Re: Help: Debian Linux installation on ThinkPad 760EL

["Paul Khoury" <pkhoury@loop.com>]

On 29 Sep 1997 22:16:24 -0700, John Interrante wrote:

>I am trying to install Debian Linux 1.3.1 from the official two-CD set
>(ordered from Cheap*Bytes) on my ThinkPad 760EL.  My problem is that
>once I start the Linux installation process (i.e., when DOS stops
>running and Linux install starts running), Linux will no longer read
>my internal 6x CD-ROM drive successfully.  It knows the drive's there
>since I see
>
>/dev/hdb: <info about the Teac-made CD-ROM drive>
>
>go by when Linux starts up, but I get lots and lots of
>
>/dev/hdb: status=0x???? (I can't remember)
>
>and other error messages whenever I switch from screen to screen in
>the Linux installation.  When I get to the point where it asks me to
>select the media from which to install the Linux base system and
>packages, I select /dev/hdb and hit return but I see these error
>messages again and then I'm back where I started again with no way to
>make progress.  
>
>Note, I have tried floppy=thinkpad already, as in
>
>loadlin.exe linux root=/dev/ram ro initrd=root.bin floppy=thinkpad
>
>but it didn't help.  Neither did saying hdb=cdrom.
>
>If anybody has any idea what is going on, please tell me.  Otherwise,
>I'll have to copy the whole CD to my hard disk and try to install
>Linux from there.
>
>Thanks,
>
>	John
>
I don't remember the device name, but I think there may be a seperate
one for IDE CD-ROMs, just as with SCSI, there is SDA (hard drives) and SCD
(cd-roms).  I just got an IDE CD-ROM, so maybe someday I will try it on a Linux
machine, but I primarily plan to install OS/2 Warp 3 Connect on it.  Also, some CD-ROMs
may be initialized by loadable drivers that I think are specified in the rc.d file (which is
like OS/2's config.sys in significance.

Paul