FC4 install hangs on boot, but acts 'wierd'
 

Bretheren,

I did a fresh install of FC4 [dual boot with WXP], and opted to install everything possible.

Upon boot, the machine hangs after the 'initiialising Storage Network Audio -[DONE]'

it just sits there. For some reason, ocassionally I can get in by pressing 'i' all over the place beforehand - it then does the interactive boot, and all is well, even though I just say yes to starting all the services.

I tried editing the boot arguments in Grub, and removing RHGB. This allows to boot into command line, but then keyboard doesnt work, and an error flashes up:


{numbers}

status=80
fdc_busy=1
floppy_work.func=ffffffff{...etc}
{blah blah}
work still pending

Whats all that about?

and why when i opt to do interactive boot (and manage to get in) does it work fine?

Thanks for any help

neonsubbs

After that message" initiialising Storage Network Audio", the system normally tries to start a cut down version of X. if you do an interactive boot then it doesn't startx!

Edit grub to boot you into init3 (no X server)
this is done by adding a
3
to the end of the boot line. eg highlight the kernel you wish to boot in grub and press "e" then select the second line down and press "e" then go to the end of the line and " 3" and press return then press "b"

See if this boots up and gives you correct keyboard functionality.

Hopefully this gives you a full terminal, login and then type
startx

then as root edit /etc/sysconfig/init and set the GRAPHICAL line to "no"


This should disable graphical booting permanently and solve the problem"

some progress.
 

Thanks for the advice; since my post I had played around and got it going to a degree. I edited grub, so that rhgb is removed, and put 'single' at the end, which seemed to do what you are suggesting. The wierd thing is, that last time I booted (and chose this option), the commandline login came up, then just as I was entering my details, the normal (GUI) login screen came up. This is quite wierd - I will see what happens next time I try this.
It seems that when I just omit 'rhgb´ from the bootloader, the keyboard does not function properly. If I do a dmesg, I get loads of errors with atkbd.c saying something about an unknown key released. Any advice? should I try to reinstall X or something?
It all worked fine (same setup) on FC3...

Thanks again for the advice :)

it sounds like a dodgy setup of rhgb (which is the graphical boot loader) If you do this once
edit /etc/sysconfig/init and set the GRAPHICAL line to "no"
Then change grub back to the original way it should just boot like redhat 9 then start gdm as normal.

Also did you actually remove "rhgb quiet" or just "rhgb"? As it should be the first one. This might explain the odd single user mode and keyboard behavior

I think the problem comes from this bug!

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla....cgi?id=135574