CD repair doesn't mount external hdd

Hi Forum Members, Guests, and all Suse Staff,

First many thanks to harryc, for his wise suggestions, "but" and isn't there some times a but, ok, now, let us assume we have had a very SUCCESSFULl install on a EXTERNAL ranchware 320gig USB Hard Disk Drive (in our case a Hotec Enclosure with the 320gig WD HDD inside) now our next step which the installer doesn't give us ,,,, save that we reboot and boot into the iso on cd installer but option rescue at the install cd boot prompt.

KNOWN PROBLEMS :

1.) The rescue probe code suddenly does not recognise the External USB HDD

2.) As per our esteemed friend and mentor harryc's suggestion we have to be able to "SAVE" our Lilo Dot Config File to the /etc directory of our installed open suse for ppc distro on the EXTERNAL USB HDD. BUT we can't the drive isn't recognised by the CD rescue option.

3.) We therefore find we can't mount or write to the external USB Hard Drive to effect a successful post install boot to the login screen and on to the Gnome (or KDE) Desktop on our Aussie Apple Corporation Sydney Supplied (aprox 2 months old ) Apple iMac G5 17" LCD with Superdrive.

Sorry for so many quick posts, but if no one says nothing, how is anyone going to know anything ?

No one is going to know !!
We can only guess on our end that the rescue cd part of the code may be faulty in finding the external usb hdd ....... maybe !

Has anyone any idea's of how to mount an unmountable external usb hdd from the rescue cd prompt ?

Please post a reply, as we are sure we won't be the only one's who have struck this problem with the new iMac G5 17" .....

Many thanks to all, remember of all of the Distro's iso's we have downloaded only 2 (TWO) actually install Ubuntu Breezy and Open Suse the rest,,,

Well here's the failure list on iMac G5 17" LCD with an Intenal Super Drive ........ so far....

1.) Gentoo Minimum Install
RESULTS: <rebooting in 180 seconds> at install prompt.

Requires a HARD POWER OFF !


2.) Yellow Dog Linux
RESULTS: <rebooting in 180 seconds> and does (reboot in 180 seconds)



3.) Fedora Core 4.
RESULTS: Won't recognise ext Firewire or ext usb Ubuntu is the only distro to recognise both firewire and usb external hdd's.

Start to realize please that Linux on an Apple iMac G5 is a road to h*** and back !it's quite a trail of disaster.

4.) Ubuntu ......

RESULTS: (a) With using Ubuntu Partitioner it shifts the internal drive to /dev/sdb (dangerous for the n00b)

(B) This can cause UNHOLY h*** LATER if you think about it.... fails to write a correct device= <line is blank behind the = symbol > line.

© Doesn't put a bootosx statement in so you have a completely hung system. Can't boot breezy can't boot osx 10.4.x

Then to add insult to injury, the 3 (THREE) supplied editors accessable at the rescue prompt have the editors insertion / editing cursor are each hung up in the top left hand corner of each editoe aka. vi, vim, editor. Forceing a forced exit Ctrl -z back to the command line prompt you then have a file called yaboot.conf.swp which has to be manually deleted before you can reedit yaboot.conf to have a same repeat performance from within each editor you try.

Oh,,,, by the way all the while with most if not all of these installers the thermo fans are sounding like dual 10410's running up past redline's for take off ! Thats on an Apple iMac G5,,, don't know about the big boys the mid tower case Power Mac G5 Single and Dual G5's

Some of the prior distros seem to read the partition table differently and you can have a totally different partition numbering system from distro to distro.

Ubuntu, Breezy that we tride aa couple of weeks ago has another problem with it's partitioner, it list an "unknown" partition, on the iMac'sinternal Apple Supplied SATA HDD ....see the warning and .... weeep tears of blood !

- WARNING -

With Ubuntu's Breezy Partitioner, the "UNKNOWN" Partition featured as NO 2 Partition from the top of the Breezy Partitioner List may well be thw Apple Partition Map (Partition) deleting it and makeing it your "New World Boot(strap) Partition Prep Boot Partition will cause your great ....

TEN DOT WHATEVER DOT WHATEVER ( ver 10.4.x ) MAC OS X TIGER AQUA DESKTOP PLUS ALL YOUR DATA,,, DOWNLOADS,,, etc. etc. to be ..........

GONE FOREVER IN LESS THAN 60 ( SIXTY ) SECONDS !!!!
Even gpart won't be able to try to recover your precious Apple Aqua Tiger OS and Desktop, you can kiss the lot.........

A FOND FAREWELL FOREVER.
YOU WILL GET IT ALL BACK........

WHEN h*** FREEZES OVER !!!!!

FURTHER........ You know you're a gonner by doing the following.......

Boot into rescue mode from the CD type in the word "root" or what ever rescue username is required,,,

at the prompt type......

pdisk /dev/sda

or better still

gpart /dev/sda

The answer / report you receive will stick out like ticks on a bull dog !

Common with gpart is "partitions overlap"
Common with pdisk would be,,,, "corrupt" something or other

To spell it out in plain English .......... "IF" you delete the second partition from the top of the list with the Ubantu Partitioner and create a (Linux) boot partition you can over write the "next" partition. And breezy's partitioner will let you do it.

Here endeth the first lesson....... now you can weep !

Perhaps you haven't caught on yet... ok hypothetical well sort of...

1.) A n00b / newbie ...... has almost similar size internal and external hdd sizes,,,,

REMEMBER ...... with the Ubuntu Partitioner it SHIFTS THE INTERNAL SATA DRIVE TO 2nd POSITION IN THE DRIVE CHAIN !!

n00b thinks...ok it's the 2nd drive i want to install my linux on mac distro onto...... NOT n00b's first internal drive. NOT REALIZING the drive chain has been shifted.

n00b .... loses MAC OS X 10.4.x

REMEMBER: THE EXTERNAL FIREWIRE / USB HDD IS RECOGNISED WITH UBUNTU.... BUT THE EXTERNAL DRIVE BECOMES /dev/sda

Here endeth the second lesson .... from here on in it just gets .... worse ! Sorry !

Oh ps you reckin' you got problems, here's a real lulu.

Now hotec external combo Firewire/USB HDD is cabled as firewire to iMac G5, os is mac os x 10.4.2 (upgrade)
os recognizes new firewire on boot up want's to initialize drive. Choice no,, but user goes to Apple Disk Utility creates the following partitions:

extosx1
extosx2
extosx3
extosx4
extosx5
extosx6
extosx7

the above created successfully, data, gig's of internet downloaded programs on internal sata hdd mirrored onto the last 3 or four partitions.

user decides to SOME WEEKS LATER delete :
extosx1
extosx2
extosx3

To create one bigger partition, great fine, drive utility has a drop dow panel which notes extosx1, extosx2, extosx3 are going to have it's attentions, user clicks on partition, progress meter says partitioning / formatting extosx1 ....... then only mentions quickly .....

extosx4
extosx5
extosx6
extosx7

only mentions the above partitions / drives then mounts with colourful icons back on aqua desktop....

extosx1
extosx4
extosx5
extosx6
extosx7

user clicks on extosx7 ..............

RESULTS: GIGS OF DATA PROGRAMS ...... GONE IN 60 SECONDS.

EVERYTHING GONE ON:

extosx4
extosx5
extosx6
extosx7

USER BEWARE !

Been there done all this,, now "we" weep !

Have a great day,,,,, we'll just keep on weeping !

tom, anna and family.

ps. we hope some find the info given useful.

extra ps to harryc our ubuntu partitioning came "BEFORE" you suggested it cobber our Apple mac os x 10.4.2 was long gone weeks before you suggested using the ubuntu partitioner.

Hi Forum Users,
This post has been referred to the opensuse@opensuse.org for possible further attention.
regards,
tom, anna and family

Hi,
A bug report ( rough & ready ) submitted to suse bugzilla this day

BUG REPORT : 119408

summary: several "possible" installer bugs on iMac G5 17" w/superdrive

regards,
tom & anna