Very Computer

: Boot kernel on Slackware distribution of Linux won't load!
.....
: VFS: Insert ramdisk floppy and press ENTER   REM I insert the disk
: VFS: Disk change detected on 2/28
: Corrupted input
: RAMDISK: gzip header not found - continuing with conventional load
           ^^^^^^^^^^^
This happened to me also.  You're using an uncompressed rootdisk when
a gzip'ed one is expected.  Just use a gzip'ed rootdisk image instead
and all works fine...

regards,

Boot kernel on Slackware distribution of Linux won't load!

This weekend I decided to reinstall a new version of Linux on my PC (GW2K
8MB P75 PCI...).  After reading the distribution info for version 3.0.0
of the Slackware distribution, I downloaded fresh images of the boot and
installation disk and wrote them to clean floppies (I did a surface scan
of each).  Everything went OK up to this point.  

The problems begin to surface while booting Linux from the two floppies.
 The first disk behaves fine (it loads correctly).  When I am prompted to
insert the disk containing the installation software things the system
begins to show signs of begin uncooperative.  Following are error
messages that culminate in a halted system.

.
.
.
Partition check:
        hda: multiple mode turned off
        hda: hda2 hda3 hda4 < >   REM no hda1 because I wiped-out
                                      the old Linux partition
VFS: Insert ramdisk floppy and press ENTER   REM I insert the disk
VFS: Disk change detected on 2/28
Corrupted input
RAMDISK: gzip header not found - continuing with conventional load

[MS-DOS FS Rel.12.....  ]   REM there is more on this line--tell me it is
needed
[me=oxff.cs=32385,..... ]
Transaction block size = 512
HPFS: hpfs_read_super: not HPFS

Kernel panic VFS; unable to mount root fs on 21:00

THIS IS THE END!!! SYSTEM HALTS.

CLUES:
+ The boot disks are OK; no media defects; downloaded fresh copies of
disk images several times--all behave the same
+ Similar errors occur if I use either "bare bootdisk" and "text"
installation floppy OR "NET boot disk" and "Linux Color 144" installation
floppy
+ The version of Linux on the floppies is 1.2.12 (Tues Aug 22, 95);
Slackware Kernel 3.0.0
+ I installed Linux about a year ago on this PC on my own without any
help and everything went smoothly (well, as smoothly as such a thing can
go for a newbie)
+ The same problem occurred both before after I deleted the old Linux
partition from my hard drive using the Linux fdisk
+ Following is the status of my HD (according to fdisk)
        /dev/hda1       205096+ blocks  native
        /dev/hda2       20664 blocks    swap
        /dev/hda3       205632 blocks   DOS 16 bit
        /dev/hda4       55441 blocks    extended        

Any ideas?

Thank you

Joe Britton
University of Chicago

 > Boot kernel on Slackware distribution of Linux won't load!

 > This weekend I decided to reinstall a new version of Linux on my PC (GW2K
 > 8MB P75 PCI...).  After reading the distribution info for version 3.0.0
 > of the Slackware distribution, I downloaded fresh images of the boot and
 > installation disk and wrote them to clean floppies (I did a surface scan
 > of each).  Everything went OK up to this point.  

 > The problems begin to surface while booting Linux from the two floppies.
 >  The first disk behaves fine (it loads correctly).  When I am prompted to
 > insert the disk containing the installation software things the system
 > begins to show signs of begin uncooperative.  Following are error
 > messages that culminate in a halted system.

 > .
 > .
 > .
 > Partition check:
 >   hda: multiple mode turned off
 >   hda: hda2 hda3 hda4 < >   REM no hda1 because I wiped-out
 >                                 the old Linux partition
 > VFS: Insert ramdisk floppy and press ENTER   REM I insert the disk
 > VFS: Disk change detected on 2/28
 > Corrupted input
 > RAMDISK: gzip header not found - continuing with conventional load

Look at the instructions again.  I think Slakware now needs boot unzipped
and root zipped before you rawwrite them.
--
Regards,
Hal Bybee