Loading linux failure

dawn_angel · 12-25-2003, 10:55 PM

I tried to install redhat 9.0 on my 20GB HDD...it was a success. But I tried to startup for the first time, but a slew of error messages scroll off the screen without stopping. I can't even look what's exactly the error messages was. It was like <(C1****)> can't really see...
PLEASE HELP...as I tried many times to reinstall...

wldkos · 12-26-2003, 12:24 AM

what is your setup, are you dual booting? And how can this be a success?

dawn_angel · 12-26-2003, 01:03 AM

I'm not using dual-boot and am using automatic setup...is this good to do with my VGA? But I tried to changed my HDD (Windoze) and no problem occurs...

PLEASE HELP!!...need to use Linux...no more $Windoze$

wldkos · 12-26-2003, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dawn_angel
I'm not using dual-boot and am using automatic setup...is this good to do with my VGA? But I tried to changed my HDD (Windoze) and no problem occurs...

PLEASE HELP!!...need to use Linux...no more $Windoze$

by dual boot, I mean, do you have windows on the same drive that you are trying to install linux on? Do you have windows on a hard drive on this machine at all?
If so, your gonna have to dual boot and install your bootloader to the MBR.

dawn_angel · 12-31-2003, 09:28 PM

No...i don't have Windoze on the HDD, but when I tried to use the HDD to another PC(DELL) and tried to reinstall it works fine...what's the problem? is that got to do with my hardware?

johnleemk · 01-01-2004, 03:51 AM

Hm...can you post your hardware specs? Maybe it is a motherboard or graphics card incompatibility.

dawn_angel · 01-01-2004, 06:30 PM

MBoard P4B266SE/2.4Ghz CPU/256MB DDR/VGA ATI Radeon 64MB i've just tried changing to another RAM and changing the VGA, but problem still persists...any idea?

kc8tbe · 01-01-2004, 08:17 PM

What boot manager are you using? Does the slew of errors begin before of after the boot manager loads? Do you ever see the words "kernel panic"?

dawn_angel · 01-01-2004, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kc8tbe
What boot manager are you using? Does the slew of errors begin before of after the boot manager loads? Do you ever see the words "kernel panic"?

I'm using GRUB...yeah the slew of errors begin before the boot manager loads...can't even see any wordings "kernel panic"...i install the same OS RedHat9 to another PC using same HDD no problem at all...only to my PC...pls help!!..

kc8tbe · 01-02-2004, 09:39 AM

I'm guessing that stage one of grub load off the MBR but that stage 2 doesn't load off of the boot partition. If this is the problem, you might fix it by:
1. If you haven't done so already, make a "boot" partition seperate from your "root" partition. The boot partition will contain the bzImage from your kernel and the bootloader. Basically, make the contents of /boot a seperate partition.
2. Make sure the boot partition is located in the first 40GB of your HD and does not extend beyond the 40GB boundary; this can be problematic for some bios. Ideally, the boot partition should be located at the very beginning of the HD.
3. Make sure support for the filesystem used in the boot partition is compiled directly into the kernel - NOT as a module. ext2 is an excellent choice of filesystem for the boot partition.
4. Try using lilo instead of grub.

If you can post some of the error messages you get to the forum, it would be very helpful. I know it's hard to see anything as a whole slew of error messages scroll by. Pressing Pause, Ctrl+Pause, or Ctrl+C may have the effect of freezing the error messages so that you can copy them down.