Very Computer

by **Neil Ricke** » Sat, 03 Jan 1998 04:00:00

>Hi, I have the following problem. Up until a few days ago I was using
>Slackware 3.0. Last week I installed Slackware 3.4. Everything worked
>fine with both until today. I am trying to figure out if my hardware is
>broken or it might be a software problem. I do not use LILO but Loadlin
>(I have both dos 6.0 with windows 3.1 and linux). My troubles started
>when I rebooted when working in Linux (again it worked fine before with
>both 3.0 and 3.4). DOS did not want to start, it printed a message "MS
>DOS starting..." and died. I tried to boot using DOS system disks, using
>Linux kernel - same story: the memory is counted, I get a password
>prompt, after that "MS DOS starting" and the floppy drive keeps the light
>on but nothing is happening. Ctr-Alt-Del is not working, I have to turn
>it off. However, I have no trouble booting using the two Linux
>installation disks: boot (bare kernel) and root (color). I tried to
>install LILO on MBR, I tried to install it on floppy - it would not boot.
>So to diagnose the problem first question is: why bare kernel boots but
>nothing else, even dos floppy does not? Is there any chance that nothing
>is wrong with my hardware? If something is wrong with hardware, what can
>it be: BIOS ROM or what? How to repair? How much the components cost?
>Would replacing the whole motherboard help? Can it be that slackware 3.4
>does something bad to hardware? I noticed that when I reboot from linux
>to dos, dos starts a little bit differently under 3.4 than under 3.0, I
>am not sure what the difference was but I think 3.0 did not count RAM,
>3.4 does. I am using IBM PS/1 Consultant, 486DX, 16meg RAM, two
>harddrives. HEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!

From your report, it sounds like a hardware problem or an interrupt
conflict. Most likely your system came with a bios diagnostic
diskette for testing the system for problems. Now is the time to use
it.

by **Tom Wals** » Sat, 03 Jan 1998 04:00:00

> I have almost the exact same problem. I had Windows 95 and Linux RedHat
> 4.2 running on my system. After I installed Linux Redhat 5.0, not
> only would Windows 95 not boot (could be a LILO problem), but also
> DOS floppies would not boot either. Linux still boots from either LILO
> on the hard disk or from the Redhat floppies. Ctrl-Alt-Del works for me.

I have had no problem with installing Linux & Win95 on the same machine and
getting them to play nice with each other. You have to install Win95 first,
then install Linux, and during the Linux setup you make sure that you add the
Win95 partition to your Lilo choices (you are not restricted to only 1
bootable partition when constructing the lilo MBR, I have even had 2 linux
partitions + a Win95 partition listed in the lilo.conf file as choices).

If you forgot to add the Win95 partition into the lilo.conf during the setup
program, it gets trickier, but is straightforward.

a) You will have to SYS the Win drive using a DOS 7 bootdisk with the SYS.COM
utility on it.

b) reuse you slackware boot disk and at the parameters BOOT prompt type in:
'root=/dev/hda1 ; image=/vmlinuz' this will instruct the boot loader to use
the partition #1 of the first harddrive to mount the root file system from
(assuming Linux root system was on /dev/hda1) and then it instructs the loader
to use the compressed kernel image named vmlinuz to startup the system and
read your fstab, rc.d files etc on the newly mounted root system).

c) once you get back to the root system, you could either edit lilo.conf to
add the missing Win95 boot choice and run lilo; or you could re-run setup and
construct the correct lilo.conf.

The setup configuration will read off the Win95 boot sector and save it
into a file on your linux root system in the event that you make the choice to
run Win95 instead of the Linux system. I suggest you read 'man lilo', 'man
lilo.conf', '/usr/doc/faq/howto/BootPrompt-HOWTO.gz' and
'/usr/doc/faq/howto/BootDisk-HOWTO.gz' where all this is discussed. Like they
say: Read The Fine Manual, Linux comes equiped with a full set of them ;-)

Regards

Tom

by **Tom ONei** » Sun, 04 Jan 1998 04:00:00

> >Hi, I have the following problem.
> >snip
>However, I have no trouble booting using the two Linux
> >installation disks: boot (bare kernel) and root (color).
>snip snip>

> From your report, it sounds like a hardware problem or an interrupt
> conflict. Most likely your system came with a bios diagnostic
> diskette for testing the system for problems. Now is the time to use
> it.

Sounds like his machine gathered some intelligence - won't boot dos?
--
Thomas J. ONeil

"No, it was a JOKE! You can't RUN this!"
Ken Thompson

by **Abdul Jali** » Sun, 04 Jan 1998 04:00:00

> Hi, I have the following problem. Up until a few days ago I was using
> Slackware 3.0. Last week I installed Slackware 3.4. Everything worked
> fine with both until today. I am trying to figure out if my hardware is
> broken or it might be a software problem. I do not use LILO but Loadlin
> (I have both dos 6.0 with windows 3.1 and linux). My troubles started
> when I rebooted when working in Linux (again it worked fine before with
> both 3.0 and 3.4). DOS did not want to start, it printed a message "MS
> DOS starting..." and died. I tried to boot using DOS system disks, using
> Linux kernel - same story: the memory is counted, I get a password
> prompt, after that "MS DOS starting" and the floppy drive keeps the light
> on but nothing is happening. Ctr-Alt-Del is not working, I have to turn
> it off. However, I have no trouble booting using the two Linux
> installation disks: boot (bare kernel) and root (color). I tried to
> install LILO on MBR, I tried to install it on floppy - it would not boot.

I have almost the exact same problem. I had Windows 95 and Linux RedHat
4.2 running on my system. After I installed Linux Redhat 5.0, not
only would Windows 95 not boot (could be a LILO problem), but also
DOS floppies would not boot either. Linux still boots from either LILO
on the hard disk or from the Redhat floppies. Ctrl-Alt-Del works for me.

Quote:>I am using IBM PS/1 Consultant, 486DX, 16meg RAM, two
> harddrives. HEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm running a Tyan Titan Pro motherboard with dual 180 Mhz
Pentium Pros, a Matrox Millenium card, and Buslogic 956c fast-wide
SCSI card. I got through to Tyan tech support just once and they
said I should pull one processor, since Windows 95 uses only one
processor. (Never mind that it was running before with two CPU's
in the system.) I did that - no effect. See my other post on
comp.os.linux.hardware for a full explanation of everything I tried
prior to calling Tyan. About the only other thing I could possibly
try is another video card (or SCSI card, but I don't have another).

--
Abdul Jalib wearing the hat of | May you never fail to boot
Professional Degenerate Linuxer| in the New Year.

by **Abdul Jali** » Tue, 06 Jan 1998 04:00:00

> > I have almost the exact same problem. I had Windows 95 and Linux RedHat
> > 4.2 running on my system. After I installed Linux Redhat 5.0, not
> > only would Windows 95 not boot (could be a LILO problem), but also
> > DOS floppies would not boot either. Linux still boots from either LILO
> > on the hard disk or from the Redhat floppies. Ctrl-Alt-Del works for me.

> I have had no problem with installing Linux & Win95 on the same machine and
> getting them to play nice with each other. You have to install Win95 first,
> then install Linux, and during the Linux setup you make sure that you add the
> Win95 partition to your Lilo choices (you are not restricted to only 1
> bootable partition when constructing the lilo MBR, I have even had 2 linux
> partitions + a Win95 partition listed in the lilo.conf file as choices).
[munch]
> Like they
> say: Read The Fine Manual, Linux comes equiped with a full set of them ;-)

Read The Friggin Post! ;-) My computer no longer boots DOS floppies!
I know how to install Windows 95 + Linux and have done it before.
This is a weird hardware problem that started just after I installed
RedHat 5.0 Linux, coincidence or not.

--
Abdul

Very Computer

boot: hw or sw?

boot: hw or sw?

boot: hw or sw?

boot: hw or sw?

boot: hw or sw?

boot: hw or sw?