Issues Installing Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty) on a Dell Dimension 8400

Submitted by craige on January 17, 2005 - 21:21

This document covers installing Ubuntu on the aforementioned hardware and includes the following topics:

  • Ubuntu Installer Cannot Detect the CDROM Drive
  • hwclock Hanging on Startup and Shutdown

- About Ubuntu Linux
- DELL Dimension 8400 Details

 

Ubuntu Installer Cannot Detect the CDROM Drive

 

When the Ubuntu installer attempts to detect the CDROM drive you will be greeted with the following message: 

Unable to locate local CDROM

To overcome this hurdle you will need to do the following:

  • press [F2] when the DELL logo is displayed to enter the BIOS.
  • Arrow down until you reach the "Drives" section.
  • Press the right arrow to expand the list.
  • Continue to arrow down until you reach the section "SATA Operation" and press [ENTER].
  • The default setting is "RAID AUTODETECT / AHCI". Select "RAID Autodetect / ATA" instead then press [ESC]
  • save your changes on exit and reboot.

After the PC reboots, the Ubuntu installer will successfully detect the CDROM drive and the installation will push on uneventfully.

 

hwclock Hanging on Startup and Shutdown

 

The DELL 8400's are hanging on startup (worked around with good 'ol [ctl]+[c]) and locking up completely on shutdown. The hanging and lockups occur with on the following messages: On Startup: - 

* Setting the System Clock using the Hardware Clock as reference…

On Shutdown: - 

* Saving the System Clock time to the Hardware Clock…

To resolve this problem, the argument of --directisa will need to be added to every occurence of hwclock in the following files: 

/etc/init.d/hwclock.sh
/etc/init.d/hwclockfirst.sh
/usr/sbin/tzsetup

Now when you reboot your shiny new DELL 8400 you will not get any lockups from hwclock any more.