RE: Problems with 80386 and 4 MB of RAM
Hello
>Hi,
>
>I've got some problems with Linux and my little test-computer. Im
>struggling with the low amount of memory (only 4 MB). The complete
>configuration:
>
>80386 with 40 Mhz
>4 MB of RAM
>1.6 GByte HD
[...]
>[ 1 ] L I L O
>
> At startup it only says:
>
> 3FA:
>
> It just stops there. :-(
> My partition-table by fdisk:
This is not from lilo but from bootpart (I'm not sure of the name of the
pakage but it is a very small package installing an mbr...). It's not an
error message but an invitation to press either 3, F or A. 3 will boot
/dev/hda3 (hence lilo), one F or A is used to boot /dev/fd0 and I
don't remember the usefulness of the other
>---- [start] ----
>
>Disk /dev/hda: 64 heads, 63 sectors, 827 cylinders
>Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 bytes
[..]
>---- [end] ----
>
>
> And my /etc/lilo.conf:
>
>
>--- [start] ---
>
>boot=/dev/hda3
>root=/dev/hda3
>compact
Try commenting out compact
>install=/boot/boot.b
>map=/boot/map
>vga=normal
>delay=20
>image=/vmlinuz
>label=Linux
>read-only
>
>--- [end] ---
>
>
> Later I changed boot=/dev/hda3 to boot=/dev/hda. Now LILO starts and
>types "LI":
>
>The first stage boot loader was able to load the second stage boot loader,
>but has failed to execute it. This can either be caused by a geometry
>mismatch or by moving /boot/boot.b without running the map installer.
> So what do I have to do now?
> In the moment I'm starting with my start-disk.
1°) Try commenting compact
2°) I don't think that your BIOS support lba. If I'm right you'll have to
declare your disk as having 16 heads, 63 sectors, 3308 cylinders
because lilo relies on the BIOS to access the kernel and your BIOS
don't know how to handle more than 16 heads. The only annoyance
will be to ensure that the kernel resides in the 1024 firs cylinders :
just create a (small) partition there and mount it as /boot or a slightly
larger one and mount it as / .
>[ 2 ] N E T W O R K
>
I'm completly helpless here
>[ 3 ] R E S C U E - S T A R T U P
>
> If I use the rescue-disk (I'm not using it in the moment) to start and
>type
>
>linux root=/dev/hda3
>
> the boot-up takes VERY long. In the end it just says
>
>could not fork, trying again...
>
> I've never seen another message after this one yet, because I don't realy
> think it's fun to wait for 2 hours...
> So this method doesn't work. But when I type
>
>rescue root=/dev/hda3
>
> it boots normaly (and fast...). Is there a functional difference between
> the two methods or can I use the rescue command with no problems?
Have a look at the conf files of syslinux on the rescue floppy (it's a
fat formatted floppy ! :-) ) and I think you'll understand why linux
doesn't work although rescue works. (Hint : ramdisk)
--
Laurent PICOULEAU
lcrpic@a2points.com
--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-user-request@lists.debian.org .
Trouble? e-mail to templin@bucknell.edu .
Reply to: