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04-30-2006, 10:48 AM
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#1
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Member
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Birmingham, Alabama (USA)
Distribution: Slackware
Posts: 351
Rep:
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Weird Installation Problem - Hard drive errors
**********EDIT*********
SOLVED...I think...read my post down below
**********EDIT*********
I've installed Slackware about ohhhhhhhh.....5-10 times on various computers, but right now I am having a problem. I am trying to put a new install of Slack 10.2 on my wife's laptop. On the hard drive right now is a Slack installation that will NOT boot (I get a Kernel Panic error having to do with init). So, put in the installation CD and did
fdisk /dev/hda
I setup a primary partition and an extended partition that includes a 520MB Linux Swap partition (I made sure to set it to type 82). After writing the partition table to disk everything appears GREAT.
So, I type "setup" and click "Add Swap." It finds the swap partition and asks if I want to use it. I say yes and it TRIES to set it up as the swap partition, BUT it goes to a black screen with a list of errors.
I've tried this about 15-20 times and I keep getting this problem. Need help!  THanks
Last edited by tubatodd; 04-30-2006 at 08:38 PM.
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04-30-2006, 11:40 AM
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#2
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Moderator
Registered: Jan 2005
Location: Central Florida 20 minutes from Disney World
Distribution: SlackwareŽ
Posts: 13,971
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tubatodd
I've installed Slackware about ohhhhhhhh.....5-10 times on various computers, but right now I am having a problem. I am trying to put a new install of Slack 10.2 on my wife's laptop. On the hard drive right now is a Slack installation that will NOT boot (I get a Kernel Panic error having to do with init). So, put in the installation CD and did
fdisk /dev/hda
I setup a primary partition and an extended partition that includes a 520MB Linux Swap partition (I made sure to set it to type 82). After writing the partition table to disk everything appears GREAT.
So, I type "setup" and click "Add Swap." It finds the swap partition and asks if I want to use it. I say yes and it TRIES to set it up as the swap partition, BUT it goes to a black screen with a list of errors.
I've tried this about 15-20 times and I keep getting this problem. Need help!  THanks
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Hi,
Once you create the partitions, reboot the laptop with the cd1 disk. This will insure that the partition table is indeed updated.
I also like to initiate the partitions myself with;
Code:
#mkswap -c /dev/hdaN #replace N partition number
#mke2fs -c -j -L Linux /dev/hdaN #replace N partition number
The mkswap -c /dev/hdaN will create a swap partition and check for bad blocks. The mke2fs -c -j -L Linux /dev/hdaN will create a Linux partition type ext3 with label 'Linux' and check for bad blocks.
I will then use the setup to install Slackware. The reason I prepare the partitions is that I want to make certain the integrity of the partition is there.
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04-30-2006, 01:28 PM
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#3
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Member
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Birmingham, Alabama (USA)
Distribution: Slackware
Posts: 351
Original Poster
Rep:
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Well, this experience is only getting weirder. My wife's original laptop was an IBM thinkpad PII that worked just fine and then after sitting unused for a while I tried to boot it up and I received a Kernel panic "No init" try init=....or something like that. Long story short we acquired a newer thinkpad off ebay that is in great shape. It boots Win98 fine and runs really well. I decided to swap the hard drive from the previous laptop (30GB) with the new machine (only 4BG) So, I put in a Slack-Current ISO in the CD drive and try to partition the drive. Fdisk works like a charm. I try "setup" and the poop hits the fan. Add swap doesn't work...it crashes. I try restarting, fdisk had saved the partitions from the previous boot...so I try setup again and bypass the swap. I try and have it format my partitions as reiserfs. All appears to go well and then crash again. So I try a low level format utility from Maxtor. The utility tells me that the drive fails some kind of diagnostic test. Soooo, that sounds like progress. I try doing ALL of the above with the smaller 4GB drive that I KNOW works. I get the same results. Fdisk works, but add swap doesn't. I try bypassing it and try to install packages. The machine appears to have started installing packages. BAM...crash. I try the low level utilty and the diagnostic says that this drive fails.
What the crap am I doing wrong?? I need help!
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04-30-2006, 03:36 PM
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#4
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Member
Registered: Apr 2003
Location: uk
Distribution: slackware current
Posts: 770
Rep:
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I have been installing slack on an old pII recently, and it all went pretty well. I had a 4G drive originally, which I would have put up with, but it was also noisy, so I got a new 40G disk for it, quite cheap, faster and silent, worth every penny.
First I upgraded the bios to the latest version (I put an old win98 boot disk on a bootable cd with the newer bios on the disk as well, as the laptop had no floppy)
Then I used cfdisk to partition the drive. (I have always had success with cfdisk, so I cant really comment on fdisk) I dont know why you used an extended partition, this is unecessary unless you want more than 4 partitions, so why bother?
Then I used the slack install disk, which will recognise your partitions, and offer to format them. If you do a slow format it will check for errors on the disk. I would recommend that in your case, as I suspect there is a problem with that 4G disk, even if it used to work ok.
It will boot without a swap partition, if you are getting a kernel panic, it is for a more fundamental reason which needs to be sorted out before you worry about the swap.
Normally swap is configured during install. If for some reason that doesn't happen, then add
/dev/hda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
(or whatever is appropriate) to your /etc/fstab, and run
swapon -a
this should be taken care of automatically by slackware's init scripts on subsequent boots
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04-30-2006, 05:08 PM
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#5
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Member
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Birmingham, Alabama (USA)
Distribution: Slackware
Posts: 351
Original Poster
Rep:
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I will try again following your comments, but I am not feeling that optimistic.
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04-30-2006, 05:37 PM
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#6
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Member
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Birmingham, Alabama (USA)
Distribution: Slackware
Posts: 351
Original Poster
Rep:
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Ok, here is the latest. I'm thinking there is something wrong with the DVD drive. It boots up CD1 of Slack fine. Adding swap still gives a kernel panic error. I tried it all again WITHOUT adding swap and partitioned the hard drive into 2 partitions, 1 primary and 1 swap.
When I tried installing slack WITHOUT swap it all appeared to go well until the machine started installing packages. Somewhere around the 20th package I got a seg fault. I have NEVER seg faulted in Linux.
I'm about to experiment with an Ubuntu CD. I've never tried it before. I'd love to install Slack, but I can't figure out what is going on.
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04-30-2006, 08:36 PM
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#7
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Member
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Birmingham, Alabama (USA)
Distribution: Slackware
Posts: 351
Original Poster
Rep:
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SOLVED...I think
Well, this situation was all MY fault...as far as I can tell. Ya see, what I didn't tell y'all is that I replaced the RAM chips that the "new" computer had (64MB PC66) with the 256MB PC100 chips that we had in her previous Thinkpad. Well, I THOUGHT for SURE that the new machine used the same chips or faster. WHOOPS! So, I replaced the 64MB chip and all appears to be well. Ubuntu installed nicely. Now it is time to get a REAL OS on there. Hee hee...
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