Looking for motherboard

not_here.5.species8350 · Jun 3, 2013

I am a little lost at the moment with Ubuntu 12.10

I can't find the accessories.

Paul · Jun 3, 2013

You would double check the front panel USB wiring.

I can see "I/O Panel" addressed on page 74 of the manual.
It looks like it uses a ribbon cable. Verify the ribbon
cable is plugged in the right way. I expect the
two USB ports, travel across the cable (because I
don't see any other interesting connectors for it).
If the ribbon cable has an alignment tab in the center,
that may give a hint as to how to orient it. You can
also check for a "pin 1" triangle in the silk screen
of the board, and line up the wire in the ribbon cable,
that has a white stripe along it (which would also be
pin 1).

I hope that cable doesn't have the same pin count, as
an IDE cable. Make sure, that if a special cable is used,
you haven't used an IDE cable in its place.

Paul

not_here.5.species8350 · Jun 3, 2013

I have now checked the Boot Sequence

1 onboard/usb floppy
2 onboard SATA HD (not present)
3 WDC WD2500JS-75NCBC
4 Add in HD (not present)
5 Add in HD (not present)
6 Add in HD (not present)
7 onboard or USB CD ROM
8 onboard network controller (not present)
9 USB device (not present)

Paul · Jun 3, 2013

The more modern a Ubuntu CD gets, the more likely
you're forced to use "Unity". That's a different interface.

http://unity.ubuntu.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/new_about.jpg

Click the thing in the upper left hand corner, then
type some text, such as "terminal". Just like metro
in Windows, it should return a list of matching applications.

I have no idea where "Accessories" are, because the
regular menus are no longer present (Gnome 2). One
version of Ubuntu, you could select the legacy interface
via the logon screen, but they removed that option in
later versions.

If I need to see disks, I click on any "trash can" showing.

Note that Unity has the same design defect as Metro,
in that the larger the LCD screen is, the more elements
can be visible. This is why, when someone asks questions
about using either of these things, I would have to
ask what screen resolution is present. Because you can see
more, with more pixels on the screen. It really should not
work that way - good design, means having consistent visual
cues, down to the lowest screen resolution supported (say 1024x768).

Ubuntu eventually plans on getting rid of Xwindows (XORG), so at
some point, even retrofitting your own screens will be difficult.
(One way of dodging Unity, was to install the server version
of the OS, and build it from the ground up. But some day,
not even that is going to be an option.)

Paul

not_here.5.species8350 · Jun 3, 2013

I'll check the front panel cabling later, but I did not disconnect any cables from this panel. But I will check it. Thee are two usb connectors on themonitor, both get their feed from the back of the tower, as I recall. One of these connects the mouse (works alright), the other will not run that bootable usb

Paul · Jun 3, 2013

If the priority is adjustable, you'd move the CDROM
up ahead of the hard drives. That's so, if inserting
a boot CD, it is given priority.

Floppy, CDROM, hard drive (in that order)

I expect it's showing a slot, for each port
capable of supporting a hard drive.

Paul

Paul · Jun 3, 2013

Bootable USB devices should be connected *directly* to the tower.

Not through a hub. Your monitor has a 2:1 hub by the sound of things.

The USB boot code, is not typically "feature complete". I don't
think it is capable of supporting the largest possible USB tree.
And that's why I recommend plugging a USB boot thing, right into
the rear I/O port.

Paul

not_here.5.species8350 · Jun 3, 2013

If I plug a bootable pendive into the front of the tower, it is recognised in the BIOS, but when I try to run it I am asked, as usual, to press F1 but instead of entering the UBUNTU options I get get another F1. Something is not right

I checked the wiring for the front panel. It looks fine.

not_here.5.species8350 · Jun 3, 2013

Those front usb ports do not appear to be recognised. Have not checked the second monitor usb port yet.

Paul · Jun 3, 2013

Check the flat cable, that I think runs from the front I/O plate, to
the motherboard. Maybe you haven't connected it. That might
account for the front USB not working. It needs to be wired.

I don't know what to make of your booting problem. If the system
will boot from *something*, that makes it harder to explain
why the booting subsystem isn't fully functional. If nothing
booted, then we'd suspect a hardware problem of some sort.

Paul

Flasherly · Jun 3, 2013

I have a USB stick with another Linux OS installed. It is bootable.
I noticed that when the stick is inserted
in the front usb ports on the tower that the BIOS sticks at one
quarter the way across the screen. I have two usb connections on the
monitor, one is running the mouse without a problem, But the second
will not run that usb.
On the back of the tower I have
the keyboard connected (usb) without a problem and the usb will run
from the rear.
The test I did on the motherboard reported no faults. This board is
reconditioned. It appears that something is not quite right somewhere.

-

I've got that. Those backplane USB connectors are your most rugged.
The rest come off MB through thin-wire block-to-block junctures. Easy
to dislodge a pin connection paired to another (ports apparently do
timing and not a pure physical signal relay). Hence one of mine works
and not the other. When I get in the mood to fix it, I can see the
loose wire where I pulled it out from its pairing to a two-USB
external case/block female receptor. Splice it. Test the USB-loaded
boot sequence from another/all USB connects you have available. Test
with another USB flash stick. Test your OS.

Then call me. I've got a 32G Sony camera memory card, wafer-thin and
thumbnail-sized, in a camera memory conversion USB stick that was
specially designed for you to troubleshoot.

not_here.5.species8350 · Jun 4, 2013

Thanks for responding.

Regarding booting.

I can't boot from Vista. Eventually I will probably try to re-install this operating system, or replace it with UBUNTU.

I can boot using UBUNTU either from the CD drive or a pendrive from a rear usb port.

Regarding the front panel.

When I was using UBUNTU I used one of the facilities and noticed the two usb drives, one contained the operating system (back), and the other was inserted in the front panel, I think that this confirms that the wiring to the front panel is intact.

I clicked on both these usb drives and neither would mount.

I can't see either using Libre Office's word processor, so I can't save or open files.

I hope that this information helps.

Ps. Regarding boot sequence, is it a good idea to remove the numbers from drives that are unused.

Someone on the Web flashed their BIOS and solved their front usb problem. I hope to avoid this in case it causes a problem.

UBUNTU works well, apart from not being able to save etc to a pendive that I would like to insert in the front usb.

Best wishes

Paul · Jun 4, 2013

Well, that would bother me a bit.

I would expect the back USB ports, to work, and work properly.
I would be willing to discount or ignore test results from the
front ports, for the time being. But the back ports should be
working.

I wonder why Ubuntu can't open a pen drive ???

Open a terminal, and see if you can figure out which
entry is the pen drive.

sudo fdisk /dev/sda <--- disk letters a,b,c... , these are a whole hard drive
p <--- print the partition table
q <--- quit

On the Linux LiveCD, you can also go to the Synaptic Package Manager
(not always easy to find, sometimes must be set up using the
stupid "software store" thing first). Eventually, you can
request to download "disktype" from the ubuntu repository,
then run a command like this.

sudo disktype /dev/sda

That would analyse an entire disk drive, and guess at
the partition types.

sudo disktype /dev/sda1

That analyses just the first partition on the disk.

In any case, there are tools for checking things out.
You can even try gparted if you want - just don't
get too carried away. This may make it easier to
survey the disks. The annoying part of Gparted,
is when the DOS partition scanner starts running,
an entirely unnecessary function that tries to compute
the used space of FAT partitions.

sudo gparted

Just quit that, after you've given it a chance to
check out the storage devices. I mention it, because
it looks a lot like Disk Management, in a way.

HTH,
Paul

not_here.5.species8350 · Jun 4, 2013

I'll see what I can find out.

The mouse was connected to the monitor. I think you said this was a hub. For some reason the mouse froze recently and I had to reboot. I have now moved the mouse to the back of the tower.

When the old board was installed I was always able to use the front ports. Maybe there is something in the Dell BIOS that is confused because the current board came from a different Dimension E520, although it was refurbished by Dell!

not_here.5.species8350 · Jun 4, 2013

So far for sda

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 112454 56196 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 112640 21084159 10485760 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 * 21084160 488278015 2335969

I don't really know what I am doing.

There is the OS pendrive at the rear and nothing in front

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo disktype /dev/sda1
sudo: disktype: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Back later

not_here.5.species8350 · Jun 4, 2013

Using something called 'Disks' in Linux. I can see the drives including an inserted pendrive in the front usb.

When I inserted the pendive in the front I did not see any flashing LED. I always saw this on the old mobo. But it was seen in 'Discs'

not_here.5.species8350 · Jun 4, 2013

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:2504 Standard Microsystems Corp. USB 2.0 Hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 13fe:1f00 Kingston Technology Company Inc. DataTraveler 2.0 4GB Flash Drive / Patriot Xporter 32GB (PEF32GUSB) Flash Drive
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0951:1643 Kingston Technology DataTraveler G3 4GB
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 413c:2003 Dell Computer Corp. Keyboard
Bus 006 Device 002: ID 043d:0141 Lexmark International, Inc.
Bus 007 Device 005: ID 046d:c016 Logitech, Inc. Optical Wheel Mouse
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

There it is, one at the back (OS) and one at the front

Paul · Jun 4, 2013

The Linux Foundation thing appears to be virtual. I presume that's
Linux USB hosting running via the Intel chipset. The SMC USB2 hub might
be inside the monitor.

http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids

Are you able to open the file system on the two DataTraveler sticks now ?

Paul

not_here.5.species8350 · Jun 4, 2013

I may have misinterpreted the above data. On the UBUNTU desktop I see only one USB symbol UDISK 2.0

Paul · Jun 4, 2013

You can also do "ls /dev" to see things like sda1 or sdc4 or whatever.
That will give some idea of what storage devices are present.

You can use "dmesg" output, to review what was discovered
in terms of hardware.

And I'm sure there are a few variations of the "lsusb" command, that
could shine some light on the subject.

The "fdisk" command, allows examining the MBR.

USB sticks, don't necessarily have an MBR. And Linux and Windows have
different tastes, in partitioning a USB stick. Windows can even place
a single partition on a USB stick, with no MBR. If you use a flash stick
with MBR and multiple FAT32 or NTFS partitions, Windows will only mount
the first one. The other partitions will be ignored. So Windows really
only wants a single partition on a flash stick, and can tolerate with
or without MBR. Linux "fdisk" is for MBR analysis. The "disktype"
command, can determine either situation, as in "sudo disktype /dev/sda".

"TestDisk" on the Linux LiveCD, can scan storage devices, looking for
partitions. Just don't write out any new MBR values with it, unless
you're absolutely sure it's the right thing to do.

The /dev/sda is a raw block device, so programs accessing the device
that way, work at the block level.

Windows also allows raw block device access. \\?\Device\Harddisk0\Partition0
might be the equivalent of /dev/sda (the whole disk) for example. And
Windows \\?\Device\Harddisk0\Partition1 would be /dev/sda1 (the
first partition).

In Windows, you can do "dd --list" using this program, to get
the names of all the block storage devices.

http://www.chrysocome.net/dd

Plenty of utilities for examination purposes.

If you cannot get the Linux LiveCD version of disktype to install
from the package manager (it's a PITA, how much work it is to get
that tiny app running). You can also get source from here, and
just build it under your LiveCD.

http://disktype.sourceforge.net/

Paul

Looking for motherboard

not_here.5.species8350

Paul

not_here.5.species8350

Paul

not_here.5.species8350

Paul

Paul

not_here.5.species8350

not_here.5.species8350

Paul

Flasherly

not_here.5.species8350

Paul

not_here.5.species8350

not_here.5.species8350

not_here.5.species8350

not_here.5.species8350

Paul

not_here.5.species8350

Paul