eee 1000h (almost) never boots first time running slackware-current
 

Whenever I turn on my eeepc I almost always have to restart it in order to get it to boot successfully. It can take up to 5 or 6 restarts and there is no consistent error message but it always happens at some point in the rc.M script. Sometimes I get syntax errors, sometimes segmentation faults. I can sometimes get it to restart with ctrl-alt-del but other times this doesn't work, so I have to press the power button, or in some cases press and hold it.

Obviously there can't be any syntax errors in the files, as eventually after a few attempts it boots up without any problem. When it has finally loaded it runs without any other noticeable problems. It appears to "get closer" to booting successfully every time round, in that it makes it further down the script every time.

Has anyone any immediate ideas? I'm running a custom kernel but I've had the same experience using the stock one. Apologies for the lack of precise information, I would appreciate any suggestions of how best to record the error messages or do any debugging of the problem.

I dont have such issues with the same EEE model.

Sounds good, do you want to swap?

Are you using kms? Are you running the stock kernel? Have you made any other changes?

Sounds like a hardware issue.
Test your memory with memtest86 and then perhaps run some tests on your hard disk.

I have had some boot issues but quite rarely (once in every 50 boots or so) with my eee pc 1000H (160GB non-SSD drive) running slackware 13.0 with stock generic kernel. I've not tried the current "-current" so can't comment on that.

I did have problems with other distros failing to boot so I turned off all the rapid/turbo/boost boot stuff in the bios and all such booting problems went away.

Actually, in both the above cases I doubt the boot process gets as far as stuff like rc.M, so we're probably looking at different issues, but one never knows...

Just as an example of the kind of thing that happens, this time it booted up fine on the second attempt. I got an "assertion botched" referring to line 6 of my rc.alsa. The screen filled up with errors but I didn't copy them down as it was a full screen's worth. The second time it loaded up straight away with no problem. I have rebooted it since and it came up again just fine.

Referring back to a previous post I made http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ailure-788081/, I actually did check my hard disk before. It was showing some signs of wear so I bought an SSD. It seems like too much of a coincidence to be broken again. I have also run memtest86+ before, only for one test though. I'll leave it going tonight and see if anything eventually comes up. If it does turn out to be the RAM it'll mean that I've almost replaced the entire computer! I've already had the motherboard sent back for replacement.

As I'm on another computer now, here's what is on screen (1st boot attempt)X doesn't come up, ctrl-alt-del to restart works, next time it boots up with no problems. I'm gonna set a memtest going now..

It's a double post I know but I thought it would be better than making a second edit. I just ran a memtest "from cold" and i got a whopping 3891 error messages. It shot up to that value straight away but after that there were no further errors. I interrupted the test, restarted and linux booted without any problems.

I guess it's a hairline crack on the RAM, solved by a bit of thermal expansion. Back to ASUS it goes again! Will mark as solved. Thanks everyone for all advice.