I got red hat 7.3 installed with no problem yesterday , but when I boot up the system I get a crc error-system halted message. This happens right after it says uyncompressing Linux. If I use the boot disk that I made during the install it will boot up and run just fine. It has done this since the first reboot after the installation so I know its not something that I changed or anything like that. What can I do to make this thing boot normally.

Please remember that I had never even seen a Linux system before yesterday so go easy on me.

BTW- there are no other operating systems on this machine. I let the install set up the particoins automatically if that matters.

Thanks

Looks like the sectors on which your kernel image is stored has bad( write something, read something else) sectors. When the kernel image uncompresses, it tries to make sure that it hasnt changed after it was built ( by data corruption like above, most possibly) , so it runs a crc ( cyclic redundancy check) which is a checksum it computes on itself and compares it with a previous value. If the checksums dont match, the system will halt.

What I would do is boot the machine from the floppy logon as root and copy the kernel image from the floppy as /boot/vmlinuz-floppy delete the current kernel image( if you dont know what it is, you can find it from the boot-loader conf files under the label you boot from ) and rename the vmlinuz-floppy to the kernel image that the boot loader will be looking for. If the names match, you wont need to edit your boot loader configuration files. But if using LILO, run /sbin/lilo so that it translates the current location of the vmlinuz*version* to sector/cylinder/head language and writes it to the boot sector of the current partition ( or MBR, if that's where you're writing it to)

Now reboot without the floppy and let us see what happens :>

Ok, I renamed the vmlimuz and initrd files refered to in the grub conf file then drug those 2 files from the floppy into the boot folder, then renamed them with the version numbers so that they match the grub conf file. Didnt work, still does the same thing. Did I do something wrong?

Grub should've picked it up on reboot from my understanding. I'm not the GRUB guy you're looking for.

So I guess you have two options in front of you:

1) Wait till someone with a better grub knowledge takes over.

2) Install lilo - stands for linux loader. It is the legacy boot loader for linux. It is simpler than GRUB to install and configure. Send me your partition table - type /sbin/fdisk /dev/hda (as root - assuming that you're using your master hard-drive on the primary IDE channel, if that doesnt work try hdb ) and print the partition table (command p) and then command q to quit. Also send me the file listing under /boot/ to start with. We'll go from there.

I ended up toasting the entire thing and reinstalled after I put in a better video card but it didnt like it and then I couldnt get the old card to configure right and now im in the prosess of reinstalling again. I plan to have the same error though because it wouldnt boot without the floppy last time either.

Well Im back up and running but It still wont boot without the floppy. Any other ideas what to check?

So which way are you going?

I ended up puting the original video card back in the machine and reinstaling from scratch. I did exactly like I did the first time and let the install set up the particians automatically. Once the machine boots to the floppy then everything works great. With the benefit of hindsight, I should have installed LILO when I reinstalled but I ended up with GRUB because I didnt think of it until it was too late. So basically Im back where I started. I will try to get that partition table tonight. My Linux box is at home.

OK, I got to the partition table but how do I copy the text out of the terminal window to post it?

You must be in X if you posted this message. Open up an xterm ( or compatible terminal ) and bring up the partition table info. The general X rule is that you use the left mouse button drag to select text, right drag to extend/reduce your selection and middle-click to paste it. No action is required on your part to copy your selection to the clipboard, the act of selection places the text in a cut buffer ( clipboard) automatically. Middleclick on the textarea on the browser to paste. If you dont have a middle mouse button try clicking both left and right at the same time. For this you should have Emulate3buttons turned on. If that doesnt work , add the two lines (find section "InputDevice") your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

Section "InputDevice"
# existing options.....
# ..................
# .......................
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
Option "Emulate3Timeout" "150"
EndSection

I will try it again tonight. I selected the text but couldnt find the copy command and ctl+c didnt seem to work. I didnt know about the middle mouse button.

thanks

Disk /dev/hda: 128 heads, 63 sectors, 781 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8064 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 13 52384+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 14 700 2769984 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 701 781 326592 82 Linux swap


That middle click thing is so cool, allways wondered why mice had three buttons.

Now I need your file listing under /boot

At the risk of sounding redundent, how do list that out from a command prompt?

ls -Al

see man ls.