Slackware installation stops when selecting a keyboard map
 

I have a 14-year-old PC that I use as a small server/playbox. I recently had a problem with Slackware mounting the root filesystem. The problem got more and more frequent so I did a test with the WD HDD check utility.

The HDD is okay (or so says the utility) so I attempted to re-install the OS. This was probably something against the Unix philosophy, and I should have seeked advice before doing that. But I did.

And I never managed to install Slackware. The installation pauses just after the kernel boots (the default one, from the 14.1 DVD) and I have to select a keyboard map:

My gut feeling says that the mobo is very close to dying, but I just want to make sure that I'm not doing something stupid on the software/OS side.

So, could this be a software issue?

If you provide some specs on the hardware, perhaps someone might be able to help.

Do you press Enter or enter 1 and press Enter at that prompt?

Run a Live CD (SystemRescueCD, Knoppix) on it for a couple of days. That will bypass the hard disk and "narrow" the problem down to mobo, memory, power supply, CPU, overheating, etc.

I think I pressed ENTER, I don't remember for sure. I can't bring the system to that stage right now to test this again.

My hardware is:

mobo: Asus P4B
CPU: Pentium 4 1.5GHz
RAM: 512MB SDRAM, probably at 133MHz
VGA: GeForce 2 MX400 (or MX200)

I disconnected the hard drive, and the Slackware install DVD pauses around when it creates a ramdrive. I tried booting from Knoppix 7.0.1 (with the HDD disconnected), and it paused at 'Booting the kernel'. Nice.

I thought maybe the DVD-ROM is flipping out, so I tried booting pfSense from an older CD-Rec. It didn't even recognize that there was a disc on the drive. Interesting. FreeBSD 10.1 install CD did start the booting process but paused at the point where it detects USB ports (on board). I was also able to boot the FreeBSD install on my DVD-ROM, but it paused on the same spot.

Just for the giggles, I connected back the drive and I'm installing Win98SE right now to see if that's going to work!

The most obvious thing is to check with another IDE DVD-ROM but I don't have one and really don't want to get into the trouble of buying one unless there are really good chances that I don't have a hardware failure on MOBO/CPU/RAM.

So, does it?

Do you have another computer where you can create a USB boot disc? That would get you around the possibly bad dvd drive.

If you have 2 x 256 sticks of memory try running a Live CD with one removed and then the other. Another thing to try is a different IDE cable (the shorter the better). Remove any extraneous PCI cards as well - modems, network cards.

Well, the mobo can't boot from USB. I wonder if I can find an image small enough to fit in a floppy :P (still got plenty of those).

Win98 installed correctly. Isn't that strange?

I did all my tests without any PCI cards.

I'll try a different IDE cable. If it fails, I'll check if any of my friends has any IDE DVD-ROM lying around. Otherwise, I'll just retire the beast.

Thanks guys!

Are you sure it can't boot from USB? My old, slightly later P4, could boot from USB but it showed up as a hard drive.

plop boot manager fits on a floppy and will "hand off" the boot proceess to a usb...:
https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/download.html

cheers,

Heh... If there are people still answering this thread it means I'm not the only one that feels bad retiring old hardware if there is even a slight chance it might still work.

My BIOS doesn't boot from USB. I created the floppy and the PC didn't manage to boot from the floppy! I tested the floppy in Virtual Box and my desktop ("bear metal") and it worked fine. But not on that old PC.

Is there anything else I can try?

Hey, I haven't tried memtest. I'll give it a shot!

Update:

Memtest just gives a "Boot error".

I tend to think that there's not enough RAM and the processor is not very fast. Whether it is actually failing due to not enough RAM to hold Slackware in RAM or whether the CPU is just too slow to make it work quickly enough seems like details. Then there's the optical drive which may or may not be failing to read DVDs because optical drives are horrendously silly.

Slackware 14.1 was running on this machine ever since it got released. Why would it stop now?

Because you're booting Slackware into RAM then using more RAM to run the installer etc.? I could well be wrong, I'm really just guessing here, but running an installer means taking up RAM with the OS and, perhaps, the Slackware that boots now takes more RAM than the one which used to boot.
I'll let others verify whether I am typing rubbish or not.