Re: Install floppy boot failure

[Mike Taylor <mtaylor@nestor.engr.utk.edu>]

On Sat, 3 Aug 1996, Christopher R. Hertel wrote:

>
> I've written the boot, root, & base floppies as prescribed, but every
> time
> I try to boot I get error messages as follows:
>
> boot: <cr>
> Loading...........
> Uncompressing Linux...
>
> invalid compressed format (err=2)
>
>  -- System Halted
>
> I've tried using a different floppy, erasing (dd if=/dev/zero...) and
> reformatting the floppies, formatting on different machines with
> different
> utilites (Norton format, DOS 6.x format, Weeners '95 format), and I've
> tried re-downloading the boot image from a variety of sources.
>
> All with the same result.
>
> I also tried entering boot parameters to specify my SCSI & ethernet
> cards.  This resulted in a different error message:
>
>  incomplete literal tree
>
> Well, where do I go from here?
>

I noticed when I was making my installation disks that three of the four
images needed nearly every possible block on the floppy.  When I was
formating the floppys, I noticed that the the format program marked quite
a few bad blocks on one of the floppys, so I didn't use it.

You might try reformatting your suspected bad installation disks to see if
the format program reports any bad blocks.  If you get some, that might
be your problem.  If not, maybe one of the files that you are making the
disks from is corupt.

Hope this helps.

Mike