I have successfully installed Mandrake 9.2 on my old machine (apart from getting the internet to work as per my thread in the Mandrake section) so I thought I'd have a go at installing it on my more powerful main box as a dual boot with Windows XP.

The installation appeared to go flawlessly. Upon re-booting, the Mandrake 9.2 boot screen appeared giving me the option to boot up in Linux or Windows as normal. If I highlight Windows, Windows starts up as normal without any problems but if I highlight Linux, the boot-up appears to freeze.

I pressed the Esc button to switch to 'Verbose' boot-up mode and the last line is the following error upon which the boot-up freezes:


Finding module dependencies: modprobe: modprobe: insmod pwc failed


Can anybody tell me what this means and how to resolve this problem?

do you have a web cam hooked up? i think that module is for a web cam. unhook the cam and see if it will boot up normally. if it does, you might try upgrading your kernel and trying it again.

Also... I'm not sure about this but if Mandrake 9.2 has got an interactive bootup mode (in verbose mode you might be able to press I to select what is loaded and what isn't), then you can just select not to load pwc.

Hi guys,

Thanks for the tips. You were right - I did have a webcam plugged in one of the USB sockets (Logitech Zoom). I unplugged and it booted OK without incident.

The kernel of this distro is 2.4.3-20mdk - I downloaded it about two weeks ago so I thought I would have the latest. As for downloading a more up-to-date kernel - how do I do this and how would I upgrade the kernel I am using Especially as even though I've now got Mandrake to dual boot in my Windows machine, I still can't get it to connect If you could check out this thread I'd be grateful:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...596#post681596

Thanks

you can go here:
ftp://mirrors.secsup.org/pub/linux/m...ates/9.2/RPMS/
and download a couple of packages...
kernel-source-2.4.22-21mdk.i586.rpm
kernel-2.4.22.21mdk-1-1mdk.i586.rpm

I'm not totally sure those are upgrades from what you have though.

I had the exact same problem after installing Mandrake 9.2. At bootup, the system would lock up completely after trying to load pwc.

Unplugging the web cam (Logitech Quickcam 3000) the system booted fine.

I upgraded to the latest kernel 2.4.22-26 and it now loads fine.

After installing the pwcx module (http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/release.html) using the modules.conf line:

post-install pwc /sbin/insmod --force /lib/modules/usb/pwcx-i386.o >/dev/null 2>&1

it now works in Gnomemeeting.

Alex

AlexB2,

Thanks for the advice. I've never installed anything on Linux before. Could you give me a detailed procedure of what exactly I need to do and type in to download and install the necessary Kernel upgrade and pwcx module? Sorry if this is tedious but I have absolutely no idea of how to do things like this in Linux.

Hi,

I have the same problem with the same camera. Mandrake 9.2 will boot fine without it plugged in... but I haven't been able to get anything else to work.

I downloaded the latest Kernel RPM (thnks timdsmith) and it told me "Everything is already installed" or something very similar. Which sounds like I'm on the latest kernel.

I'm not bothered about actually using the webcam in Linux; I just don't want to have to unplug it each time I boot in Linux rather than Windows. Of course I'd like to have it working if possible!

Cheers

Ah thanks! I had the same problem; but now it works again!