Slackware 13.1 x86_64 install hangs while booting huge.s

bitznarf · 08-06-2010, 05:07 PM

I'm attempting to install Slackware on my home system but I'm not having any success. When I boot from the DVD I get the boot menu that recommends that hit 'enter' or huge.s (as I understand it, these are the same thing). When I do that a lot of text flows across the screen and then the computer hangs. The last 3 lines I see are these:

Code:

ACPI: Core Revision 20091214
ftrace: converting mcount calls to 0f 14 44 00 00
ftrace: allocating 33400 entries in 132 pages

My system is an old AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual Core 4400+ with a ASUS A8N-SLI premium MB, 2 nVidia 7800 GTs in SLI mode, and 4 GB of ram. I have 7 HDs installed, 2 of which are in a hardware raid array (though I don't imagine that the HDs have anything to do with the problem).

Does anyone have any idea what is going on?

hughetorrance · 08-07-2010, 05:35 AM

Hi... I know its obvious but have you checked the DVD for errors,I use DVD-RW and so far I think they are OK... !

onebuck · 08-08-2010, 11:30 AM

Hi,

Welcome to LQ!

Quote:

Originally Posted by bitznarf

I'm attempting to install Slackware on my home system but I'm not having any success. When I boot from the DVD I get the boot menu that recommends that hit 'enter' or huge.s (as I understand it, these are the same thing). When I do that a lot of text flows across the screen and then the computer hangs. The last 3 lines I see are these:

Code:

ACPI: Core Revision 20091214
ftrace: converting mcount calls to 0f 14 44 00 00
ftrace: allocating 33400 entries in 132 pages

My system is an old AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual Core 4400+ with a ASUS A8N-SLI premium MB, 2 nVidia 7800 GTs in SLI mode, and 4 GB of ram. I have 7 HDs installed, 2 of which are in a hardware raid array (though I don't imagine that the HDs have anything to do with the problem).

Does anyone have any idea what is going on?

If your media checks OK then pass the 'noapic' & 'noapci' parameters to the kernel at the 'boot' prompt.

bitznarf · 08-09-2010, 01:37 PM

I reburnt and reverified my DVD and got the same problem as before.

I then tried:
"huge.s noapic noapci"
"huge.s noapic noacpi"
both of which gave me:

Code:

Performance Events: AMD PMU driver.
... version:                0
... bit width:              48
... generic registers:      4
... value mask:             0000ffffffffffff
... max period:             00007fffffffffff
... fixed-purpose events:   0
... event mask:             000000000000000f
ACPI: Core Revision 20091214
ACPI: setting ELCR to 0200 (from 1828)
ftrace: converting mcount calls to 0f 14 44 00 00
ftrace: allocating 33400 entries in 132 pages

Next I tried:
"huge.s noapic acpi=off"
which gave me:

Code:

Performance Events: AMD PMU driver.
... version:                0
... bit width:              48
... generic registers:      4
... value mask:             0000ffffffffffff
... max period:             00007fffffffffff
... fixed-purpose events:   0
... event mask:             000000000000000f
ftrace: converting mcount calls to 0f 14 44 00 00
ftrace: allocating 33400 entries in 132 pages

hughetorrance · 08-10-2010, 03:27 AM

Sorry I cant be of much help as your information dos,nt mean much to me,I assume that you have tried a few live distros and can confirm that your hardware is OK especially the RAM,it is best to remove from the box everything you don,t need for an installation,try installing with minimal hardware,i.e don,t use RAID or have any USB devices plugged in... !

bitznarf · 08-11-2010, 12:40 PM

I've had Windows XP running on this system for forever, and I'd had Ubuntu installed previously (about a year ago) so it didn't occur to me to check another Linux live CD. miniPE 2006.05.24 boots just fine. When I tried to boot off of either the 32bit or 64bit versions of Ubuntu 10.04 the Ubuntu slash screen appears, works for a while, then the screen goes to hell. It's just raw who knows what on the screen. I've tested my RAM and it checks just fine. Next I will try stripping my machine down to just 1 HD, 1 video card, 1 monitor, 4 GB of ram, and I'll see if I can find a PS/2 keyboard.

I suspect the answer is no, but could an old BIOS be a factor here? I haven't updated the BIOS since I bought the MB, so it's still running a version from 2005.

linus72 · 08-11-2010, 12:42 PM

have you tried booting a live distro off your hdd rather than a cd or usb?

bitznarf · 08-11-2010, 01:45 PM

By 'live distro off your hdd' do you mean an already installed distro? Or is there a special 'live distro style' for HDDs? Either way I have not, but I may be able to take 1 of my HDDs to someone else's computer and try installing Slackware on it, then bring it back to my computer and try to boot it.

linus72 · 08-11-2010, 02:18 PM

I meant booting say Slax off your hdd, or grml, or whatever thats livecd'ish

err...just download say Slax.tar.gz,
http://www.slax.org/get_slax.php
extract it and rename Slax's boot folder to "slaxboot"
place the "slaxboot" and "slax" folder on a partition with Linux already installed, add Slax to grub/grub2 menu
then boot it off hdd...
same as USB boot just off hdd

here's example Slax grub2 entry

You could try my own nFluxOS Slackware64 and see if it boots
http://multidistro.com/NFLUXNEW/SQ4/slack.html

Code:

menuentry "Slax (on /dev/sda6)" {
	insmod ext2
	set root=(hd0,6)
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 5ecbcc07-1de1-4043-9efe-cddc3bf01e0d
	linux /slaxboot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda6 ro quiet vt.default_utf8=1 vga=791
        initrd /slaxboot/initrd.gz
}

and see if it boots; you could also try others, etc

hughetorrance · 08-11-2010, 02:45 PM

Have a look through your BIOS and perhaps reset it to the defaults,note if possible any changes you made in the past so you can put it back to what it was,messing with the BIOS is tricky and you should take note of changes made but having said that I have reset things to the default and eventually changed things back and have never so far had any real problem... ooops be careful ! and if you are feeling really brave flash it up to the latest one available...when I have done that I have had on hand a copy of the original as well as the new one and the last time I ended up doing it twice because it failed the first time...you need nerves of Titanium for this sort of thing though.

bitznarf · 08-12-2010, 01:20 PM

I don't have a Linux install anywhere on this system so here is what I did instead:

Booted off of a Microcore 3.0 CD - a few USB errors, but a successful boot
From Microcore, setup a ext3 partition on one HDD, installing grub 0.97 as its boot loader (I'm not at all familiar with grub2, so I though I'd stick with that which I have a vague familiarity)
Copied the 'slax' and 'slaxboot' folders I had downloaded onto a USB flash drive onto the newly formatted HDD
Setup menu.lst like so:

Code:

default 0
timeout 10
title Slax 6.1.2
    root (hd3,0)
    kernel /slaxboot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdd1 ro quiet vga=775
    initrd /slaxboot/initrd.gz

When I booted from this HDD, I got alot of USB errors, if needed I can copy them down. The linux live scripts ran, and then the system hung. The last 3 lines were this:

Code:

* changing root directory ...
linux live end, starting slax
Usage: init 0132456SsQqAaBbCcUu

I took this to mean that somehow the inital runlevel was not set correctly, so I tried:

Code:

kernel /slaxboot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdd1 ro quiet single
kernel /slaxboot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdd1 ro quiet 3
kernel /slaxboot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdd1 ro quiet autoexec=init~3

none of which appeared to have any impact.

edit: I have not yet upgraded/reset my bios to default nor tried a minimal hardware boot. I plan to do so on the weekend when I'll have time to fix it if something should go wrong.

linus72 · 08-12-2010, 01:22 PM

so its boots off usb?
can microcore boot ok off usb too?

bitznarf · 08-12-2010, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linus72

so its boots off usb?
can microcore boot ok off usb too?

My BIOS doesn't support booting off of USB so far as I can tell. Slax was copied to the HDD using a copy I had downloaded from a windows computer to the USB device.

linus72 · 08-12-2010, 04:46 PM

EDIT
OH!
your booting slax wrong
you boot it just like from usb so the grub entry must be

Code:

title Slax
root (hd0,0)
kernel /slaxboot/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=9999 root=/dev/ram0 rw noauto max_loop=255 vga=788 autoexec=xconf
initrd /slaxboot/initrd.gz

it doesn't need to know partition, etc

usb boot:
use Plop bootmanager to boot usb, etc
it boots usbs, cdroms, usb-cdroms hdd etc on pc's that wont boot usb, etc
the one I use doesn't install anything, just an executable

place this file (link>) plpbt
in /boot folder and since you got grub installed edit menu.lst to say

Code:

title Plop
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/plpbt

then pick usb and it should boot....

bitznarf · 08-12-2010, 06:32 PM

Okay, so after editing my menu.lst file as above, Slax will now boot and give me a login prompt. I can log in, however when I startx I am left with a white cursor (that I can move) and an unresponsive keyboard (ie, no response from Num Lock/Caps Lock/Scroll Lock). I tried Ctrl+Alt+NumPlus a few times as xconf suggested without any response.
Using Plop I can boot microcore off a USB drive, but when I try to boot tinycore off the same USB drive I get a black screen, and an unresponsive keyboard.

If it matters at all, my keyboard is connected to a USB hub (built into my monitor). Still looking for a PS/2 keyboard to use.

Would it help if I downloaded a linux copy of the video drivers from nVidia? Or is that just chasing down the wrong horse?

edit: trying to boot Slax off of a USB drive does not work - it is running syslinux and I have setup the entry like so:

Code:

LABEL slax
KERNEL /slaxboot/vmlinuz
APPEND initrd /slaxboot/initrd.gz root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=9999 noauto max_loop=255 vga=788 autoexec=xconf

It comes back with

Code:

VFS: Cannot open root device "ram0" or unknown-block(3,6)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:
<partition list>
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,6)

I'll poke around the slax and syslinux sites and see what I can find about this.