Re: debian 1.3 on thinkpad 760xl
On Thu, 01 Jan 1998 14:14:13 EST, LKloss wrote:
> [..proper pre-install procedure snipped..]
>
> Now, first problem. I take the boot-rescue disk, put it in the disk drive,
> reboot the system, get a message from debian giving me various help screens,
> and then the boot: prompt. So I press return and see
>
> loading root.bin .....
> loading linux .....
>
> and then nothing, the machine hangs. Thinking that maybe it was the disk
> drive, I try againwith
>
> boot: linux floppy=thinkpad
I think this is the parameter I was hinting at in the notebook urls
(although I see they weren't very helpful now). The syntax looks good,
too. I seem to recall someone else reporting they couldn't get their
thinkpad to boot even after using this parameter, that another was
required (?).
> and same thing. My CD-Rom is NOT bootable, the thinkpad770 has one but not
> 760XL which is what I have.
>
> So I currently can't start the install from floppy. So I try a second method.
> I use an old DOS 6.2 boot-rescue disk to boot up a small version of DOS. I
> then put in the debian boot-rescue disk (which I made above, only now I have
> copied loadlin.exe to the disc as well). Now, at the dos prompt I type
>
> loadlin linux root=/dev/ram initrd=root.bin
>
> which were the instructions given to me in the "Debian Linux User's Guide"
> which I bought and read (I also read the more recent version which you point
> to). So anyway, now the install gets past
>
> loading root.bin
> loading linux
>
> and the install continues fine. After that I follow the menus and do the
> following
>
> choose color display
> select US keyboard
> partition the hard drive with the following parameters
>
> /dev/hda1/ bootable / linux 500Mb <-- this is my root partition
> /dev/hda2/ / linux-swap 100Mb
> /dev/hda3/ / linux <- for /usr
> ... then hda5,6 /var and /home
>
> I then write the partions to the partition table and continue with the
> install
>
> initialize and activate the swap partition
> initialize all the linux partitions (having the install format each
> partition)
> install operating system kernel and modules
> during which it asks for the boot-rescue floppy and then the drivers
> floppy
> which I have (from above) and everything goes fine
>
> then it asks which device driver modules I want, specifically the menu
> says
>
> Next Configure Device Driver Modules
>
> well, I don't know which I need. The menu screen looks like this
>
> Exit Finished with modules. Return to previous menu.
>
> block Disks and disk-like devices
> cdrom Device drivers for CD-Rom drivers
> fs Device drivers that allow many dirrerent filesystems to be
> accessed.
> ... etc. ...
Oh,that. I wondered what you were referring to.
block devices are things like hard drives, tape drives. All the
bugfixes and chipset patches found here should be compiled into the
kernel, which leaves some really old hard drive types which don't
pertain to you and PCMCIA and the loopback device, both of which you're
not using right now.
cdrom is for propreitary interfaces, and I think you have ide/atapi,
which is probably already supported because if it weren't you wouldn't
have been able to access your cdrom without first setting this up (I
think).
fs is for network and other filesystems foreign to linux, none of which
are pertinent to you now.
> so I don't know which to load so I choose Exit.
>
> Then I configure the network (I don't have any)
>
> Then it asks to intall the base system, here is where I feed the install the
> five base-n.bin disks, so yes I intall the base package. Then I
>
> choose the time zone (EST5EDT)
> tell debian my system clock is not set to GMT
>
> then it asks me
>
> Make Linux Bootable Directly From Hard Disk
> Make a Boot Floppy
> Reboot the System
>
> so I make a boot-floppy and reboot the system and then I get
>
> LILO loading linux
>
> and nothing. I hope that was everything. I've had the Debian Linux User's
> Guide open in front of me the whole time while doing the install.
>
> The main things is I can't boot into linux after the install so I can't edit
> the /etc/lilo.config file. I'm stuck. What did I do wrong?
Something I didn't mention before is that loadlin is a veritable
bootloader, so if it works to install, you should be able to use it to
boot linux from a dos partition, although in your case I see no reason
why you'd want to. loadlin is good when your drive configuration is
incompatible with lilo, but this isn't the case for you.
You have the right idea with your partitions, but if you want to
further eliminate just to see if you can boot, you might try making one
big partition (900+MB?), even though I doubt partitions are your
problem (could be your /etc/fstab options, though). If you try this
and it fixes the problem, then figure out what you did wrong and go
back to your nicely divided partition scheme before you install a lot
of software (btw: consider 32-64MB swap vs. 100MB)
Another important thing is that Linux is running during installation.
You can change virtual consoles by pressing CTRL-ALT-F[1-X], where
F[1-X] are F1, F2, ..--what you'll find is the "ash" shell (I think, a
trimmed down shell) and the different VC's (virtual consoles) which
have different purposes--one displays error messages, .. The upshot is
you can perform maintenance, mount and umount partitions, configure and
run applications (like lilo), edit /etc/fstab (your table of boot-time
mountable partitions, their options, and filesystem types) ... I think
your filesystems are mounted in a deep level of /var. The VC with the
messages should give this away if you look closely.
I must confess this is now beyond my level, so I'm going to have to
hand this off to the pros. My guess would be a secret incantation for
lilo to use regarding the thinkpad hard drive device address, but I
don't know.
--
David Stern
kotsya@u.washington.edu
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~kotsya/
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