I put in my Debian install cd and things went well until it asked me to reboot
My system gave me the cryptic message of disk boot failure. Can anyone direct me to Info so I can correct this problem? I have waded through a lot of info but don’t really know what I am doing.

Is your Bios set to boot from the same drive that you installed Debian onto ? What was on the drive before - and did it boot of it's own accord ?

Cheers,

mj

I built the system from new and used parts. I am pretty sure the Bios is set right. It is Award bios 6.0 set to load from cd then hdd 0 at the moment. maybe the drive controller isn't any good but install had no problem accessing it. The hdd was clean when I got it and Debian install formated and partitioned it for me. I can look at the contents of the drive after loading Knopix but even that had problems loading. The first time I tried I got a gray screen with a little black x in it. It finally worked in failsafe mode. When I try to boot the message I get before boot disk failure is verifying DMI pool data.

Well, if you're Bios is ok, and your disk controller is relatively ok, then the next step is your boot loader.

Which loader did you choose -- Grub or Lilo ? It would help if you can paste your config file here. It will probably be at /boot/grub/menu.lst (or grub.conf), or /etc/lilo.conf on hda1.

Also, what is the output of (as root) fdisk -l /dev/hd*.

Cheers,

mj

Where did you install the bootloader, the MBR or root?

I let the installer do its thing and according to it it grub was installed into mbr. this forum won't let me post a mesage long enough to inclued the configure file you want to see.

"what is the output of (as root) fdisk -l /dev/hd*."
I dont realy know what this is talking about
I found this maby it will help


# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 5

# Pretty colours
color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default optons below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specifiv kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
# kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro xserver=xf86_svga xmodule=nv nodhcp nopcmcia

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,0)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery mode) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## ## End Default Options ##

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-2-386
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-2-386 root=/dev/hda1 ro xserver=xf86_svga xmodule=nv nodhcp nopcmcia
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-2-386
savedefault
boot

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.8-2-386 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-2-386 root=/dev/hda1 ro xserver=xf86_svga xmodule=nv nodhcp nopcmcia single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.8-2-386
savedefault
boot

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

Open up a terminal (konsole, eterm, aterm, xterm etc.). Assuming you only have one hard drive, then typeThe output will be the partition geometry of your first hard drive.

Cheers,

mj

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 851 6835626 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 852 4865 32242455 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 852 1033 1461883+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda6 1034 4865 30780508+ 83 Linux

It all looks ok to me, so it might just be a hardware issue (particularly as Knoppix also ran into problems loading -- I don't suppose you noticed at what stage it began to falter ?).

Anyway, you could also try removing Grub, and installing Lilo. Both are equally good boot loaders, the only difference being that Lilo will tell you straight away whether it can read the config file and see the partitions (before a flame war starts, yes, I know that Grub can also be used for this in console mode etc. etc.).

As an absolute last resort, you could always try a re-install - perhaps with another distro if you have one lying around, and see what happens.

Cheers,

mj

I had already tried Lilo and I finally got knoppix to work well with a boot argument for my video card After looking at examples in my linux book and reading on the Internet about the boot proses I tried a new hard drive. I now have a system that boots to KDE and am working on the problems I expected to have such as printing and modems. Thanks for your help if I need help with my new issues I,ll give you a ring.

Ah well, at least you have a working system now

Enjoy, and let us know if you have any probs.

mj