On Tue, Jan 19, 1999 at 08:56:06PM +0800, Brett Molinari wrote: > I am trying to install debian on a 386 with 8 meg of ram with > floppies. I am getting the following messages before the machine > hangs: - > > boot: > loading root.bin... > parity check1 0000 > > Assumung it was a memory problem I removed 4 meg at a time and tried a > lowmem installation with the same result. > > I would greatly appreciate any help offered as I would really like to > try out this os. You removed 4 megs at a time...? Meaning you tried each memory module individually? Hmm. If you try both SIMMs and get this result, you either have a problem with the hardware (memory controller cooked, maybe), or you've stumbled across a bizarre problem with the boot loader. It's unlikely that both your SIMMs are bad in exactly the same fashion. Another possibility occured to me; if you haven't used this RAM in that motherboard before, but know the SIMMs are good on another box, perhaps you're using SIMMs with "logic parity" (fake parity) or no parity at all in a motherboard that demands true-blue parity RAM. I remember a few years back, 1993 or '94 or so, we had machines getting parity errors all the time. If this system is about that age, it may be falling victim to the changes that occurred in the memory industry in those days. Is the machine able to boot some other OS successfully? -- G. Branden Robinson | "There is no gravity in space." Debian GNU/Linux | "Then how could astronauts walk around branden@ecn.purdue.edu | on the Moon?" cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu/~branden/ | "Because they were wearing heavy boots."
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