RedHat Linux 9 and HP Pavillion ze5385

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thanks to a few sources on the net concerning models of this ilk, i was able to gather how to get this bad boy working. I think i’m the first on the Net (that’s searchable at least) to deal with RH9 but i used people’s problems installing/running RH8 as a basis.

First off, i had to wipe everything and install from scratch, to have a dual-boot system. Partition magic just wasn’t working for the kid–it wouldn’t partition properly (upon the reboot & partitioning process it would report errors). grrr…it wasn’t too big of a thing, since i just got the laptop and losing stuff wasn’t problematic. so i basically destroyed everything by repartitioning my drive using the ‘cfdisk’ tool. i made a 40gig xp partition, 18 gig linux partition, the rest swap. as i’m slowly finding out though, i have less absolute need for a larger XP partition, as linux has come a Long Way since slackware 0.2, and even since redhat 7/8 (my most recent linux installs, on some desktops at my old job). it’s best to go ahead and install windows XP first, and use grub on your RH install, since grub will pick up all your other partitions and place them in the boot config. grub is pretty, and works nicely.

Symptoms:
disc 1 loads, but hangs on “loading ohci1394 driver….”

looked this up, and got several suggestions, ‘linux nousb’ etc…the one that actually works (and makes the most sense anyway but how was i to guess this off the bat…:)

linux nofirewire

so now when RH9 install loads up it won’t probe (and subsequently hang on) the firewire port on your laptop. okay install goes fine and dandy. upon reboot–hang like a mug! argh! it installed a kernel that is looking for the driver?! not exactly; i found out that kudzu is the cause of the problem…sooooo….okay…solution:

continue to hit ‘I’ like crazy (for interactive startup) when it asks you to when linux is booting…then when it asks, don’t load modules. After you boot up, you’ll have to turn off kudzu for all subsequent boots. just use ‘chkconfig –level 3 kudzu off’ (and if you’ll eventually be running X win ‘chkconfig –level 5 kudzu off’)

make sure in your grub.conf you have ‘nofirewire’ option at the end of whatever options grub sets up for your booting to the linux partition.

word so you got it booted. in the next writing i’ll hit you up with a quick post on how to the get X running shiny and nice….then there were issues getting my windows XP reinstall working properly too that i may want to address, for the dual booters!

as a side note–during my installs, i gave up on RH and did slackware 9 instead–the install works right off the bat–but the reboot is what killed me–i presume that after a slackware install and you’re returned to the command prompt–find out where your boot up will try to load the firewire driver (ohci1394 is about the best hint i can give), and disable it (in the correct runlevel ;), BEFORE you reboot again.

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  • Kyle

    I installed Fedora core 2 on my ZE5470us.

    I ran into the firewire and Kudzu problems.

    I was not able to go into interactive no matter how many times I hit I too. I found a solution to this. In my grub loader I added single to the end. This booted me into single user mood and could apply the above patches to the system.

    I am having an additional problem of not being able to mount a cd or floppy. I added this line to fstab and it was no help.
    /dev/hdc1 /dev/cdrom iso9660 defaults 0 0

    Error: wrong FS type, bad option, bad superblock or too many mounted file systems

    Any suggestions??

  • nocarrier

    whats up all… i know this is a BIG problem, but has anyone found a reliable (ok… i’ll just say it, EASY) solution to the DRI problem with the 340M and the ze5385 laptop? Just curious… as I pull the last hair from my head.

  • http://localhost Jay

    could you please send me a copy of the xfree86 config, or at least update your links. your domain linkage is totally borked. thanks

  • http://www.isaidjon.com jon

    vexing, ain’t it.

    i need to find again, then will do.

    particularly tough since i don’t run this anymore.

    i think i had a lot of luck with fedora (this was FC1) on this laptop, as far as the X11 config. it Just Worked.

    j.

  • Gustavo A.P.S.

    Hello, i finally found this page, after two weekends of trying to install red hat 9 on mi pavilion ze5447la (yes, another ze5400 series) , and i have followed the steps of this page. Thanks for that.

    I have installed knoppix “a la mexicana” (something like: knoppix mexican way) and knoppix 3.7 (dowloaded from linuxiso.org) a few months ago and those distros didn´t have any problem to install, even i can say that they (knoppix) recognizes my wi-fi (LAN-express ieee 802.11 pci adapter).

    I’m trying to install red hat (server mode) ’cause i have to install oracle 9i (or informix or db2) to a school project, i have to “join” or work with at least two machines running oracle, one in linux and other in windows. But that’s another problem.

    So, i have readed that oracle is supported in red hat, then, i’m in this trouble installing.

    I can install Red Hat 9 in my hp laptop ze5447la (also i have windows xp pro), but i have the same problem in the first booting (only i can boot with a 3 1/2″ disket).

    I’ve tried: linux nofirewire, linux nofirewire noprobe, nousb, nopcmia… and combinations between them, and the only “fix” i have seen is with nofirewire (ohci1394 driver), but it crash a few seconds later, at “Checking new hardware” (Búsqueda de nuevo hardware in spanish).

    I have also tried the ‘i’ key (like crazy) in interactive start up and it seems dont´t work. I understand that I have to run the “chkconfig kudzu off” or “chkconfig -level 3 kudzu off” for fixing this problem, but i’m wondering: how i’m going to run that command if i can’t load the os fully?

    Could any one else help me. I’m not expert, i’m maybe a newbie , but i want to learn linux.

    P.S. Excuse my poor english, if anyone speaks spanish your help will be appreciated. Thanks from Veracruz, Mexico.

    P.S.2: if i can install red hat later…, can i work with my ethernet? it recognizes it? (my eterhnet is a National Semicondutor dp83815)

  • Gustavo A.P.S.

    XD, forgot last post. Red Hat 9 is running on laptop hp ze5447la, and it seems recognize ethernet.

    Try, try, try… and magic! ;o)

    For some reason, I start over again. I thought: if i have spent some hours of my life with this, why not try another? And gods hear me! and i’m apologizing after my last post.

    my solution:
    install prompt: linux nofirewire
    I delete the ext3 partition and i create it again. So, i have to reinstall red hat (server type installation for my purposes) and grub again (this time i wrote ‘nofirewire’ on the textfield of extra-parameters, in anticipation to modify grub.conf), and boot disket and reboot…

    I pressed ‘i’ key after the screen shows something about swap… (initxxx begins just after that) and i hold on until the message of “press ‘I’ key for interactive…” appears. When it start to ask me if i want to load kudzu i wrote ‘n’ for that one, and ‘s’ (default) in all next questions.

    For dual boot:
    I login as root and i execute:
    mkdir /mnt/floppy
    mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
    dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/mnt/floppy/linux.bin bs=512 count=1

    # hda1: where win xp pro is installed, hda2: where red hat is.
    # that is for dual boot, more info on
    # http://www.piensa.com/piensa/foro_principiantes/1124906177/index_html
    # linux.bin has to be copied to c:\ and the boot.ini file in windows has to be updated with one line at
    # the end: c:\linux.bin = “Red hat 9″, but this is extra info

    for fix the autocheck new hardware at loading:
    chkconfig –level 3 kudzu off
    chkconfig –level 5 kudzu off

    and for fix the shutdown process (the first time shutdown crashed at disabling/stoping pcmcia…):
    u have to rename file ‘ohci1394.o’ to ‘_ohci1394.o’ as ricky said (August 24th, 2003 at 8:02 pm in this page)

    well, it works, the graphics are 800×600 but it is enough at the moment. Maybe some day i’ll tell you about oracle in red hat… that’s my next objective.

    Thanks to all.

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