grub sucks - error17 help!

Jorrell · 10-16-2004, 07:45 PM

Grub error 17

Ok, I've posted about this once before, but I figured that problem out I think (hdd boot sector was damaged I think)......so this question is about grub.

I've installed Mandrake 10 which performed an automatic install of grub. Finally on this new harddrive grub actually tries to load, however it loads to 1.5 and then gives me an error 17....which I take to mean it can't access its data on the harddrive. I'm guessing this is due to it seeing the drive as something different than mandrake did.....which might make sense when you read the hardware list

Asus P5a mbd (bios1007.a newest) with k6-2 500 and 384MB
Diamond Voodoo Banshee agp
Toshiba Cd ROM on secondary master (Ali)

Maxtor Ultra ATA 100 controller,pci (by promise)
Maxtor 60GB 7200RPM on Maxtor Ultra 100 ctrlr (primary slave)

SB 128
Intel 10/100
Linksys 10/100 (I could put two intels in, but I figrd this way it'd be easier to figure out which it was referring to)

Ok, so what I think I need is detailed instruction on how to tell GRUB where to find stuff.
-I tried installing bootmagic, but when the cd-rom boots it fails to detect the promise controller.
-The Promise contoller is needed to access the maxtor drive because the bios doesn't seem to like it.
-Near as I could tell the Mandrake installer did a good job of detecting all hardware.

wallijonn · 10-16-2004, 10:38 PM

There is nothing wrong with GRUB.

Don't blame GRUB - blame Promise. Just be glad you don't have a mobo with a built-in Promise controller. LILO may have the same problem.
http://www.promise.com/support/downl...ry=bios&os=100

http://www.promise.com/support/downl...ory=All&os=100

http://yolinux.com/MINI-HOWTO/Ultra-DMA.html
http://www.linuxisle.com/docs/howtos...se-RAID1-HOWTO

Without some hard work ( like http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/text/Linux...se-RAID1-HOWTO ) you have three options: don't use the Promise controller, get a new mobo, or don't use Linux. (Btw, I got rid of my Promise controller when I had problems with W2KP).

http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-ha.../msg01891.html
http://leuksman.com/linux/Ultra-DMA.sgml

.

Jorrell · 10-17-2004, 03:08 AM

yeah I know grub doesn't suck....but it got me a response

Well it looks like the promise controller is out then unless....does anyone know of another boot loader I might be able to use, one that might work with the promise ata 100 controller. I know mandrake accessed the drive, it managed to install everything...the bios can access the drive too...it initialized the grub loader, but grub can't.

The harddrive won't run off the mbd's controller (freezes up in identify process). I'll try to get my highpoint sata card to recognize the drive again, but so far that hasn't worked at all. BTW, would grub like the highpoint sata raid controller any better?

If anyone could recommend a boot loader other than grub (and hopefully explain how to get it going) that would be great!

**pointreyes** · 10-17-2004, 03:13 AM

I see that I'm not the only Promise hater here.

With nearly a decade of using Linux, I hate the "I MUST BE THE IRQ GOD" controllers called Promise.

I was actually going to say, "Promise sucks-not GRUB."

And yes, I have had better luck with HighPoint than evil demented Promise controllers. However, I stopped using cheap controllers a while ago - I prefer 3Ware.

Jorrell · 10-17-2004, 03:52 AM

Ok, I got the drive working with the highpoint controller, but its still giving me an error 17....can I assume this is because the harddrive is now master instead of slave? How do I modify grub to know where to look?...I'd rather not reinstall mandrake just to get grub set right, so if there's a better way that'd be great.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pointreyes

I stopped using cheap controllers a while ago - I prefer 3Ware.

Sorry pointreyes....3ware's too expensive for me.

Edit: Wait...I'm gonna have to reinstall linux anyway so that it installs the stuff for the highpoint raid controller aren't I?

wallijonn · 10-17-2004, 04:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jorrell

would grub like the highpoint sata raid controller any better?

The problem is not GRUB.

Quote:

I know mandrake accessed the drive, it managed to install everything...the bios can access the drive too...it initialized the grub loader, but grub can't.

The problem is not GRUB.

The problem is that the kernel could not be compiled correctly because it is missing the correct driver. Why is it missing the driver? Because the RAID controller is a software RAID or IDE controller; it's like a Wintel modem - it is a software device which interacts with the CPU. So what you need is a hardware controller. Hardware controllers usually need drivers, so it more likely to be supported.

The 2.6 kernel is still hit or miss on SATA controllers - you'd have a better chance if it was an Intel mobo than an add-on board. But at least some HighPoint SATA controller have some Linux drivers and source code available, like the 1511: http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/br...m#LinuxDrivers

Whether or not it may work... I'd don't know.

http://www.tyan.com/support/html/drivers_linux.html
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...42#post1178242
http://kerneltrap.org/node/view/2767 (MegaRaid SATA is a PCI-X board. too bad).
http://lists.svlug.org/pipermail/svl...ly/047597.html

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kern...garzik/libata/
(Is the Mandrake kernel 2.6.5???)

http://linux.yyz.us/sata/sata-status.html (Might be of interest to you)

typical problem:
http://deploylinux.typepad.com/main/...sata_supp.html

Your best bet may be to get an Adaptec 2940 SCSI controller and some SCSI HDs. Western Digital drives may also work as they may still come with a utility to throttle down the drive from ATA100 (but forget Maxtor ATA133 drives).

I can almost tolerate HighPoint controllers, hate Promise controllers, and you can't even give me a SIIG controller.

Now, I have this Adaptec 2940 controller, see, but no SCSI drives, see ... EBay has a lot of SCSI drives cheap... But I have never installed Linux on my Adaptec board, so I don't even know if it will work. At least Red Hat lists it:
http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/?page...5&class=9#list

(I did a google for 'linux hardware list')

Here's Mandrake's List: http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/fhard.php3

This is always where you want to start when installing Linux, although there is probably an updated list somewhere:

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/

.

wallijonn · 10-17-2004, 04:40 AM

This drive might work: http://www.pcpartsohio.com/BookDetail.aspx?item_id=307

Jorrell · 10-17-2004, 05:34 AM

thank you for your help wallijohn

I'm still confused. I checked the highpoint site and they have a redhat driver that I might be able to use, but I'll need to get a floppy drive first...but before then:
Maybe I'm dumb, but I think you're telling me that grub can access the data fine but linux can't? That doesn't make much sense to me, since the mandrake installer installed to the drive without error. (the installer uses a similar kernel as mandrake, yes?) I checked the grub manuals at http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html
It says: "17 : Cannot mount selected partition
This error is returned if the partition requested exists, but the filesystem type cannot be recognized by GRUB. "
They seem to say that the problem is in grub being able to access the file system. I think that means that the linux kernel is not active yet. Is this when grub goes looking for the kernel or for something else? It also seems to say that GRUB can at the very least see the partition. (but can't read it?)
Or is it really because its a software controller and I really have no idea what I'm talking about? I probably don't understand this whole process, so hopefully you can continue to educate this rather perplexed (and probably annoying) student.

--about the new drives and controllers--
Sorry guys, I'd rather avoid buying new hardware if at all possible. If its something REALLY cheap then maybe. If I can't get linux working I'll have to put windows on here and hope it has enough power to work as a server.

I do have some old 4GB harddrives lying around in storage I could install to and then boot off of. I can't get to them today since they're an hour away in storage, but maybe tomorrow. I could then add drivers for the highpoint card and map the 60GB drive to somewhere, right? Do you think that would work?

**pointreyes** · 10-17-2004, 11:30 AM

Why not just use the DFI you have? Linux will fly on that box. I just happen to have almost the same hardware as you for the DFI.

Here's what I have:
DFI LANParty Pro 875
2.6c oc'ed to 3.25 consistently
2x256 of OCZ PC4000
AIW 9600 Pro
Santa Cruz sound card
I'm currently running the ICH5R with separate disks instead of RAID: 160GB and 250GB.

The latest Linux distros run great on the ICH5 but with the LANParty you have that onboard controller (HPT372) which happens to be one controller that works just fine Linux without additional drivers anymore.

Note: I don't use Mandrake so I'm not as sure how good it will work on the Canterwood chipset, I'm a SuSE user.

Jorrell · 10-17-2004, 03:58 PM

The dfi is my desktop machine. I want the other to function as a server for web and ftp.....something I can leave on all the time and maybe use as a firewall/router too.
Now if I only had two dfi's........

wallijonn · 10-17-2004, 03:58 PM

Jorrell,

When you install a Promise controller, Windows will see it as a SCSI device, no? And you have to install a Promise driver to make it work right, right?

It's the same thing with Linux. But Linux is looking for a SCSI driver; it sees the drive type as 'sda' instead of 'hda'. So the kernel compiles expecting to see 'sda' scsi drives controlled by its own controller - but there is no such device - it's really an 'hda'.

In your BIOS, with the HD connected to the Promise controller, what type of disk does it see, LBA, CHS, etc? If you ran MS fdisk it may see it as VFAT (I doubt it if you are using a DOS 6.22 floppy. Try a W98SE boot floppy and run fdisk.) If you boot into the Mandrake command console and use Linux fdisk, does it see the drive as ext2 or ext3?

So Mandrake first installs because it sees a hda, but then the kernel configures itself to boot from a 'sda' and now GRUB doesn't know what to do because its boot.ini file is looking for a device that isn't there.

When Mandrake first paritions the disk drive it says that the OS starts at 'this block' and ends at 'that block'. The partition table then gets written out to the MBR. After the kernel compiles (before it reboots) it will modify the boot block. The MBR tells where (block #) to look for the linux OS bootstrap, vmlinuz. Now, there is a \boot directory under the \ main root. GRUB has to know where \ is, what block #. Once it knows this, usually by the MBR, it then will look for the boot files to load into memory in \boot.

What happens if you edit the GRUB boot init file from 'sda' to 'hda'?

It shouldn't work, because GRUB defines hd0,0 from /dev/hda0 or /dev/sda0. The /dev is a device-driver directory. Every device name in /dev will use a different device driver. Since Promise has not modified a device driver, or copied its driver to this directory, any device not defined here will not be able to be mounted. Because it cannot be mounted it cannot be found. Because it cannot be found you get a GRUB error 17.

Your error 17 says that the driver it is using is expecting some functionality to be implemented. It is not. It is expecting a certain HD formatted with ext2, ext3, reseiser, etc. But it can't read the MBR.

Now, if it wasn't a driver issue, you could create a GRUB boot floppy and boot into Linux from the floppy, because you would then be bypassing the MBR.

Jorrell · 10-17-2004, 04:09 PM

wow, thank you for that wallijohn....I think I understand now! And thank you for the amount of effort you've put into this...most people would just post two or three sentences.

It seems I really don't have any chance of booting off of that controller. But if I used an old 4Gb for linux to install too (on the onboard controller), I could then use the 60GB mounted to some directory as storage right? Would this solve the problem and let me boot into linux?

wallijonn · 10-17-2004, 05:01 PM

Jorell,

Chances are that you'd still have the same problem. The 60GB drive would have to use a driver in /dev. So now you would be able to get into Linux but you wouldn't be able to mount the device when you gave it the 'mount /dev/sda0 /mnt' command, or within the fs table (fstab) which automatically mounts devices. fstab will call gpart (get partition table). The drive will have to have been set up with a specific drive type, ext2, reiser, iso9660, etc.

http://www.humbug.org.au/talks/fstab/fstab.html

What does the BIOS see if you connect the Maxtor directly to the IDE channel and not use the Promise controller? If it is already formatted by Linux it may not see it al all.

I know that if I use a Maxtor ATA133 drive on my Intel D875PBZLK mobo it will not install the OS. Maxtor does not have a utility to set the ATA to anything other than ATA133. Western Digital and Seagate do have a utility on the CD to set the udma to 33, 66 or 100. If you are using udma16 - you may be out of luck; but then again the BIOS may force it to go into PIO1 or PIO2 or PIO3 or PIO4 mode, so there is still a chance with WD or Seagate drives.

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview...R1002391&aid=9

So, are there any WD drives on sale in today's Sunday papers? That might be your best bet. I think the K6 supported udma33, so a WD or Seagate should be able to be used when connected directly to the mobo IDE controller. Most drives under 20GB were usually udma33, all drives from 20GB to 40GB were usually udma66, and most drives from 40GB on up are usually udma100. Now, if you could get a 40G WD for $20, that would be your best bet.

hmmm, BestBuy has a WD80G HD for $30 after 2 rebates... maybe I'll take a trip down to my local store.

*********************************************************
*** http://www.wdc.com/en/library/legacy...879-001021.pdf ***
Notice how WD drives can go all the way down to PIO4 udma16.

Get a WD drive and your problems should go away. Save your Maxtor for a newer AMD machine.

.

wallijonn · 10-17-2004, 09:53 PM

Btw, since I am experimenting with Ubuntu I decided to try it on my Intel PBZ board. So I followed the instructions and what did I get? Grub error 17. Well, of course, I have to download a ICH5 driver... doh.

It would be just like installing SATA, you need a driver on a floppy.

But man, did it install in a flash on my 3G machine! Slackware took a little longer. SUSE and Fedora take the longest as you have to go through the GUI.

But I just didn't feel like doing that so I just threw the caddy into my ECS i850 machine, booted from the CD, and presto, change-o, ala kazam... here I am.

Now, had I wanted to just install Linux onto the PBZ I could have thrown in Fedora Core 2 (but then I have to install the ATI drivers) or SUSE 9.1 (but I have to install the ATI drivers). It's much easier installing it on my slower machine and checking it out since it has an nVidia card in it.

Heck, if Libranet Linux had the 2.6 kernel I would try that as it also does GNOME just as well and is known for having a lot of SATA drivers already on the CD.

**pointreyes** · 10-17-2004, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallijonn

Now, had I wanted to just install Linux onto the PBZ I could have thrown in Fedora Core 2 (but then I have to install the ATI drivers) or SUSE 9.1 (but I have to install the ATI drivers). It's much easier installing it on my slower machine and checking it out since it has an nVidia card in it.

Don't you just love ATi cards?

Here's the kicker I'm getting hit with. My dual Opteron: SuSE 9.1 Pro 32 or 64-bit will not install, Turbo Linux for AMD64 installs without a problem. I'm using LSI U320 SCSI controller with this system. Have an nVidia video card in it as well. Strange how Linux SuSE 9.1 Pro will not but of course the much more expensive SLES8 will install just fine on the system. Oddly, Windows 2003 Server 64-bit installs but can't boot up but an older version of Windows XP Pro 64-bit installs on the system. These non-mainstream OSes can be very odd for installation sometimes.

SuSE 9.1 Pro installs on my Asus P4C800E-D and even the Audigy 2 works on it. The ATi 9800 Pro works as well but I never bother with installing additonal ATi drivers. However, I'm using an IDE drive for the boot drive but SuSE did recognize the SATA drives on the ICH5 without any complications.

The slowest machine I have is a Intel Springdale with a celery 2.4 on it. I have Solaris 9 (12/03) running on it. Not using the SATA but I do have the CSA LAN working on the OS.

10-16-2004, 07:45 PM	#1
Jorrell baka neko Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 714	grub error17 - alternate bootloader? Grub error 17 Ok, I've posted about this once before, but I figured that problem out I think (hdd boot sector was damaged I think)......so this question is about grub. I've installed Mandrake 10 which performed an automatic install of grub. Finally on this new harddrive grub actually tries to load, however it loads to 1.5 and then gives me an error 17....which I take to mean it can't access its data on the harddrive. I'm guessing this is due to it seeing the drive as something different than mandrake did.....which might make sense when you read the hardware list Asus P5a mbd (bios1007.a newest) with k6-2 500 and 384MB Diamond Voodoo Banshee agp Toshiba Cd ROM on secondary master (Ali) Maxtor Ultra ATA 100 controller,pci (by promise) Maxtor 60GB 7200RPM on Maxtor Ultra 100 ctrlr (primary slave) SB 128 Intel 10/100 Linksys 10/100 (I could put two intels in, but I figrd this way it'd be easier to figure out which it was referring to) Ok, so what I think I need is detailed instruction on how to tell GRUB where to find stuff. -I tried installing bootmagic, but when the cd-rom boots it fails to detect the promise controller. -The Promise contoller is needed to access the maxtor drive because the bios doesn't seem to like it. -Near as I could tell the Mandrake installer did a good job of detecting all hardware. __________________ Last edited by Jorrell : 10-17-2004 at 03:10 AM.
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10-16-2004, 10:38 PM	#2
wallijonn PHX Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Phoenix Posts: 2,569	There is nothing wrong with GRUB. Don't blame GRUB - blame Promise. Just be glad you don't have a mobo with a built-in Promise controller. LILO may have the same problem. http://www.promise.com/support/downl...ry=bios&os=100 http://www.promise.com/support/downl...ory=All&os=100 http://yolinux.com/MINI-HOWTO/Ultra-DMA.html http://www.linuxisle.com/docs/howtos...se-RAID1-HOWTO Without some hard work ( like http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/text/Linux...se-RAID1-HOWTO ) you have three options: don't use the Promise controller, get a new mobo, or don't use Linux. (Btw, I got rid of my Promise controller when I had problems with W2KP). http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-ha.../msg01891.html http://leuksman.com/linux/Ultra-DMA.sgml . Last edited by wallijonn : 10-16-2004 at 11:07 PM.
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10-17-2004, 03:08 AM	#3
Jorrell baka neko Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 714	yeah I know grub doesn't suck....but it got me a response Well it looks like the promise controller is out then unless....does anyone know of another boot loader I might be able to use, one that might work with the promise ata 100 controller. I know mandrake accessed the drive, it managed to install everything...the bios can access the drive too...it initialized the grub loader, but grub can't. The harddrive won't run off the mbd's controller (freezes up in identify process). I'll try to get my highpoint sata card to recognize the drive again, but so far that hasn't worked at all. BTW, would grub like the highpoint sata raid controller any better? If anyone could recommend a boot loader other than grub (and hopefully explain how to get it going) that would be great! __________________
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10-17-2004, 03:13 AM	#4
pointreyes The race for quality has no finish line- so technically, it's more like a death march. Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 18,159	I see that I'm not the only Promise hater here. With nearly a decade of using Linux, I hate the "I MUST BE THE IRQ GOD" controllers called Promise. I was actually going to say, "Promise sucks-not GRUB." And yes, I have had better luck with HighPoint than evil demented Promise controllers. However, I stopped using cheap controllers a while ago - I prefer 3Ware. __________________
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10-17-2004, 04:40 AM	#7
wallijonn PHX Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Phoenix Posts: 2,569	This drive might work: http://www.pcpartsohio.com/BookDetail.aspx?item_id=307
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10-17-2004, 05:34 AM	#8
Jorrell baka neko Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 714	thank you for your help wallijohn I'm still confused. I checked the highpoint site and they have a redhat driver that I might be able to use, but I'll need to get a floppy drive first...but before then: Maybe I'm dumb, but I think you're telling me that grub can access the data fine but linux can't? That doesn't make much sense to me, since the mandrake installer installed to the drive without error. (the installer uses a similar kernel as mandrake, yes?) I checked the grub manuals at http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html It says: "17 : Cannot mount selected partition This error is returned if the partition requested exists, but the filesystem type cannot be recognized by GRUB. " They seem to say that the problem is in grub being able to access the file system. I think that means that the linux kernel is not active yet. Is this when grub goes looking for the kernel or for something else? It also seems to say that GRUB can at the very least see the partition. (but can't read it?) Or is it really because its a software controller and I really have no idea what I'm talking about? I probably don't understand this whole process, so hopefully you can continue to educate this rather perplexed (and probably annoying) student. --about the new drives and controllers-- Sorry guys, I'd rather avoid buying new hardware if at all possible. If its something REALLY cheap then maybe. If I can't get linux working I'll have to put windows on here and hope it has enough power to work as a server. I do have some old 4GB harddrives lying around in storage I could install to and then boot off of. I can't get to them today since they're an hour away in storage, but maybe tomorrow. I could then add drivers for the highpoint card and map the 60GB drive to somewhere, right? Do you think that would work? __________________
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10-17-2004, 11:30 AM	#9
pointreyes The race for quality has no finish line- so technically, it's more like a death march. Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 18,159	Why not just use the DFI you have? Linux will fly on that box. I just happen to have almost the same hardware as you for the DFI. Here's what I have: DFI LANParty Pro 875 2.6c oc'ed to 3.25 consistently 2x256 of OCZ PC4000 AIW 9600 Pro Santa Cruz sound card I'm currently running the ICH5R with separate disks instead of RAID: 160GB and 250GB. The latest Linux distros run great on the ICH5 but with the LANParty you have that onboard controller (HPT372) which happens to be one controller that works just fine Linux without additional drivers anymore. Note: I don't use Mandrake so I'm not as sure how good it will work on the Canterwood chipset, I'm a SuSE user. __________________
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10-17-2004, 03:58 PM	#10
Jorrell baka neko Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 714	The dfi is my desktop machine. I want the other to function as a server for web and ftp.....something I can leave on all the time and maybe use as a firewall/router too. Now if I only had two dfi's........ __________________
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10-17-2004, 04:09 PM	#12
Jorrell baka neko Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 714	wow, thank you for that wallijohn....I think I understand now! And thank you for the amount of effort you've put into this...most people would just post two or three sentences. It seems I really don't have any chance of booting off of that controller. But if I used an old 4Gb for linux to install too (on the onboard controller), I could then use the 60GB mounted to some directory as storage right? Would this solve the problem and let me boot into linux? __________________
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10-17-2004, 05:01 PM	#13
wallijonn PHX Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Phoenix Posts: 2,569	Jorell, Chances are that you'd still have the same problem. The 60GB drive would have to use a driver in /dev. So now you would be able to get into Linux but you wouldn't be able to mount the device when you gave it the 'mount /dev/sda0 /mnt' command, or within the fs table (fstab) which automatically mounts devices. fstab will call gpart (get partition table). The drive will have to have been set up with a specific drive type, ext2, reiser, iso9660, etc. http://www.humbug.org.au/talks/fstab/fstab.html What does the BIOS see if you connect the Maxtor directly to the IDE channel and not use the Promise controller? If it is already formatted by Linux it may not see it al all. I know that if I use a Maxtor ATA133 drive on my Intel D875PBZLK mobo it will not install the OS. Maxtor does not have a utility to set the ATA to anything other than ATA133. Western Digital and Seagate do have a utility on the CD to set the udma to 33, 66 or 100. If you are using udma16 - you may be out of luck; but then again the BIOS may force it to go into PIO1 or PIO2 or PIO3 or PIO4 mode, so there is still a chance with WD or Seagate drives. http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview...R1002391&aid=9 So, are there any WD drives on sale in today's Sunday papers? That might be your best bet. I think the K6 supported udma33, so a WD or Seagate should be able to be used when connected directly to the mobo IDE controller. Most drives under 20GB were usually udma33, all drives from 20GB to 40GB were usually udma66, and most drives from 40GB on up are usually udma100. Now, if you could get a 40G WD for $20, that would be your best bet. hmmm, BestBuy has a WD80G HD for $30 after 2 rebates... maybe I'll take a trip down to my local store. ******************************************************* * http://www.wdc.com/en/library/legacy...879-001021.pdf *** Notice how WD drives can go all the way down to PIO4 udma16. Get a WD drive and your problems should go away. Save your Maxtor for a newer AMD machine. . Last edited by wallijonn : 10-17-2004 at 05:38 PM.
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10-17-2004, 09:53 PM	#14
wallijonn PHX Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Phoenix Posts: 2,569	Btw, since I am experimenting with Ubuntu I decided to try it on my Intel PBZ board. So I followed the instructions and what did I get? Grub error 17. Well, of course, I have to download a ICH5 driver... doh. It would be just like installing SATA, you need a driver on a floppy. But man, did it install in a flash on my 3G machine! Slackware took a little longer. SUSE and Fedora take the longest as you have to go through the GUI. But I just didn't feel like doing that so I just threw the caddy into my ECS i850 machine, booted from the CD, and presto, change-o, ala kazam... here I am. Now, had I wanted to just install Linux onto the PBZ I could have thrown in Fedora Core 2 (but then I have to install the ATI drivers) or SUSE 9.1 (but I have to install the ATI drivers). It's much easier installing it on my slower machine and checking it out since it has an nVidia card in it. Heck, if Libranet Linux had the 2.6 kernel I would try that as it also does GNOME just as well and is known for having a lot of SATA drivers already on the CD.
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