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Old 10-08-2001, 10:20 AM   #1
Paul_assheton
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Registered: Nov 2000
Location: Ware (Nr London, England
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Reading the boot messages


I am having trouble installing Linux on an older laptop. The install script compleated OK but the laptop will not boot. It rapidly starts putting the boot messages on the screen but then it fills the screen with page after page of rubbish. Does anyone know how to stop the boot messages from scrolling off the screen faster than can be read?

Thanks
 
Old 10-09-2001, 03:55 PM   #2
adirotaru
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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Romania, Timisoara
Distribution: Ubuntu 5.04
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Hmm, I don't know exactly how can you stop or scroll that boot messages ... but if you got the linux prompter try dmsg command .
Or try to start linux in sigle mode and than to see what's wrong there ...

If you can't do anything ... please tell us which are the latest messages that have you seen on you display .

What kind of messages appare on your display ?

Sorry for my english.

Regards.
 
Old 10-09-2001, 09:19 PM   #3
DMR
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Registered: Jun 2001
Location: Fairfax, California
Distribution: RH 9.0, RH 7.3, Mandrake 8.0
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If you can get to a command prompt, type "dmesg|less" (adirotaru left out the "e"). Piping to less will allow you scroll through the output one screenful at a time. Use the pg up/pg down keys to navigate.
 
Old 10-10-2001, 01:03 AM   #4
isajera
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check in /var/log - it depends on your distro, but many have the boot messages logged there -on my distro, it's /var/log/boot.msg
 
Old 10-10-2001, 06:27 AM   #5
Paul_assheton
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Thanks for the ideas. The main problem was that the error caused the last printed messages to scroll off the top of the screen in a fraction of a second! The error also prevented normal booting of the system even in single user mode. I did boot the computer off a LOAF type floppy and looked at the log files but they did not show anything of any use.

I have given up on RH6.2 on this computer and I have installed RH5.2. This worked and I now have a working if slightly older system.

Thanks

Paul
 
Old 10-12-2014, 02:58 AM   #6
Jarekczek
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Registered: Jun 2013
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Modify the startup parameters of kernel and reduce logging verbosity. When there are less messages, there is a chance that important messages won't go off screen. The option to look for is loglevel. Described for example here: https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documenta...parameters.txt

This requires ability to boot from other media and to modify the boot loader. The way the boot loader should be modified depends on the boot loader (lilo, grub, syslinux etc.). Sometimes it's possible to modify the parameters on the fly, for example by pressing Shift during boot.
 
  


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