Hello,

I am new to Linux, but am really interested. So far, I haven't been able to get anything working on my machine.

My first choice was CollegeLinux 2.3, but when that didn't work I tried Red Hat 9. Both gave me the same problem:

Installation went very well. No problems. For the first (or any) boot, however, after LILO or GRUB came up and Linux was chosen, it seemed that it started loading normally, text flying on the screen, until it checked the hard drives. It found both of them, and it then assigns addresses and IRQs and such. Then, it hangs or reboots. CollegeLinux seemed to reboot more often than not, while RedHat just hangs. I don’t know if it has to do with the hard drives or the next item on the startup list, but I do know I need some help.

System specs:

Intel Celeron 1.8GHz
ASUS P4G-LA motherboard with 845GL chipset
768 megs of DDR SDRAM
PCI video card with Riva TNT2 chipset
Integrated Intel 82845G/GL Graphics Controller (disabled)
1 60 Gig hard drive – Maxtor 4D060H3– Windows XP (2 partitions, standard and recovery)
1 80 Gig hard drive – WDC WD800JB-00CRA1 – Linux (2 partitions, 1 gig for swap, the rest for kernel and whatnot)
Samsung DVD SD-616F 16x
Samsung CD-R/RW SW-224B 24x/10x/40x
Standard floppy disk drive
Lucent Win Modem (currently unused)
AC97 Audio
Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
USB 2.0
HP One-Touch Internet Keyboard (PS/2)
PS/2 Scrolling Mouse

Through the hours of scouring the ‘net for an answer for my problem, I have come to realize that the AC97 audio, as well as various Intel 82801------ parts (like PCI bridge and USB host controller) may be causing the problem, but if they are, I don’t know what to do about them.

Thank you for your time and help, and for contributing for a site like this.

"Through the hours of scouring the ‘net for an answer for my problem, I have come to realize that the AC97 audio, as well as various Intel 82801------ parts (like PCI bridge and USB host controller) may be causing the problem, but if they are, I don’t know what to do about them."

Try disabling the suspect devices one by one until you isolate which device boot is hanging on.

You can often disable a device in the BIOS. If not, then disconnect it .

Once you figure out which is the problem device then correcting the problem is more straightforward.

Thank you for your response, jailbait.

I tried what you suggested, and spent a good while fiddling around with a lot in the BIOS. I found the Audio Codec option, the USB control, tried using the built-in video, turned off the onboard LAN, disabled the serial and parallel ports, but nothing worked. The only things I didn't play with were options for the hard drives and media drives. I found options for Multi-Sector Transfer and SMART monitoring for the hard drives, and PIO Mode and ULTRA DMA Mode for the medias. I didn't change them because I don't know what they do; do you think these might be causing the problem? Right now, the MST for the hard disks are set to Max, and the SMART monitoring is Disabled. For the CD-R/RW drive, PIO Mode is 4, ULTRA is Disabled; for the DVD, PIO is again 4, and ULTRA is 2.

Although that probably doesn't help, please answer. Thank you.

I can't help you but I am having the same problem in tring to install RH9. It partitions and somewhere in the glib 2.4 to 2.5 it throws a window and says that I have to reboot. I kept trying to reinstall and it finally loaded but was unstable. I have tried to reinstall and it won't let me . I figure that I'm too green to know how to fix it. I just wanted to support you in yelling HELP!!!!!!!
Thanks and LOL Eldon

Hey, Eldon. Thanks for the support. Do you have a similar system?

Is your problem in installing? My install went great. I have problems on bootup. I don't get a window; I never even make it that far.

If you have any USB devices try disconnecting them. If you have an audio card sitting in a slot try taking it out. try disconnecting the DVD and CD-R/W.

As to the hard disk settings, I doubt very much that that is your problem but I cannot say that with certainty until the real problem is found.

Thanks for another reply, jailbait.

I did not have any USB devices in at the time. Plus, when fiddling around in BIOS, I disabled the USB controller. I also disabled the secondary IDE; causing the computer to not detect the media drives at all. If that's not the same as physically disconnecting them, then I'll give that a try as well.

"causing the computer to not detect the media drives at all. If that's not the same as physically disconnecting them"

I have a vague memory of some people having problems with two CDs or a CD and DVD on the same cable. But I don't remember exactly what the problem or solution was. You have already tried booting with both and booting with neither. Perhaps you could try booting with just the master and then booting with just the slave.

Hey again, jailbait. I fiddled around with the BIOS again, and I also tried as you suggested. No dice.

One of my friends said the reason for my problems is that my computer is a Hewlett-Packard. I'm beginning to believe him. I'm going to try a couple of other distributions first before I give up on it, though. I'm thinking about Mandrake and Gentoo. I've read in these forums about people who have had bad luck with redhat and others, and then success with Mandrake.

Thanks for your time.

You might give Lindows a try ,I had my system show no drives and I went into the Bios and exited with the defaults restored and got them back. LOL