Pc-IDE install consequences

[Ray Clancy]

Had a devil of a time installing gentoo...
Discovered that the IDE system was reversed such that hda was on a pci-ide cable.
Spent thelast two weeks troubleshooting to no avail because the drive I loaded wasn't bootable due to the reversed ID system.
Best practice....place the drive to be loaded in the primary master, disconnect the rest of the drives, and load it as hda.
Especially important is whether or not you intend to use video interface cards..Lilo is required for the bootloader because grub uses RAM as does the video.
Be certain you have the pci cards required for video input or the boot will hang.
Make checks of internet connection before emerge steps using ping.
Most installs of 2.4.20 and up will be too large for a floppy boot disc.

It is highly likely that these are not the only items of concern but they sure can be a bear
Good luck to all and thanks again to all who posted my queries
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[Brandy]

Thanks to puggy, moved from Installing Gentoo to Documentation, Tips & Tricks.
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[Ray Clancy]

To add to the description.....
Depending on the configuration of the system, pci-ide adds drive slots to the
install program. At the same time, it calls up the pci-ide devices first in order.
Thus, with a primary pci-ide card (one pair of drives) the identification made is :
pci primary hda (1)
pci slave hdb (2)
then: mobo primary hdc (3)
mobo slave hdd (4)

My system has a dual pci-ide card which runs the numbers to eight levels because
thepci has two additional as well as the mobo.
Solving the problem : remove the pci module from the computer thus preventing
the pc-ide system to be recognized by the install program....or;
Remove a drive from the pci-card cable which corresponds to the hd(x)
of the drive slot into which it will be installed after gentoo install completes---but
during the install at /etc/lilo.conf, add the following append;
image=/boot/bzImage
label=linux
read-only
root=/dev/hd(x) x= your desired hdd root, ex: hdb3
append="ide=reverse"
Note: The hdd ID and install slot must be a bootable slot on your system in either of the above
option (remove pci or install in a pci slot) If it is installed in a pci slot for gentoo install
the append is still required and, and, and, the drive must then be moved to the bootable slot which
corresponds to its hd(x) ID just after the final install...reboot. This is the result of the append statement
which then enables the correct boot to occur and permits the pci card and its drives to be reinstalled

If there is another append already installed in lilo.conf , simply insert the new
statement adjacent to that already inserted with one space separating the statements
and end the multiple entry with the quote (") symbol.
So the append statement reverses the ID system (all ide slots are included, including those you have connected to cdroms)

Magic? ..you bet!!! I can make money disappear!!!!
Hope this helps someone, sorry for no emoticons, they don't enter!
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[xunil]

Your situation is not always the case when you add IDE adapters via PCI expansion slots. Many motherboard BIOSes allow the user to configure the order of IDE adapters (usually labeled something like "Boot on-board IDE controllers first" or something similar), and the BIOSes on the IDE expansion cards themselves often allow custom ordering. On top of this, your solution is, to me, non-optimal because there are too many points of possible failure. If I were confronted w/ your situation, I would simply make room for a seperate partition for /boot on the primary master hard drive; it only needs to be big enough to hold a two or three kernels at most and the bootloader information (approximately 10 megabytes, but I usually make mine 25 or 50). You could even use GRUB instead of LILO since it has one fewer point of possible failure: the user doesn't have to remember to run a command every time he or she changes the bootloader configuration.

[Ray Clancy]

Howdy and thanks for adding the pertinent info to further expound on the pci-ide ramifications.
I do not feel I have all the possibilities covered, as a said at the outset "depending on your system"..
My reason for the arrangement I have provided is to establish multiple os opportunities with none interrelated through any other drive or system protocol.
I have accomplished that with four separate os's on four separate drives and am going for more..... Some of these have several flavors but the independence is the main idea.
I encountered the interrelationship and posted a solution which I have used three times.
,
Perhaps it will help others to cope as well.

Have a good day with Gentoo!
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