Hi All!

I'am trying to install Slack 12 on my Compaq laptop with AMD Turion 64 X2 processor and SATA 40 GB hard disk.

Sometimes when i try and boot from Slack cd to start installation, computer just stops and does nothing at the folloing point:
.
.
.
CPU1: AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL50 stepping 02
Total of 2 processors activated (6432.63 BogoMIPS)
ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
..TIMER: vector-0x31 apic1=0 pin1=0 apic2=-1 pin2=-1

After turning the computer off and on and booting from the CD a few times a can get into the installation process futher on. However, during the installation process computer just stops at a random point when it is installing this or the other package. So, again, I have to turn computer off and on and start again never acutually getting to the end.

First time I tried installing Slack on this computer, it went fine and got to the end of the installation, written lilo to the MBR, rebooted and during first bootup stoped at that "..TIMER" stage or got further to the stage described below, after I restarted the computer a few times.

When it does get past the "..TIMER" bit, it runs into another problem saying:
.
.
.
WARNING: couldn't open /ets/fstab: No such gile or directory
/sbin/e2fsck: Is a directory ....

It offers me to login into single user mode to fix a problem with fsck, but my file system is ReiserFS and NOT ext2 or ext3. I try to login into the single-user mode but the computer just restarts.

I really don't know what the hell is going on. Please help!!!!!

Thanks,

Andrei

Atleast for the installation, you may have some success by adding noapic and/or acpi=off on the boot command line when you first start. if this gets you installed and running, you will then be able to experiment and diagnose the issue, and/or make the necessary changes permanent somehow to avoid this problem till a solution is found.

ACPI on laptops tends to give many people grief, but usually a fix or workaround can be found.

As for whether or not ReiserFS is a problem or not, I can't answer. I've only ever used EXT2 for Slack, with 100% success and reliability.

Let us know how it goes..

I've had this problem before (not with Slackware, but with FC5). To fix it (at least temporarily) I use one or more of the following boot options or flags:

these stand for no apic, no local apic, no I/O apic. Try the 'noioapic' first, then try one at a time or all at a time or just two. Mix and match, see if it works.

Thanks for help.

I have put append="noapic" into the lilo.conf and it seems to boot OK.

I have reinstalled linux again and this time I installed the utilities for ext2/ext3 and now I can get into linux without problems. I still do not understand why it wanted the utilities if my file system is ReiserFS and fsck/e2fsck is only used by ext2/3 filesystems.

Well, I dunno, but APIC seems to be a problem on many laptops, including mine. I can't really explain why. But that is an interesting realization you made there. This APIC problem only happened with newer kernels on FC5 and ext3 filesystem. Now that I'm using Slackware and JFS filesystem, the problem has not manifested itself. It could also be some stupid patch that the Red Hat crew applied to the kernel. I have no idea. I know I've look and ask many different places to try to find a solution, and then the problem went away after installing Slackware and JFS.

Really, I can't understand it myself. If anyone else has some insight, please say so.

At least it works so far.