Kernel crashes before booting
Hi people,
I've been whining about this problem in some linux newsgroups and they
suggested to come into this miling list because I am trying to install a
Debian distribution -- I don't think its a Debian-specific problem,
though. Anyway, here goes:
I _cannot_ boot any kernel
- from CD-ROM
- from bootdisks
- from harrdisk with LILO
- from a bare DOS with loadlin
I _can_ boot from DOS/Loadlin if and only if himem.sys and emm386.exe are
loaded. This is the only way to get the system up and running at all.
With 'any kernel' I mean the Debian installation kernel and any self-built
kernel (including the 2.0.0 that boots fine on my 386).
The computer crashes right after the message Loading Linux...... AFAIK,
the first step of booting is to load the compressed kernel image into
memory (via whatever loading mechanism), and then the kernel takes over
and decompresses itself (saying 'uncompresing Linux'). The loading seems
to work, but the first piece of code that the kernel image itself tries to
execute sends the computer into nirvana. So far my own diagnosis.
This is my hardware:
Motherboard: Slot 1 VIA693/133 ATX Mainboard with Intel Pentium II/400 MHZ
(AWARD Bios)
RAM: 64 MB SDRAM (1 module)
CD-ROM: TEAC FD235 ATAPI
Harddisk: IBM DJNA-351520 UIDE 15.2 GB
Graphics adaptor: ATI Graphics RAGE FURY 16 MB
I think this is a BIOS/Mainboard question. My computer dealer says, "your
software is incomaptible with our hardware, so it's your fault" and
doesn't want to take it back. OK, it's a pretty cheap mainboard, I'll
admit that. Anyway, I'd appreciate it if anybody could offer some help in
this matter. Maybe I'll never be able to fix it, but I'd at least like to
know what causes this problem. I've played with about every combination of
BIOS settings possible, of course.
Regards,
--Daniel Haude
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