MandrivaThis Forum is for the discussion of Mandriva (Mandrake) Linux.
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Okay .... I'm running Mandriva 2008 spring edition on an XFS partition on my SATA laptop hard drive. just recently, I was on the computer, playing music with Amarok, then tried to run firefox, but it didn't start. within a couple minutes, the lappy simply shut down. when I restarted it, after selecting to run Mandriva (as opposed to failsafe) I received a message saying that Mandriva couldn't start because my filesystem was mounted read-only. My very first thought was to use the Mandriva installation disk Rescue system. but even that would not run. I even thought ... "Aw forget it" and tried to re-install Mandriva. no luck there, either. so I ran xfs_check, and it came up clean.
I ran Memtest86+, and it showed multiple errors with my RAM. what I can't understand is if my RAM is so buggered, why am I able to run other OS's from live CD's? (Currently running FreeSpire V.2.0.8 on a separate partition after installation.)
Please! ANY HELP WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. ANY MORE NEEDED INFORMATION, LET ME KNOW, AND I'LL GET IT
Added more info here. When I attempt to run Mandriva's recovery tool on the CD, The message I get is
Fatal Error finishing initialization
My only option is to hit "OK", so I do.
next, I see
exited abnormally :-(
sending termination signals...done
sending kill signals...done
unmounting filesystems... you may safely reboot or halt your system.
I then have the option to view logs, and kernel logs.
I ran Memtest86+, and it showed multiple errors with my RAM. what I can't understand is if my RAM is so buggered, why am I able to run other OS's from live CD's? (Currently running FreeSpire V.2.0.8 on a separate partition after installation.)
Could be the kernels. You could, say, have an error towards the end of four gigs. A 32-bit OS might then still work fine while a 64-bit OS crashes and burns.
I'd run a couple different diagnostics just to be sure but if they all say your RAM is bad then you're just wasting time fiddling around with software. You most likely have a hardware problem.
If you seem to be able to run a Live! CD OK, then try running the memtest86 utility from a Live! CD. If you still get reports of memory failure, then you will have to bite the bullet and replace the bad RAM stick. The good news is that RAM is still at a low price, or at least it was last year when I set up this system. Go check out the crucial WEB site . . .
That will be hard to tell until the RAM is replaced. Did you run the memtest86 from a Live! CD? What were the results? Before you spend money, you may want to try another 64 bit distribution to see if you still have the same trouble. If you can run a 32 bit installation (even from a Live! CD), but not 64 bit, your trouble may not actually be RAM, but in the chip set on your main board because the 64 bit installation uses the entire 64 bit data bus while the 32 bit installation may only use one half of it. Since I am not expert in the differences between how a 64 bit architecture supports a 64 bit installation and how it supports a 32 bit one, this is simply conjecture, but it may be worth looking into. Another possibility I would look into would be to see if your main board manufacturer has an update for your system BIOS. A buggy BIOS can cause all manner of inexplicable troubles. Sorry to say that troubles like this can take a lot of work. If your computer is still under waranty, you should consider taking it to the shop for repair. Also, when you get the hardware issues sorted out, you may still have to install the OS again because if you got at least part way through a n installation. That will depend on how far the installer got when you tried to reinstall Mandriva. Best of luck . . .
Okay ... I have been using Freespire v.2.0.8 as a way to still access a basic command line ... it's been working well for a while, but just this morning, I attempted to turn the computer on, and received the same error I got trying to start mandriva. (cannot boot due to no write access) So I'm assuming that if it is a RAM error, then whatever caused it is still a problem ... before I go out and buy new RAM, then have the new ones become corrupted, any ideas on what could cause a RAM chip to go bad?
I've read that they may be overclocked, but I have done no such thing. as usual, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Your RAM is a set of chips on a circuit board. As with any electronic device it can simply stop working fpr no apparent reason. If your computer is connected directly to the wall socket, there could have been a transient power spike on the line that was not enough to hurt any thing other than the RAM. The circuits in your computer use very small amounts of power compared with a lamp or even a radio, so they are susceptible to damage when other devices may not be harmed at all.
If the chip set on the main board is OK, replacing the bad RAM stick should solve your problem. Best of luck
Currently, money is a tight issue for me, so if possible, I would love to get Mandriva running again without replacing my RAM (even though I know I'll have to do so eventually, anyway.) is there any way to modify fstab or grub to mount the filesystem read-write?
As a temporary work around, you could try installing Mandriva for the i586 architecture. If you are able to successfully run Mandriva One from the CD, then you may be able to boot it from the hard drive as well . . .
Depending on your main board's support of the i586 architecture, an x86_64 installation may even solve your trouble. I was under the impression that you had the x96_64 installed, but if you are using the i586 architecture on an x86_64 system, if the main board does not properly support the i586 architecture, you may get any number of inexplicable issues. I suggest you try installing Mandriva for the x86_64 architecture and see if it helps. If your memory issues go away, you probably do not actually have a memory problem (it was poor i586 support). If they persist, then you should try to prepare to get one or more memory sticks for your system as soon as you can.
Next question: since I have the i586 version installed, if I "upgrade" Mandriva using the x86 dvd, would that keep my files intact? or is it not possible to switch from i586 to x86 without a complete reformat?
I have never tried to perform an x86_64 architecture installation over a i586 installation, so I do not know if you can do this or not. I think you will get the best results if you Install rather than Upgrade using the x86+64 architecture disk so your root partition is reformatted, just to be on the safe side. If you have a separate partition for your /home directory (Mandriva's default partition configuration), the Mandriva installer will not format your /home partition as a default setting, so the majority (if not all) of your user configurations will be preserved.
I ran Memtest86+, and it showed multiple errors with my RAM. what I can't understand is if my RAM is so buggered, why am I able to run other OS's from live CD's? (Currently running FreeSpire V.2.0.8 on a separate partition after installation.)
MEMTEST is deliberately 'hard' on memory - you wouldn't want it to be anything other than hard, if you want it to be a thorough test. So, running through all the tests in memtest, which takes quite some time, may well show up rather more errors that just running your system normally. And some memory errors in normal running will not result in crashes, which, in a way, is even more worrying.
One thing that you might try, even though it is a bit of a long shot, is to check whether there is an option in your bios to slow down the memory accesses. In the case that the memory timing were marginal, this can help, and if that does show that with the slower memory access your hard disk problems go away, you will be better informed about your options.
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