Installer does not see hard drives

[fsmithred]

I'm trying to install jessie on a new computer, but the installer does not see the hard drives. I copied the DVD-1 iso to a usb stick with dd (also tried the netinstall) and it boots, but when I get to partitioning, it only sees the usb drive. If I go to another virtual console and run dmesg or fdisk -l, all drives are seen correctly.

Back up a little - at first I tried the on-board raid, but when the installer couldn't see the drives, I went back into the bios and reset the sata mode to ahci. I've got it set to use bios/legacy OS, or whatever it's called, fast boot is disabled. Even if only one drive is connected, the debian installer does not see it. Then I read up on the fake raid I was trying to use and decided to go with software raid. Can't do that if there's no hard drives listed in the partitioner.

My own installer (refractainstaller) does work, and I've installed jessie with it a couple of times onto one drive, but I really wanted to use raid and lvm, and my installer doesn't do either of those things. No optical drive, but if that's the only way to install, I'll pull the one from my current box and use it for the install. I think I still have a blank CD or DVD lying around.

Any suggestions or secret incantations are welcome. Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but right now, I'm so pissed off I can't see straight. Thanks in advance for any guidance.

Hardware:
ASUS H97-PLUS LGA 1150
Intel core i3 (the cheapest one at newegg)
WD Black 1TB drives (2)
GSkill cheap memory, which already passed a memtest.

[GarryRicketson]

There are so many threads asking basicly the same thing, ok, well on this it was a older computer, but it may be of interest, most recent:http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 51#p577990
The odd thing, noramally people say unebootin does not work well with debian, but in that one, that is what the OP ended up using, and it worked.

No optical drive, but if that's the only way to install, I'll pull the one from my current box and use it for the install.

My experience is: Trying to create USB bootstick,to install is about the most un-reliable way to go, I made one using the dd command and it worked, later I tried to make another, to give to a friend, useing the exact same method, and it didn't work, ????
What I find to be most reliable, I bought a USB portable optical drive, it can burn dvd/cd, etc, it was not very expensive, about $25, 2 years ago, a guy that owned a computer repair shop recomended it. And to me that is one of the most usefull investments I ever made.
Similar, if you have one, handy like you say, and know how to connect it,etc,... I think that would be your most reliable method.
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It might be of help if you can post a copy of the "dd" command you used, but it sounds like you are sure you had that correct ? In fact it sounds like you know more about this stuff then me, I don't think you are "missing' anything, I think it is the "pendrives", are a "hit" and miss deal, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Hopefully maybe someone with more experience does respond, and maybe they will have a better answer.
Edited: I have also have seen the "pendrive" not work, but after shutting down, remove it , then plug it back in, try again, then it did work, and could see the HD,..who knows why they sometimes work and other times don't ?

[fsmithred]

Thanks, but that's a different problem. The usb boots ok. The running system (in the installer) sees the hard drives, but the partitioner does not.

Here are the isos I tried.
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/8.0 ... -DVD-1.iso
http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/8.0 ... etinst.iso

I burned a dvd and tried installing from that and got the same result. Also reset the bios to defaults and tried, but got complaints from secure boot. Went through bios again and only changed three things: turned off fast boot, set secure boot to "other OS" and disabled hdmi audio.

If I don't use the debian installer, I can install jessie, wheezy and even centos 6. (But audio is not right with wheezy or centos 6 - alsa version is too old.)

[GarryRicketson]

but the partitioner does not.

Oh , ok, I misunderstood on that, sorry,

I burned a dvd and tried installing from that and got the same result.

It almost makes me wonder if there is some "bug" in the installer, well not the entire installer but the partitioner ?

[fsmithred]

I agree that the problem looks like it's the installer's partitioner. More evidence to support that is the fact that I am right now in the middle of installing from a wheezy netinstall iso. It works just fine.

[gengiskanhg]

Installing Debian in a DELL T7500 Workstation

I lost about 3 hours with the problem that debian installer does not recognized my second hard drive. The first one has ms-windows. I wish to install GNU/Linux/Debian in the second one. The problem is that when the installation procedure (same for graphical, non graphical (normal) or expert modes) arrive to the HD partition, it only detectet the first HD. I tried several solutions from disconnecting one, the other, alternate them, BIOS configuration, etc. But the solution arrived as follows:

Running installation procedure of Debian in expert mode. The "cfdisk" component most be loaded (it is almost the first one of the list of components to be loaded) The "driver-injection-disk-detect" component maybe too. Not sure if it is required. When the partitioner just recognized one HD I went back to the main menu (BACK), and got into "Execute a shell" (near the bottom of the instalation menu). Then I used > fdisk -l to get sure that BOTH HD are detected. They do, so the problem was something with the partitioner or second HD configuration. I used > cfdisk /dev/sdb (you should use ...sdX according to the fdisk command). Then I got into akind of text program. There I "Delete" the device (seleccting with the arrows of your keyboard the bottom menu {DELETE} and pressing ENTER (key). You most follow the instructions typing "yes" for confirmation. HD most be (phisically) disconnected for some seconds and reconnected. This allows that the systems assign it an other /dev/sdx. In my case. I disconnected the "first (windows one)" and connect only the empty HD. During this procedure I disconected as explained the HD and then connected. Then I entered again the > cfdisk and make a {NEW} partition and then {WRITE}. Device letter was changed! After that then [QUIT]. Type > exit to return to the instalation menu and when you repeat the partition disk option WOLLA, the invisible HD is detected.

Be sure to repeat DISK DETECTION before DISK PARTITION

This problem was solved but not understood. Why should HD most be disconnected and reconnected? It is an open question...

[Uptade] On day after. I used to burn a CD an other .iso file (from softpedia) and other .EXE instaler from Windows (with out burning any CD/DVD). The result was the same. They detected both HD but when partitioing was executed, It hatls about 33%. I solved this but this is in another post. The key error text is: "Found a dos partition table of /dev/sdb1"
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... bug=778922