Re: Limping and bleeding with Corel Linux
Val Dokuzovic wrote:
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>Hi there,
> My "brief"? story: I am (was?) a windowman (meaning a mouseman
>-computer (almost) illiterate). Got sick and tired of being called
>basically a criminal, by my Laptop using Windows, with messages such as
I have Debian running on a laptop; I can't speak for the Corel version,
though.
>"illegal operation". Bought Corel Linux based on Debian. After spending
>a month trying to figure out how to install this thing (luckily, I was
>really sick with a bad case of cold), found out that I can not install
>it on my laptop. Turned to my sons old PC NEC Ready 60, and gave it a
>new name:
>This will be my MLINUX machine (mean linux machine). After a nightmare
>and at least (35 installations or attempts) that lasted several weeks
>this is where I am: I installed one copy of linux to my C: drive and one
>to my D: drive. The idea was that if I manage to get one crashed I will
>simply use the other one, (maybe try to fix the first one with it -
>remember I do not really know a lot?) My principal copy was on C: drive.
>My "backup" is on D: drive. I got them both running reasonable well. I
>had only one problem left: RAM. I have 104M, and machine thought I had
>64M. This is where append="mem=104M" in etc/lilo.conf became an option
>to try. Last time I tried it I got a bad crash from which could not
>recover. (That was what gave me the idea of the two copies). This time I
I do not think this could crash your system, unless you told it too much
(104Mb is a very strange number for memory).
>tried it on my "backup" copy. It did work as far as RAM but boy am I in
>a mess now. I can not get my C: copy to run. D: copy I can barely get to
>too. It is now for some reason my first "suggested" choice and my C:
>copy is linux a2 in the lilo window. When I try to run a2 all I get is a
>flashing "-" cursor. Pressing ctrl alt del gets me back to lilo window.
What messages do you see before that? How far does the boot process get?
>Choosing "Linux" everything goes well until "Checking file system" ,
>then I get some text scrolling. The text has a black line horizontally
>across it. Them I get a message that "fsck failed" fix manually or press
>ctrl D to resume (you guess which one I choose?). ctrl D gets me to
You MUST fix this. If fsck is reporting errors, it means your filesystem
is corrupt. Doing anything more with it is likely to corrupt it much
much worse. [The most frequent cause of filesystem corruption is turning
the machine off without a proper shutdown.]
The command is `fsck -y /dev/hdb2'. The -y option means
that fsck will fix everything without asking you; in your state of
knowledge (and mine), this is the only reasonable option. (If you
have any other partitions, you may also need to run fsck on them.)
Depending on the extent of the damage, you may end up with a fixed
system; there may be files in /_your_partition_/lost+found; or you
may have to give up and reinstall.
>workable copy on my D: drive from where I am sending this SOS message.
>On my laptop I have windows 98 and I am still resisting to go there.
>With all the trouble I went through (and all I still probably will go
>through) I am becoming more and more attached to linux, as I slowly
>learn its intricacies. But a thought went through my mind. Linux is
>supposed to be a free software. Is Debian really free? Is it free if
You have to learn skills to use anything. A computer is incredibly complex
and few of us get anywhere near learning all about it, but the more we
learn, the more we can do. When you get past this problem, you will be
a lot more capable than when you only knew Windows.
>only programming elite can use it? Or are we mousemen really retarded
>now after prolonged use of windows? Attached are my messy etc/lilo.conf
>files. One with root at dev/hda2 is my C: copy. Please help. I do not
>dare to do anything on my own anymore. If any debian expert lives in
>Toronto area I am willing to pay him to get my mlinux machine in a
>perfect order. Thank you for help. Val.
I'm too far away for that!
How much of these lilo files are your own work and how much is Corel?
The labels seem very strange; apart from that, I don't see anything
particularly odd (except the number 104M - how do you get that? 64Mb + 32Mb
+8Mb? - are you sure those memory bits are all compatible?).
For comparison, here is my /etc/lilo.conf:
============================================
boot=/dev/hda3
root=/dev/hda3
install=/boot/boot.b
map=/boot/map
vga=normal
delay=20
# Linux
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.14
label=Linux
append="mem=128m aic7xxx=ultra parport=auto"
read-only
# Linux
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.13
label=Linux-old
append="mem=128m aic7xxx=ultra parport=auto"
read-only
# Windows 95
other=/dev/hda1
label=Win95
============================================
I'm also interested to know more about the symptoms of your crashes.
Unless Corel have made a real mess, or your hardware is bad, this should
not happen.
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>boot=/dev/hda
>
>install=/boot/cboot.b
>message = /boot/splash.lilo
>map=/boot/map
>compact
>prompt
>delay=300
>timeout=300
>image=/vmlinuz
> label=[]_{}
> vga=0xf04
> append="no-scroll mem=104M"
> root=/dev/hdb2
> read-only
>image=/vmlinuz-debug
> label={}~VGA_mode
> vga=normal
> append="3 mem=104M"
> root=/dev/hdb2
> read-only
>image=/vmlinuz
> label={}~Console
> vga=normal
> append="1 mem=104M"
> root=/dev/hdb2
> read-only
>image=/vmlinuz-debug
> label={}~Debug
> vga=normal
> append="mem=104M"
> root=/dev/hdb2
> read-only
>other=/dev/hda2
> label=[]_{}~a2
--
Oliver Elphick Oliver.Elphick@lfix.co.uk
Isle of Wight http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver
PGP key from public servers; key ID 32B8FAA1
========================================
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,
who does not change like shifting shadows."
James 1:17
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