Post-install: machine won't boot w/ Vector ...blink blink blink goes the cursor
 

I have installed Vector Linux on an old Socket 7, Pentium MMX mobo

200 Mhz
128MB RAM
Gateway 2000 BIOS (Phoenix)
- Pri Master - OS
- 2nd Master - Swap file
- 2nd Slave - CDROM

The installation went fine, no errors that I could tell (iz only my 2nd install), finished up configuration, told me to reboot, did so...

_

blink
blink
blink
blink
blink

After the BIOS screen goes by, a blank screen with a blinking cursor comes up and Nothing Happens. The keyboard immediately freezes up after the BIOS screen (no Caps Lock, warm boot, etc.) and will sit there indefinitely until I reboot to watch the blank screen and cursor again. wheee

I wish I was a hardware guy, but I'm not, I wish I was a Linux guy, but I'm still green. And I wish Téa Leoni was single, but she's not. So any help on any of these 3 things would be fantastic (tho no hurry on the 3rd...I'm afraid I'm terribly shy when it comes to women so far out of my league that practice is on another planet).

I wish I could post more, give you sleuths a few more clues but I'm not sure where to start. If it might be something with the install, how can I use the install CD to check? I have a Slack boot disk but frankly I don't know what to do with that either.

Thanx

NtB

The first thing that you should get in the way of software messages is for the bootloader to announce its start. If you are not getting a grub or lilo message then you may not have any bootloader installed on the MBR. If you have a boot floppy try that.

Since the bootloader does not start you may have a problem in the BIOS where boot does not
get that far. Quick, memorize the last BIOS message before it dissapears.

"how can I use the install CD to check? I have a Slack boot disk but frankly I don't know what to do with that either."

If you have a rescue function on your Vector Linux CD you might try using that to get into your Linux system. If Vector Linux does not have a "boot installed system" option then here is a way to do it that usually works:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=158097

Slackware has a rescue function in its install CD. I don't know if that will work if the Slackware kernel is a different version than your Vector Linux kernel but you can give it a try.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

Darrr...yay! Urg.
 

Problem solved! I had wiped the HDD pre-install with Quantum's drive utility and I guess that wiped out the MBR. It's kind of silly, but I didn't realize you had to have something on the MBR so during Vector installation I put LILO on the superblock

(Shouldn't that work if you make the partition it's on active?)

Anyhoo, I used the Vector install CD to boot the installation
(linux boot=/dev/hda1)
used 'vasm' and the LILO configuration and loaded it on to the MBR. Cake and pie, booted right up.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Steve!

NtB

"I put LILO on the superblock

(Shouldn't that work if you make the partition it's on active?)"

It will work if you chain load boot records. The BIOS always looks at the MBR first.

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Steve Stites