And i had to install windows to clean it up!

Seriously though, I'm a student in an IT program that has a bit of a slant towards Linux/open source and what not.

I had me a nice little FC7 box last semester, it was a web, zimbra, file server as well as a few virtual boxes.

After I came back over the break, the damn thing wouldn't boot. It would get to GRUB, load the kernel then hang. If I went to install another distro or run Knoppix, the same would happen. Mem test and all the diagnostics came up clean, tested the power supply as well, they are all fine. I replaced the HD as well, still nothing...

But lo and behold, server 2003 installed and is running nicely! Unfortunately I now have to virtualize my Linux server, and given that 2003 really likes to reboot and that my servers have to be up 24/7 in order to get full marks, I am nervous. Anyways.

The compy is an Asus mobo, Intel HT Prescott, Maxtor SATA HD, 3.5gb DDR ram.

I still can't get over how it used to work and now doesn't, given that it sat unplugged for a month in a secured location.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

I am not saying this is the problem but might be worth a try. Unplug the memory and install again. I had a set that did almost similar things except sometimes they would boot but then would freeze. The set had been down for a week. I ran a memory test and after four passes it showed no errors. I unplugged the memory and reinstalled two times before I got rid of the problem. I must explain things like this are common along this coast line with the salt air and high humidity.

Well Fedora is an unstable distro not meant for servers. I would probably use CentOS in your case, which is a more stable distro

Already tried that, actually. Mixed up the ram tested it stick by stick. I am a seamen that lives on the sea, and my home compy is quite fine. The compy in question is quite land-locked, being quite far from the ocean and in a climate controlled environment.

Which is exactly why Ubuntu wouldn't install and knoppix wouldn't start up.

Hi,
What errors were you getting when you attempt to boot either?

Can you post a dmesg error or symptoms of what is occurring?

My crystal ball is cracked therefore looking over your shoulder everything is blurry!

What about Fedora makes you think it's unstable? Do you know that CentOS is based on Fedora? I will give you that CentOS is probably locked down a bit more than Fedora, though.

I think this is a hardware based problem. But it may not be limited to RAM. Most modern distros are going to use the same basic (though with hacks for each distro) kernel. Windows just hasn't found the problem yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if/when it BSOD's on you.

Actually CentOS is a clone of RHEL, not Fedora. Fedora has a new release every 6 months and runs bleeding edge software, and generally bleeding edge software is more unstable then not bleeding edge software

My bad. I forgot about that.

Methinks not. I let memtest run for 36 hours. 36 freaking hours. And I ran a disk called MRI thrice. NOTHING came up. repeat, nothing!

As suggested by onebuck, you should look closer at what is happening when you are booting, say, knoppix. Any error messages? Does it start hanging at a fixed point?

Hi,
We are trying to help! What errors are you seeing? Anything at boot? No need to be smart. The memtest86 passed, Ok? What is MRI?

In order to help, you will need to provide the information. As detailed as possible. Any small detail will most likely lead us. No offense but you haven't really provided any real information, just general along with your frustrations.

What point? You could copy the screen information and post that.
Where did you get your media for distributions? Are they valid?
What about the reader? If the system is hanging at the same point each time then get that information.

You could pass the parameter 'noacpi & noapic' at boot for any of the distribution cds' to see if that could be a problem.

In Knoppix you could run the compare cd to see if that will load and perform (do a F2 for selection). If Knoppix compares Ok then the cdrom device is probably Ok.

We are just shooting in the dark here, literally.

I don't think ' Linux crapped the bed...' is a good subject line. Linux hasn't failed here.

BTW, it does seem the problem could still be hardware.

Just a complete shot in the dark. Try changing your cr2032 battery. You said you let it sit for a month without being plugged in. Not all mobos are the same, this very well could've drained your battery. Which could've caused some settings to change in your BIOS that could possibly effect Grub.

Just a thought,

Brandon

What is your exact Linux hardware question? What specific actions/commands are you running, and what specific system or error messages are you getting? I get it that your PC won't boot, but you need to be way more specific in supplying details in your posts, thanks