of the installation - and presto, it will boot and continue installation.


[Comments]
Appearently you will have to boot the system this way for all eternity ... or until you are done with the basic setup, get the newest kernel source and a more stable sata_uli code, and compile yourself a version of the module (or a kernel who's capable) which works on first try. Until then, it will not recognize the disks when booting without the CD and re-inserting the driver manually...