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Linux - Laptop and Netbook Having a problem installing or configuring Linux on your laptop? Need help running Linux on your netbook? This forum is for you. This forum is for any topics relating to Linux and either traditional laptops or netbooks (such as the Asus EEE PC, Everex CloudBook or MSI Wind).

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Old 05-28-2007, 12:55 PM   #1
SicnarfSteele
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Registered: May 2007
Location: Washington State
Distribution: slackware 14.0
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2.6.21.3 EBDA too big error, wont go away


I have an Acer Ferrari 4000 I've been running slackware 11 kernel 2.6.21.1 fine, wireless was working fine on the broadcom chip. I wanted to install gnome so I did a fresh install of slackware 11 without kde, installed dropline gnome and it ran fine, I was quite happy.
But issues arose at reboot. EBDA too big.
I have tried all iterations of the suggestions I found such as chrooting to partition after booting from boot CD and mounting hd. It acts fine adding windows and linux etc, but on reboot the same issue arises with the EBDA error.
I've groomed the kernel removing unnecessary stuff but cant get past EBDA error at boot-time.
I always run lilo when rebuilding my kernels and always had success.
I've blown away the partition and reinstalled completely but keep getting the error.
As I said it was working at my wildest expectations when I decided to reinstall to run gnome.
If I boot from CD using bare.i root=/dev/hda3 noinitrd ro I boot up in 2.4.33.3 even after installing the 2.6.21.1 kernel I was using prior to the reinistall, cant get it to boot the 2.6 kernel for anything.
Any thoughts? Again I always use lilo after building and installing a kernel..

Cheers.
 
Old 05-28-2007, 09:14 PM   #2
rkelsen
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SicnarfSteele
EBDA too big.
That is a LILO error.

EBDA = Extended BIOS Data Area.

Maybe something went haywire when running lilo, which is now preventing it from running properly.

Try removing lilo with 'lilo -u /dev/sda' or from within Windows with 'fdisk /mbr'

Then use the CD to boot into your Slackware installation and run lilo again.

With older kernels, this error could be caused by trying to boot a zImage instead of a bzImage. I don't know if that can still happen with a 2.6 kernel.
 
Old 05-28-2007, 10:04 PM   #3
SicnarfSteele
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Registered: May 2007
Location: Washington State
Distribution: slackware 14.0
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Something kept tickling the back of my head so I ran liloconfig and installed on mbr and not root and voila! I can boot again!
Ive never seen that particular error before but it surely was quite a pain, thanks for the suggestion Ill add it to my notes.
John
 
  


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