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Old 04-03-2005, 12:56 PM   #1
Oisin
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Suse boot up process


Hi all,

My system is a Compaq Presario 721UK with an AMD Duron 1.1 GHz CPU, 128 Megs of RAM, a 20 Gig hard-drive. It used to have Windows XP Home edition installed on it. About 3 weeks ago it stopped booting, it would just make a very loud continuous beeping. After trying numerous suggestions from Compaq their technician concluded I needed a new motherboard. So before doing that I decided to try installing Linux. I have installed Suse 9.2 Pro. and it the machine appears to be fully functional, I am typing this post on it. I think an underlying hardware problem remains, though obviously not a critical one. When I power on the machine I still get the beeping. The process is as follows:
0. Power on
1. The LED on the CD/DVD drive lights momentarily suggesting it is being accessed/polled.
2. The Compaq splash screen appears for about 10 seconds.
3. The Compaq is replaced by a blank screen. The system fan starts up and the loud beeping starts (it sounds like an alarm)
4. After about 15s the message 'Grub loading stage2' appears
5. After a further 70s a Suse screen offering 'Boot Options' appears and the beeping stops. Super-imposed on this boot options screen is a window titled 'Using the Help System'. Pressing escape closes this window and then I can choose Suse Linux 9.2 from the boot options and everything after that works fine.

6. Note also that if I press escape at the beginning of (or during) step 3 above I will have to endure far less beeping as the Linux boot options screen appears much sooner (within 5 or 10 seconds).

So, my question is, are steps 4 and 5 (if you discount the beeping) the expected boot up behaviour of Suse 9.2 or does the fact that I am presented with this screen telling me to choose my boot up method suggest that Suse has run into some sort of problem during its boot up procedure? Basically what I want to know is does Suse's boot up behaviour give me any further clues as to what my underlying h/w fault might be or is this the expected boot up behaviour ?

Thanks,

Oisin
 
Old 04-03-2005, 05:27 PM   #2
smithtodda
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Steps 4 and 5 are normal, in my experience. I run SUSE LINUX Professional 9.2 exclusively on my primary machine. However, I don't believe I ever get the window titled 'Using the Help System' that you get. Does that window refer to the SUSE Help System, or to a Compaq one?
 
Old 04-03-2005, 06:14 PM   #3
Kdr Kane
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Sounds like memory errors.

Check how much memory Linux shows as available.

You should also check the boot log under the command dmesg.
 
Old 04-03-2005, 11:11 PM   #4
smithtodda
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I agree. After my first post to your question, I spent some time searching (via Google) for information on Compaq beep codes. Everything I found pointed to memory errors (faulty RAM).
 
Old 04-04-2005, 11:25 AM   #5
Oisin
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Hi,

These responses are very interesting, when the problems with the machine started, I googled beep codes for the Presario myself and came to the same conclusion that it seemed to suggest a RAM problem. So I downloaded a RAM tester 'memtest86' and ran it. It showed failures on multiple tests suggesting that the RAM was in fact faulty. I stripped the laptop right down to the motherboard to get a look at the RAM to see if there were any obvious physical defects (bad solder points etc.) The insides of the machine all looked to be in pristine condition. The RAM consists of 8 hynix chips (16 meg each I assume) making up the 128 Megs in the Presario 721 spec. So I re-assambled the laptop and then eventually tried installing Linux before writing off the laptop. When Linux installed and ran successfully I assumed that the memtest86 results must have been false positives. I had heard that some Linux distros had a 'badram' (?) utility via which one could specify RAM addresses that the system should not use. Surely this type of functionality would not be enabled by default on Suse 9.2 ? Could Suse have scanned my system during installation noted the addresses of faulty RAM and configured itself not to use them ? I find it hard to believe that even Linux could be this sophisticated. So as per your suggestion I checked the reported RAM, I have never used Linux before so the only details of RAM I could find were System -> Monitor -> Info Center, it reports :
Total physical memory: 120,971,264 bytes = 115.37 MB
So either there is some convention where 115Mb of RAM is reported by manufacturers as 128Mb or else I am in fact missing 13Mb of RAM and that is the cause of the beeping.
Is this plausible?
Are there any other checks I could perform that might yield pertinent info?

By the way, smithtodda, the 'Using the Help System' window I described was a Suse window not a Compaq one.
 
Old 04-04-2005, 03:30 PM   #6
smithtodda
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Interesting. Is it possible that the missing 13MB of RAM is reserved for video? Also, have you tried running the SUSE memory checker manually? I believe you can do this by booting up with CD1 in your drive and then selecting memory test (or something like that). I'll look into it if necessary.
 
  


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