ok heres the thing - i really really screwed up my boot directory. i was compiling and installing the 2.6.7 kernel over my original 2.4 something Suse 9.0 kernel, and when i rebooted using lilo instead of grub with the new kernel it didnt boot at all. i suspect lilo is something to do with it as i installed Suse linux on anoter disk today and it worked perfectly until i switched from grub to lilo using YaST2, at which point it failed to boot as well. a further problem is however that in an attempt to solve the problem i copied an old (but working) GRUB boot directory over my spoilt 2.6.7 lilo one in the hope it would use grub but there was no change.

how can u change the boot loader from a prompt?

y doesnt lilo work?

where does a new kernel install itself? (ie how much do the kernel image and source code directory where it was compiled from account for?)



any help would be gr8 as i hav already had to rebuild my OS once - i would just like to hav to piece together a new boot structure (preferably a working lilo as i think thats what raw linux kernel's like? or is grub fine?) this time.

thanks! and sorry i always screw up my OS i think i am too ambitious seeing as ive only been using linux for around 8 months!

http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/1998/0...lo_errmsg.html - may also be an idea for you to check the SuSE support database. (http://portal.suse.com/PM/page/searc...25&l=en&x=true)

ok i dont hav a boot.b file in my master disk's boot directory !
the message it tends to giv is usually

L 99 99 99 99 99 99 etc...
or
L 01 01 01 01 01 01 etc...

does this mean the second stage (ie the boot.b file) cannot be initiated?
what should i do?


btw i am currently using Slax Live CD so i cant really execute make commands and so forth, and im not sure how to successfully run /sbin/lilo on my master disk without using the master disk to boot - any ideas?

First - Lilo is fscked. It needs to be removed. The easiest way that I know of to do this is to boot from a Windows disk (floppy preferably - get one from www.putergeek.com) and type fdisk /mbr at the a: prompt. This will wipe Lilo.

The next step is to reinstall Lilo. Boot from your first cd and at the options on the first screen, choose the option which gets you into rescue mode. Mount the root partition and run /sbin/lilo. Reboot and (as far as I know) Lilo will be reinstalled. Also search LQ for more detailed instructions - there are a number of threads on restoring Lilo.

You might be using a lilo that doesn't allow booting partitions that go gver the 1024 cylinder. I've seen some that do, some that don't. GRUB should work on these partitions as well in 99% of the cases (I've seen strange cases when it refuses to boot due to the same cylilnder problem)

how do you mount the root partition from /dev/hda onto / when the cd is already using that as its mounting point? is there any way? if i run /sbin/lilo or the lilo from within my master disk when it is mounted on a directory it tries to look in /etc/lilo.conf as opposed to the lilo.conf in the directory of my mounted master disk.

if its the cylinder problem how do i resolve that also?

Basically, to get rid of the cylinder problem, you need an LBA-addressing bootloader, not CHS. GRUB should be a LBA. However... It might not detect the LBA mode and get installed in CHS mode... You can pass an option to grub-install (run grub-install --help to see exactly which option it is; it should be something like --forceLBA, not sure though). I've seen LILO run perfectly on Large Disks (>1024 cyls), but as a general rule, LILO is CHS, GRUB is LBA. As I stated before, there might be some differences -- fx. MDK 10.0 Community and Official's GRUB is running CHS in Community and LBA in Official.

Anyway, after you mount your root partition, after booting a rescue mode, you can do a little trick (initrds do this - a kind of root pivoting, but nevermind this). If you run chroot /mountpoint your "/" will be "remounted" to that dir, so your installation is now accessible in "/" not "/mountpoint", and your /etc/lilo.conf is the one stored on your HDD. As I've seen so far, if you switch to another console "[CTRL+]ALT+Fx", you have to rerun chroot on that console session (chroot it's valid in the session it's been invoked).

So, "chroot /rootmountpoint" then edit /etc/lilo.conf however you can (vi, pico, nano, whichever works), run lilo and presto.. You should be done.. You can also install grub like this with no sweat (manually telling the installer the dirz)

ok thats gr8 cheers m8 - i really couldnt work out how u changed what was mounted on / ! ill giv it a go and get back to you. *is not confident*

ok it didnt quite work but it came close - ill explain what happened.

the thing is, i also hav a guinea pig version of Suse Linux on my slave drive that ive recently been using to try out things and ideas b4 i use them on my actual disk (basically so i dont end up erasing all my stuff). i booted with a win98 floppy and used the command fdisk /mbr on my slave 'guinea pig' disk to wipe the master boot record, then tried to use the rescue option on the suse cd to restore a boot loader to my slave. whenever i tired to use the 'chroot' command and any parameters i got the error '/bin/bash: No file or Directory' desptie the fact there was a bash file in both the rescue's /bin and my old disk's /bin. i dont understand why for this reason i couldnt reinstall lilo as it wanted to look in /etc and not in the disk's mounting point. so instead i used

$ grub-install --root-directory=/Fleeble /dev/hdb

to install grub, where /Fleeble was a random directory i gave to my slave. this worked perfectly for my slave disk and it now boots fine with grub.

however when i came to use this on my main disk (after using fdisk /mbr on it) which has the same /boot directory, the command

$ grub-install --root-directory=/Floob /dev/hda

(where /Floob is my master disk's mounting point and it is the master on the first IDE) returned something about its BIOS not being correct or present. i then made my main disk the slave using the jumper and ran the slave disk's grub-install command from before on it with it as /dev/hdb, which worked (mysteriously enough) but then it didnt boot properly when i booted it up as slave and only gave me read-only command prompt access.

the only thing i can see which may be causing this is that according to bash' fdisk comand, my main disk has 2434 cylinders and my slave has 1024. does this mean the fdisk /mbr command may not be removing all of lilo? i did try changing the cylinders to 1024 in fdisk but it said it was still 2434. does the 2434 refer only to the cylinders occupied by the boot? thanks a lot guys i am really out of ideas!

One thing I learnt the hard way: Whenever you change parameters of your partitions, note down whatever you change, coz' U might end up loosing gig of data. I almost lost 60... You don't need to set cyls to 1024. Just use a bootloader that addresses the drive using LBA (Large Block Addressing), not CHS (Cyl/Heads/Sectors), GRUB in your case.

Next, there's a thing with slaves and MBRs... they don't mix frm my experience... i once rtied an fdisk /mbr and got something like Cannot erase MBR of non-prinmary disks, or smth. like this.

Also, check your rescue CD. Debian has a pretty clever option... try booting from the CD, press F1 or whatever, type rescue vga=791 boot=/dev/hdaX, replacing hdaX with whatever partition you want to boot from. i saw this on Debian, dunno if it'll work...

To do a chroot I don't care whos' master/slave or who's MBR has the bootloader... You have to know eactly what partition has the /boot and /etc folders you need. Do a "mount /dev/hde2 /mnt" (this is from my config) then "chroot /mnt". It should be as simple as that... All this mounting and chrooting can be done from the rescue CD. Then "vi /etc/lilo.conf" and then run "lilo /dev/hde" or "grub-install /dev/hde --recheck".

Your HDA must hold a bootloader that has an option that enables the boot from /dev/hdb. You don't need to install a bootloader on both master and slave. Also check with your SuSE rescue mode. It should allow you to boot your installed system.

ok ive got it partially working with grub and the chroot command to install - it turned out that grub's device.map file's hd0 was set to hdb not hda. however, it still wants me to put in root=/dev/hda2 every time it boots up as it looks at the hdb drive. im not sure y.

also, it fails to boot into the GUI only a read-only very low runlevel. here is the boot.msg file:

Inspecting /boot/System.map-2.4.21-226-athlon
Loaded 21352 symbols from /boot/System.map-2.4.21-226-athlon.
Symbols match kernel version 2.4.21.
Loaded 40 symbols from 2 modules.
klogd 1.4.1, log source = ksyslog started.
<4>Linux version 2.4.21-226-athlon (root@i386.suse.de) (gcc version 3.3.1 (SuSE Linux)) #1 Tue Jun 15 10:26:33 UTC 2004
<6>BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
<4> BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
<4> BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
<4> BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
<4> BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001fffb000 (usable)
<4> BIOS-e820: 000000001fffb000 - 000000001ffff000 (ACPI data)
<4> BIOS-e820: 000000001ffff000 - 0000000020000000 (ACPI NVS)
<4> BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved)
<4> BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
<4> BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
<5>501MB vmalloc/ioremap area available.
<5>0MB HIGHMEM available.
<5>511MB LOWMEM available.
<7>ACPI: have wakeup address 0xc0001000
<4>On node 0 totalpages: 131067
<4>zone(0): 4096 pages.
<4>zone(1): 126971 pages.
<4>zone(2): 0 pages.
<6>ACPI: RSDP (v000 ASUS ) @ 0x000f5e30
<6>ACPI: RSDT (v001 ASUS A7V600-X 16944.11825) @ 0x1fffb000
<6>ACPI: FADT (v001 ASUS A7V600-X 16944.11825) @ 0x1fffb0b2
<6>ACPI: BOOT (v001 ASUS A7V600-X 16944.11825) @ 0x1fffb030
<6>ACPI: MADT (v001 ASUS A7V600-X 16944.11825) @ 0x1fffb058
<6>ACPI: DSDT (v001 ASUS A7V600-X 00000.04096) @ 0x00000000
<5>ACPI: Skipping APIC setup
<4>Building zonelist for node : 0
<4>Kernel command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=Linux root=302 splash=silent desktop showopts
<6>bootsplash: silent mode.
<6>Initializing CPU#0
<4>Detected 1791.597 MHz processor.
<4>Console: colour dummy device 80x25
<4>Calibrating delay loop... 3530.75 BogoMIPS
<6>Memory: 514356k/524268k available (1729k kernel code, 9524k reserved, 606k data, 176k init, 0k highmem)
<6>Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
<6>Inode cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
<6>Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
<4>Buffer-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
<4>Page-cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
<6>CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
<6>CPU: L2 Cache: 256K (64 bytes/line)
<6>Intel machine check architecture supported.
<6>Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
<7>CPU: After generic, caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000
<7>CPU: Common caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000
<4>CPU: AMD Athlon(TM) XP 2200+ stepping 01
<6>Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
<6>Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
<6>Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
<4>POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
<4>mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
<4>mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel
<6>ACPI: Subsystem revision 20030619
<6>PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf1970, last bus=1
<6>PCI: Using configuration type 1
<6>Looking for DSDT in initrd ... not found!
<6>ACPI: Interpreter enabled
<6>ACPI: Using PIC for interrupt routing
<6>ACPI: System [ACPI] (supports S0 S1 S4 S5)
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12)
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12)
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12)
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12)
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12)
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12)
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 *10 11 12)
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12)
<6>ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (00:00)
<4>PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
<7>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
<7>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.PCI1._PRT]
<6>PCI: Probing PCI hardware
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] enabled at IRQ 9
<7>00:00:0c[A] -> IRQ 9 Mode 1 Trigger 1
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] enabled at IRQ 11
<7>00:00:0c[B] -> IRQ 11 Mode 1 Trigger 1
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 5
<7>00:00:0c[C] -> IRQ 5 Mode 1 Trigger 1
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 10
<7>00:00:0c[D] -> IRQ 10 Mode 1 Trigger 1
<7>PIC: IRQ (11) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (5) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (10) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (9) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (5) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (10) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (9) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (11) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (10) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (9) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (11) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (5) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (9) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (11) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (5) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (10) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (11) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (5) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (10) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (9) already programmed
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] enabled at IRQ 11
<7>PIC: IRQ (11) already programmed
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] enabled at IRQ 11
<7>PIC: IRQ (11) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (11) already programmed
<7>PIC: IRQ (11) already programmed
<4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] enabled at IRQ 10
<7>PIC: IRQ (10) already programmed
<4>ACPI: Unable to set IRQ for PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (likely buggy ACPI BIOS, please report to acpi-devel!)
<6>PCI: Using IRQ router VIA [1106/3227] at 00:11.0
<6>PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:0d.0
<6>PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 01:00.0
<6>PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:0e.0
<6>PCI: Found IRQ 3 for device 00:0f.1
<6>IRQ routing conflict for 00:10.0, have irq 9, want irq 3
<6>IRQ routing conflict for 00:10.1, have irq 9, want irq 3
<6>PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:13.0
<6>PCI: Via IRQ fixup for 00:10.0, from 11 to 9
<6>PCI: Via IRQ fixup for 00:10.1, from 11 to 9
<6>Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
<6>Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
<4>Initializing RT netlink socket
<6>apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16)
<5>apm: overridden by ACPI.
<4>Starting kswapd
<4>bigpage subsystem: allocated 0 bigpages (=0MB).
<4>kinoded started
<5>VFS: Disk quotas vdquot_6.5.1
<5>aio_setup: num_physpages = 32766
<5>aio_setup: sizeof(struct page) = 48
<6>vesafb: framebuffer at 0xf0000000, mapped to 0xe0819000, size 65536k
<6>vesafb: mode is 1024x768x16, linelength=2048, pages=41
<6>vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:5470
<6>vesafb: scrolling: redraw
<6>vesafb: directcolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
<6>bootsplash 3.0.9-2003/09/08: looking for picture... no good signature found.
<4>Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48
<6>fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
<4>pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
<6>Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with HUB-6 MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
<6>ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
<6>Real Time Clock Driver v1.10e
<6>Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
<6>FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
<4>RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 64000K size 1024 blocksize
<6>loop: loaded (max 16 devices)
<6>Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
<6>ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
<6>VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:0f.1
<6>PCI: Found IRQ 3 for device 00:0f.1
<6>IRQ routing conflict for 00:10.0, have irq 9, want irq 3
<6>IRQ routing conflict for 00:10.1, have irq 9, want irq 3
<6>VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
<6>VP_IDE: not 100%% native mode: will probe irqs later
<6>ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
<6>VP_IDE: VIA vt8237 (rev 00) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci00:0f.1
<6> ide0: BM-DMA at 0x9000-0x9007, BIOS settings: hdaMA, hdbMA
<6> ide1: BM-DMA at 0x9008-0x900f, BIOS settings: hdcMA, hddio
<4>hda: ST320413A, ATA DISK drive
<4>hdb: FUJITSU MPA3043ATU, ATA DISK drive
<4>blk: queue c03e66c0, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
<4>blk: queue c03e681c, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
<4>hdc: MATSHITA CR-585, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
<4>ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
<4>ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
<4>hda: attached ide-disk driver.
<4>hda: host protected area => 1
<6>hda: 39102336 sectors (20020 MB) w/512KiB Cache, CHS=2434/255/63, UDMA(100)
<4>hdb: attached ide-disk driver.
<4>hdb: task_no_data_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
<4>hdb: task_no_data_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
<6>hdb: 8544940 sectors (4375 MB), CHS=531/255/63, UDMA(33)
<6>ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
<6>Partition check:
<6> hda: hda1 hda2
<6> hdb: hdb1
<6>ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
<6>md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
<6>md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
<6>md: autorun ...
<6>md: ... autorun DONE.
<6>NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
<6>IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
<6>IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
<6>TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 65536)
<6>Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
<6>NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
<6>cryptoapi: loaded
<5>RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
<6>Freeing initrd memory: 246k freed
<4>VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
<4>reiserfs: found format "3.6" with standard journal
<4>reiserfs: enabling write barrier flush mode
<4>reiserfs: using ordered data mode
<4>reiserfs: checking transaction log (device ide0(3,2)) ...
<4>for (ide0(3,2))
<4>Using r5 hash to sort names
<4>VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
<5>Trying to move old root to /initrd ... failed
<5>Unmounting old root
<5>Trying to free ramdisk memory ... okay
<6>Freeing unused kernel memory: 176k freed
<6>md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
<6>md: autorun ...
<6>md: ... autorun DONE.
<4>reiserfs: enabling write barrier flush mode
<6>lvm-mp: allocating 42 lowmem entries at c225c000
<6>LVM version 1.0.5+(mp-v6d)(22/07/2002) module loaded
<4>reiserfs: enabling write barrier flush mode
<6>Adding Swap: 642560k swap-space (priority 42)
<4>reiserfs: enabling write barrier flush mode
<4>reiserfs: enabling write barrier flush mode
<4>reiserfs: found format "3.6" with standard journal
<4>reiserfs: enabling write barrier flush mode
<4>reiserfs: using ordered data mode
<4>reiserfs: checking transaction log (device ide0(3,65)) ...
<4>for (ide0(3,65))
<4>hdb: drive_cmd: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
<4>hdb: drive_cmd: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
<4>hdb: cache flushing failed. disable write back cacheing for journalled file systems
<4>hdb: drive_cmd: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
<4>hdb: drive_cmd: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
<4>hdb: cache flushing failed. disable write back cacheing for journalled file systems
<4>Using r5 hash to sort names
<4>blk: queue c03e66c0, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
<4>blk: queue c03e681c, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
Kernel logging (ksyslog) stopped.
Kernel log daemon terminating.

Boot logging started on /dev/tty1(/dev/console) at Fri Jun 25 12:43:51 2004

<notice>run boot scripts (setserial boot.proc)
Configuring serial ports...
ttyS0 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
Configured serial ports
done<notice>exit status of (setserial boot.proc) is (0 0)
<notice>run boot scripts (boot.md)
<notice>exit status of (boot.md) is (0)
<notice>run boot scripts (boot.lvm)
Run file system check on root for LVM activation
fsck 1.34 (25-Jul-2003)
Reiserfs super block in block 16 on 0x302 of format 3.6 with standard journal
Blocks (total/free): 4727126/2518320 by 4096 bytes
Filesystem is clean
Filesystem seems mounted read-only. Skipping journal replay.
Checking internal tree..finished
doneRemounting root file system (/) read/write for vgscan...
Scanning for LVM volume groups...
vgscan -- reading all physical volumes (this may take a while...)
vgscan -- "/etc/lvmtab" and "/etc/lvmtab.d" successfully created
vgscan -- WARNING: This program does not do a VGDA backup of your volume group

Activating LVM volume groups...
vgchange -- no volume groups found

done
<notice>exit status of (boot.lvm) is (0)
<notice>run boot scripts (boot.localfs)
Activating swap-devices in /etc/fstab...
doneChecking file systems...
fsck 1.34 (25-Jul-2003)
Reiserfs super block in block 16 on 0x302 of format 3.6 with standard journal
Blocks (total/free): 4727126/2518320 by 4096 bytes
Filesystem is clean
Filesystem seems mounted read-only. Skipping journal replay.
Checking internal tree..finished
Reiserfs super block in block 16 on 0x341 of format 3.6 with standard journal
Blocks (total/free): 1066306/90509 by 4096 bytes
Filesystem is clean
Replaying journal..
0 transactions replayed
Checking internal tree..finished
doneMounting local file systems...
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620,gid=5)
/dev/hdb1 on /Fleeble type reiserfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
done<notice>exit status of (boot.localfs) is (0)
<notice>run boot scripts (boot.crypto)
<notice>exit status of (boot.crypto) is (0)
<notice>run boot scripts (boot.swap boot.scpm boot.restore_permissions boot.loadmodules)
Loading required kernel modules
doneActivating remaining swap-devices in /etc/fstab...
doneMounting shared memory FS on /dev/shmdone
Restore device permissionsdone
<notice>exit status of (boot.swap boot.scpm boot.restore_permissions boot.loadmodules) is (0 0 0 0)
<notice>run boot scripts (boot.idedma boot.clock)
Setting up IDE DMA mode

/dev/hda:
setting using_dma to 1 (on)
using_dma = 1 (on)

/dev/hdb:
setting using_dma to 1 (on)
using_dma = 1 (on)
done
Setting up the CMOS clockdone
<notice>exit status of (boot.idedma boot.clock) is (0 0)
<notice>run boot scripts (boot.ldconfig)
Setting up timezone datadone
<notice>exit status of (boot.ldconfig) is (0)
<notice>run boot scripts (boot.sched boot.localnet boot.isapnp)
Setting scheduling timeslices unused
Setting up hostname 'linux'done
Setting up loopback interface done
Cleaning up using /sbin/modify_resolvconf:
restored /etc/resolv.conf from /etc/resolv.conf.saved.by.dhcpcd
done
<notice>exit status of (boot.sched boot.localnet boot.isapnp) is (6 0 0)
<notice>run boot scripts (boot.klog boot.ipconfig)
Enabling syn flood protectiondone
Disabling IP forwardingdone
Creating /var/log/boot.msg
done<notice>killproc: kill(27,29)


Boot logging started on /dev/tty1(/dev/console) at Fri Jun 25 12:44:06 2004

Master Resource Control: previous runlevel: N, switching to runlevel: 5
<notice>start services (random isdn)
Initializing random number generatordone
<notice>exit status of (random isdn) is (0 0)
<notice>start services (network)
Setting up network interfaces:
lo done
eth0 (DHCP) <notice>startproc: execve (/sbin/dhcpcd) [ /sbin/dhcpcd -H -D -N -t 999999 -h linux eth0 ], [ CONSOLE=/dev/console TERM=linux SHELL=/bin/sh OLDPWD=/etc/sysconfig/network progress=18 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.82 RUN_FROM_RC=yes REDIRECT=/dev/tty1 AUTOBOOT=YES COLUMNS=128 PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/etc/sysconfig/network/scripts RUNLEVEL=5 PWD=/etc/sysconfig/network PREVLEVEL=N LINES=48 HOME=/ SHLVL=4 BOOT_IMAGE=Linux splash=silent sscripts=37 _=/sbin/startproc DAEMON=/sbin/dhcpcd ]
<notice>pidofproc: dhcpcd 560
failed
<notice>exit status of (network) is (0)
<notice>start services (syslog)
Starting syslog services<notice>startproc: execve (/sbin/syslogd) [ /sbin/syslogd ], [ CONSOLE=/dev/console TERM=linux SHELL=/bin/sh progress=19 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.82 REDIRECT=/dev/tty1 AUTOBOOT=YES COLUMNS=128 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin RUNLEVEL=5 PWD=/ PREVLEVEL=N LINES=48 HOME=/ SHLVL=2 BOOT_IMAGE=Linux splash=silent sscripts=37 _=/sbin/startproc DAEMON=/sbin/syslogd ]
<notice>startproc: execve (/sbin/klogd) [ /sbin/klogd -c 1 -2 ], [ CONSOLE=/dev/console TERM=linux SHELL=/bin/sh progress=19 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.82 REDIRECT=/dev/tty1 AUTOBOOT=YES COLUMNS=128 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin RUNLEVEL=5 PWD=/ PREVLEVEL=N LINES=48 HOME=/ SHLVL=2 BOOT_IMAGE=Linux splash=silent sscripts=37 _=/sbin/startproc DAEMON=/sbin/klogd ]
done
<notice>exit status of (syslog) is (0)
<notice>start services (hotplug)
Starting hotplugging services [ ieee1394 net pci usb ................^G.. ]done
<notice>exit status of (hotplug) is (0)
<notice>start services (resmgr)
Starting resource manager<notice>startproc: execve (/sbin/resmgrd) [ /sbin/resmgrd ], [ CONSOLE=/dev/console TERM=linux SHELL=/bin/sh progress=21 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.82 REDIRECT=/dev/tty1 AUTOBOOT=YES COLUMNS=128 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin RUNLEVEL=5 PWD=/ PREVLEVEL=N LINES=48 HOME=/ SHLVL=2 BOOT_IMAGE=Linux splash=silent sscripts=37 _=/sbin/startproc DAEMON=/sbin/resmgrd ]
done

cont in next post...

<notice>exit status of (resmgr) is (0)
<notice>start services (splash_early smbfs portmap)
<notice>startproc: execve (/sbin/portmap) [ /sbin/portmap ], [ CONSOLE=/dev/console TERM=linux SHELL=/bin/sh progress=22 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.82 REDIRECT=/dev/tty1 AUTOBOOT=YES COLUMNS=128 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin RUNLEVEL=5 PWD=/ PREVLEVEL=N LINES=48 HOME=/ SHLVL=2 BOOT_IMAGE=Linux splash=silent sscripts=37 _=/sbin/startproc DAEMON=/sbin/portmap ]
Mount SMB File System unused
Starting RPC portmap daemondone
<notice>exit status of (splash_early smbfs portmap) is (0 6 0)
<notice>start services (sshd fbset alsasound acpid)
<notice>startproc: execve (/usr/sbin/sshd) [ /usr/sbin/sshd -o PidFile=/var/run/sshd.init.pid ], [ CONSOLE=/dev/console TERM=linux SHELL=/bin/sh progress=25 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.82 REDIRECT=/dev/tty1 AUTOBOOT=YES COLUMNS=128 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin RUNLEVEL=5 PWD=/ PREVLEVEL=N LINES=48 HOME=/ SHLVL=2 BOOT_IMAGE=Linux splash=silent sscripts=37 _=/sbin/startproc DAEMON=/usr/sbin/sshd ]
Starting SSH daemondone
<notice>startproc: execve (/usr/sbin/acpid) [ /usr/sbin/acpid ], [ CONSOLE=/dev/console TERM=linux SHELL=/bin/sh progress=25 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.82 REDIRECT=/dev/tty1 AUTOBOOT=YES COLUMNS=128 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin RUNLEVEL=5 PWD=/ PREVLEVEL=N LINES=48 HOME=/ SHLVL=2 BOOT_IMAGE=Linux splash=silent sscripts=37 _=/sbin/startproc DAEMON=/usr/sbin/acpid ]
Loading ACPI modules (ac battery button fan processor thermal ) done
Starting acpid done
Starting sound driver: emu10k1 cmipci/lib/modules/2.4.21-226-athlon/kernel/sound/pci/snd-cmipci.o: init_module: No such device
Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
/lib/modules/2.4.21-226-athlon/kernel/sound/pci/snd-cmipci.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.21-226-athlon/kernel/sound/pci/snd-cmipci.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.21-226-athlon/kernel/sound/pci/snd-cmipci.o: insmod snd-cmipci failed
failed
Restoring the previous sound settingdone
Loading soundfont /usr/share/sfbank/creative/default.sf2done
<notice>exit status of (sshd fbset alsasound acpid) is (0 0 0 0)
<notice>start services (splash postfix kbd cups)
<notice>startproc: execve (/usr/sbin/cupsd) [ /usr/sbin/cupsd ], [ CONSOLE=/dev/console TERM=linux SHELL=/bin/sh progress=29 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.82 REDIRECT=/dev/tty1 AUTOBOOT=YES COLUMNS=128 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin RUNLEVEL=5 PWD=/ PREVLEVEL=N LINES=48 HOME=/ SHLVL=2 BOOT_IMAGE=Linux splash=silent sscripts=37 _=/sbin/startproc DAEMON=/usr/sbin/cupsd ]
Starting cupsddone
Starting mail service (Postfix)done
Loading keymap qwerty/uk.map.gz
doneLoading compose table latin1.adddone
Stop Unicode mode
doneLoading console font lat1-16.psfu -m none (B
done<notice>exit status of (splash postfix kbd cups) is (0 0 0 0)
<notice>start services (nscd hwscan cron)
Starting hardware scan on boot<notice>startproc: execve (/usr/sbin/cron) [ /usr/sbin/cron ], [ CONSOLE=/dev/console TERM=linux SHELL=/bin/sh progress=33 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.82 REDIRECT=/dev/tty1 AUTOBOOT=YES COLUMNS=128 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin RUNLEVEL=5 PWD=/ PREVLEVEL=N LINES=48 HOME=/ SHLVL=2 BOOT_IMAGE=Linux splash=silent sscripts=37 _=/sbin/startproc DAEMON=/usr/sbin/cron ]
<notice>startproc: execve (/usr/sbin/nscd) [ /usr/sbin/nscd ], [ CONSOLE=/dev/console TERM=linux SHELL=/bin/sh progress=33 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.82 REDIRECT=/dev/tty1 AUTOBOOT=YES COLUMNS=128 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin RUNLEVEL=5 PWD=/ PREVLEVEL=N LINES=48 HOME=/ SHLVL=2 BOOT_IMAGE=Linux splash=silent sscripts=37 _=/sbin/startproc DAEMON=/usr/sbin/nscd ]
Starting Name Service Cache Daemondone
Starting CRON daemondone
<notice>exit status of (nscd hwscan cron) is (0 0 0)
<notice>start services (xdm splash_late)
Starting service kdm<notice>startproc: execve (/opt/kde3/bin/kdm) [ /opt/kde3/bin/kdm ], [ LC_MONETARY= CONSOLE=/dev/console TERM=linux SHELL=/bin/sh LC_NUMERIC= QTDIR=/usr/lib/qt3 LC_ALL= progress=36 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.82 KDEROOTHOME=/root/.kdm REDIRECT=/dev/tty1 AUTOBOOT=YES COLUMNS=128 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin LC_MESSAGES= RUNLEVEL=5 LC_COLLATE= PWD=/ LANG=en_GB PREVLEVEL=N LINES=48 HOME=/ SHLVL=2 BOOT_IMAGE=Linux XCURSOR_THEME=blueprint-cursor-theme no_proxy=localhost WINDOWMANAGER=/usr/X11R6/bin/kde LC_CTYPE=en_GB splash=silent sscripts=37 LC_TIME= _=/sbin/startproc DAEMON=/opt/kde3/bin/kdm ]
done
<notice>exit status of (xdm splash_late) is (0 0)
Master Resource Control: runlevel 5 has been reached
Skipped services in runlevel 5: smbfs
<notice>killproc: kill(413,3)

Boot logging started on /dev/tty1(/dev/console) at Fri Jun 25 14:07:11 2004

Master Resource Control: previous runlevel: 5, switching to runlevel: 0
<notice>stop services (xdm splash_late)
Shutting down service kdm<notice>killproc: kill(1504,15)
done
<notice>exit status of (xdm splash_late) is (0 0)
<notice>stop services (nscd hwscan cron)
<notice>killproc: kill(1456,15)
<notice>killproc: kill(1458,15)
Shutting down Name Service Cache Daemondone
Shutting down CRON daemondone
<notice>exit status of (nscd hwscan cron) is (0 0 0)
<notice>stop services (splash postfix cups)
<notice>killproc: kill(1262,15)
<notice>killproc: kill(1364,15)
Shutting down mail service (Postfix)done
Shutting down cupsddone
<notice>exit status of (splash postfix cups) is (0 0 0)
<notice>stop services (sshd fbset alsasound acpid)
<notice>killproc: kill(1195,15)
Shutting down SSH daemondone
<notice>killproc: kill(1184,15)
Shutting down acpid done
Unloading ACPI modules () done
Shutting down sound driverdone
<notice>exit status of (sshd fbset alsasound acpid) is (0 0 0 0)
<notice>stop services (splash_early smbfs portmap)
Umount SMB File System unused
Shutting down RPC portmap daemon<notice>killproc: kill(1147,15)
done
<notice>exit status of (splash_early smbfs portmap) is (0 6 0)
<notice>stop services (resmgr)
Shutting down resource managerdone
<notice>exit status of (resmgr) is (0)
<notice>stop services (hotplug)
Stopping hotplugging services done
<notice>exit status of (hotplug) is (0)
<notice>stop services (syslog)
Shutting down syslog services<notice>killproc: kill(676,15)
<notice>killproc: kill(673,15)
done
<notice>exit status of (syslog) is (0)
<notice>stop services (network)
Shutting down network interfaces:
eth0 done
<notice>exit status of (network) is (0)
<notice>stop services (random isdn)
Saving random seeddone
Unloading ISDN driver done
<notice>exit status of (random isdn) is (0 0)
<notice>start services (halt)
Running /etc/init.d/halt.local
done<notice>killproc: kill(4595,3)


Boot logging started on /dev/tty1(/dev/console) at Thu Jul 1 00:39:48 2004

Master Resource Control: previous runlevel: *, switching to runlevel: 5
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service isdn
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service random
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service network
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service syslog
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service hotplug
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service resmgr
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service portmap
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service smbfs
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service splash_early
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service acpid
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service alsasound
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service fbset
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service sshd
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service cups
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service postfix
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service splash
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service cron
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service hwscan
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service nscd
/etc/init.d/rc*.d/: more than one link for service splash_late
<notice>stop services (single single)
<notice>exit status of (single single) is (0 0)
<notice>start services (kbd)
Loading keymap qwerty/uk.map.gz
doneLoading compose table latin1.adddone
Stop Unicode mode
doneLoading console font lat1-16.psfu -m none (B
doneMaster Resource Control: runlevel 5 has been reached
<notice>exit status of (kbd) is (0)
<notice>killproc: kill(314,3)

Boot logging started on /dev/tty1(/dev/console) at Thu Jul 1 00:41:07 2004

Master Resource Control: previous runlevel: 5, switching to runlevel: 0
<notice>stop services (xdm splash_late)
Shutting down service kdmdone
<notice>exit status of (xdm splash_late) is (0 0)
<notice>stop services (nscd hwscan cron)
Shutting down Name Service Cache Daemondone
Shutting down CRON daemondone
<notice>exit status of (nscd hwscan cron) is (0 0 0)
<notice>stop services (splash postfix cups)
Shutting down cupsddone
Shutting down mail service (Postfix)done
<notice>exit status of (splash postfix cups) is (5 0 0)
<notice>stop services (sshd fbset alsasound acpid)
Shutting down SSH daemondone
Shutting down sound driverdone
ACPID: No ACPI support in kernelskipped
<notice>exit status of (sshd fbset alsasound acpid) is (0 0 0 5)
<notice>stop services (splash_early smbfs portmap)
Umount SMB File System unused
Shutting down RPC portmap daemondone
<notice>exit status of (splash_early smbfs portmap) is (0 6 0)
<notice>stop services (resmgr)
Shutting down resource managerresmgrd not running
done
<notice>exit status of (resmgr) is (0)
<notice>stop services (hotplug)
Stopping hotplugging services done
<notice>exit status of (hotplug) is (0)
<notice>stop services (syslog)
Shutting down syslog servicesdone
<notice>exit status of (syslog) is (0)
<notice>stop services (network)
Shutting down network interfaces:
eth0 skipped
<notice>exit status of (network) is (0)
<notice>stop services (random isdn)
Saving random seeddone
Unloading ISDN driver done
<notice>exit status of (random isdn) is (0 0)
<notice>start services (halt)
Running /etc/init.d/halt.local
done<notice>killproc: kill(558,3)


Boot logging started on /dev/tty1(/dev/console) at Thu Jul 1 12:58:46 2004

Master Resource Control: previous runlevel: *, switching to runlevel: 0
<notice>stop services (single single)
<notice>exit status of (single single) is (0 0)
<notice>stop services (splash splash postfix cups splash postfix cups splash cups splash)
Shutting down cupsddone
Shutting down cupsddone
Shutting down cupsddone
Shutting down mail service (Postfix)done
Shutting down mail service (Postfix)done
<notice>exit status of (splash splash postfix cups splash postfix cups splash cups splash) is (0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0)
<notice>stop services (sshd fbset alsasound acpid sshd fbset alsasound acpid fbset alsasound acpid fbset)
Shutting down SSH daemondone
Shutting down SSH daemondone
Shutting down sound driverdone
Shutting down sound driverdone
Shutting down sound driverdone
Shutting down acpid done
Unloading ACPI modules () done
Shutting down acpid done
Unloading ACPI modules () done
Shutting down acpid done
Unloading ACPI modules () done
<notice>exit status of (sshd fbset alsasound acpid sshd fbset alsasound acpid fbset alsasound acpid fbset) is (0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0)
<notice>stop services (hotplug hotplug hotplug hotplug)
Stopping hotplugging services done
Stopping hotplugging services done
Stopping hotplugging services done
Stopping hotplugging services done
<notice>exit status of (hotplug hotplug hotplug hotplug) is (0 0 0 0)
<notice>stop services (xdm splash_late splash_late splash_late)
Shutting down service kdmdone
<notice>exit status of (xdm splash_late splash_late splash_late) is (0 0 0 0)
<notice>stop services (nscd hwscan cron nscd hwscan cron hwscan cron)
Shutting down Name Service Cache Daemondone
Shutting down Name Service Cache Daemondone
Shutting down CRON daemondone
Shutting down CRON daemondone
Shutting down CRON daemondone
<notice>exit status of (nscd hwscan cron nscd hwscan cron hwscan cron) is (0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0)
<notice>stop services (splash_early smbfs portmap splash_early smbfs portmap splash_early)
Umount SMB File System unused
Umount SMB File System unused
Shutting down RPC portmap daemondone
Shutting down RPC portmap daemondone
<notice>exit status of (splash_early smbfs portmap splash_early smbfs portmap splash_early) is (0 6 0 0 6 0 0)
<notice>stop services (resmgr resmgr resmgr)
Shutting down resource managerresmgrd not running
done
Shutting down resource managerresmgrd not running
done
Shutting down resource managerresmgrd not running
done
<notice>exit status of (resmgr resmgr resmgr) is (0 0 0)
<notice>stop services (syslog syslog syslog)
Shutting down syslog servicesdone
Shutting down syslog servicesdone
Shutting down syslog servicesdone
<notice>exit status of (syslog syslog syslog) is (0 0 0)
<notice>stop services (network network network)
Shutting down network interfaces:
eth0 skipped
Shutting down network interfaces:
eth0 skipped
Shutting down network interfaces:
eth0 skipped
<notice>exit status of (network network network) is (0 0 0)
<notice>stop services (random isdn random isdn random isdn)
Saving random seeddone
Saving random seeddone
Saving random seeddone
Unloading ISDN driver done
Unloading ISDN driver done
Unloading ISDN driver done
<notice>exit status of (random isdn random isdn random isdn) is (0 0 0 0 0 0)
<notice>start services (halt)
Running /etc/init.d/halt.local
done<notice>killproc: kill(685,3)



it seems to hav problems with the IRQs and setting up kdm. any ideas?

There might be an inconsistency from your BIOS, but this only involves ACPI. It shouldn't cause your system to restart... I belive there's something wrong with kdm.


<notice>start services (xdm splash_late)
Starting service kdm<notice>startproc: execve (/opt/kde3/bin/kdm) [ /opt/kde3/bin/kdm ], [ LC_MONETARY= CONSOLE=/dev/console TERM=linux SHELL=/bin/sh LC_NUMERIC= QTDIR=/usr/lib/qt3 LC_ALL= progress=36 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.82 KDEROOTHOME=/root/.kdm REDIRECT=/dev/tty1 AUTOBOOT=YES COLUMNS=128 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin LC_MESSAGES= RUNLEVEL=5 LC_COLLATE= PWD=/ LANG=en_GB PREVLEVEL=N LINES=48 HOME=/ SHLVL=2 BOOT_IMAGE=Linux XCURSOR_THEME=blueprint-cursor-theme no_proxy=localhost WINDOWMANAGER=/usr/X11R6/bin/kde LC_CTYPE=en_GB splash=silent sscripts=37 LC_TIME= _=/sbin/startproc DAEMON=/opt/kde3/bin/kdm ]
done
<notice>exit status of (xdm splash_late) is (0 0)
Master Resource Control: runlevel 5 has been reached
Skipped services in runlevel 5: smbfs
<notice>killproc: kill(413,3)


Xdm/KDM should only exit when you power-off.. Here's an excerpt from the output of "ps -HA" while I'm writing this:

PID TTY TIME CMD
1 ? 00:00:00 init
2 ? 00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0
3 ? 00:00:00 events/0
4 ? 00:00:00 khelper
5 ? 00:00:00 kblockd/0
32 ? 00:00:00 pdflush
33 ? 00:00:00 pdflush
35 ? 00:00:00 aio/0
34 ? 00:00:00 kswapd0
144 ? 00:00:00 kseriod
153 ? 00:00:00 kjournald
438 ? 00:00:00 khubd
1309 ? 00:00:00 ifplugd
1325 ? 00:00:00 portmap
1339 ? 00:00:00 syslogd
1347 ? 00:00:00 klogd
1368 ? 00:00:00 rpc.statd
1661 ? 00:00:00 xfs
1713 ? 00:00:00 kdm
1745 ? 00:25:30 X
1803 ? 00:00:00 kdm
2466 ? 00:00:00 startkde
2534 ? 00:00:00 magicdev
2583 ? 00:00:00 kwrapper
1802 ? 00:00:00 cupsd
1882 ? 00:00:00 rpc.rquotad
1893 ? 00:00:00 nfsd
1894 ? 00:00:00 nfsd
1895 ? 00:00:00 nfsd
1896 ? 00:00:00 nfsd
1901 ? 00:0

... as you can see, I bolded out the kdm, still running. That might be your problem. With IRQs, there's a solution somewhere in the BIOS, dunno exactly what it is, but it's not causing your restart, IMHO. If that would've been the cause, it wouldn't go up to runlevel 5 and execute kdm and stuff. I thing it's related to assign IRQ to VGA, PnP System, or stuff like this, depending on Ur BIOS.

<notice>killproc: kill(413,3)

This troubles me a bit... I hope someone didn't make a bad joke and created a file in /etc/init.d/ so that your system restarts in runlevel 5. Try the folowing... edit your bootloader config file (with chroot and stuff from rescue), and insert a new option that would boot up in failsafe mode. If you don't have one already. You only have to pass failsafe to the kernel... This is my GRUB entry:


title Failsafe
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk root=/dev/hde2 failsafe acpi=ht resume=/dev/hde5 devfs=nomount vga=791
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img


Dunno if the acpi=ht enables the ACPI, but if you have it, you can try removing it and see if ACPI support goes up. If not, leave it as it is. Failsafe would make sure you reach runlevel1. It might do something like boot up, write Entering runlevel 5 then immediately after that Entering runlevel 1 which is single user no network. At the prompt, do a telinit 4. This should bring you as close as possible to runlevel 5 where xdm starts. In RL4 you get multi user (and i belive network too, but in case you don't, /etc/init.d/network start should solve it ).

If you can boot to runlevel 1, then you're facing a config problem or an incompatbiility with KDM & co.

You know, if someone ever makes their root directory Fleeble, you're going to confuse the crap out of them:

A word of advice... One given system needs only one bootable partition that BIOS can boot from. You don't need to install grub on /dev/hdb. In fact it might refuse to work. I've seen a case where a friend of mine's tried a million ways to reinstall the MBR on the Slave HDD, every time, same error, telling him that he can only install the MBR on primary discs.

So actually you don't need /Floob. If you manage your session correctly, as in on tty1 you have chroot /Fleeble, on tty2 you can have chroot /Floob and on tty3 no chroot, on tty3 you'd have no prob accesing /dev/hdb (/Floob) or /dev/hda (Fleeble). You must only know on which session you are and not get lost between them .

Plus, one can add --recheck to grub-install to make sure everything gets detected right. (In case of hardware changes/swaps). With grub installed on /dev/hda you can always set it to boot from /dev/hdb4 fx. In the case of lilo, the installing gets a bit difficult if you're not an experienced lilo installer and U don't chroot.