Re: install
Kent West wrote:
Sidney Brooks wrote:
>1) I am not sure how it happened, but /etc/inittab is
>now set at run level 2. Therefore, I boot into text
>mode.
>
>
That's the default on Debian. Redhat and friends
pre-configure
different
run levels, whereas Debian leaves this for the
administrator to do as
he
sees fit.
>2) I have Windows XP, Mandrake, Redhat, and Debian
>partitions. Everything but Debian works. The boot
>loader is Mandrake lilo. HOWEVER, I CANNOT TAKE LILO
>OUT. In what may or may not be a related problem, if
I
>uninstall lilo, when I reboot, at CDROM (order is
>floppy, CDROM, Hard Drive) I get L followed by an
>endless string of 99 unless there is a disk in the
>drive. Even here, I have a peculiarity, I can boot
any
>bootable disk except my Windows XP disk, which starts
>with the message that it is checking hardware and
then
>freezes. I am begining to think that Mandrake lilo
may
>have somehow corrupted my BIOS. However, nothing that
>I do with the BIOS setup cures the problems.
>
>
No, your BIOS is okay. When you removed lilo, you left
an "empty" (not
really, but humor me) spot on the boot sector. When
the BIOS tries to
boot the system, it reads part of the gunk left over
in this sector,
and
then starts spitting out the 99s. This is perfectly
normal (although
undesired) behavior.
You'll need _some_ sort of boot loader. WinXP's is
designed only for
Windows, so it's not really a good choice (although I
understand it can
be made to work). lilo or grub are probably your next
two best choices,
and whereas grub is more flexible, most folks are more
familiar with
lilo, and lilo is still the "standard" for booting
Linux, so I'd stick
with lilo. It doesn't matter if lilo is installed from
Mandrake or
Redhat or Debian, so long as the /etc/lilo.conf file
is properly
configured.
WindowsXP freezing is likely less of a problem with
the boot sector; in
fact, it's not related to the boot sector at all, or
it wouldn't even
be
getting as far as it's getting. If it's getting to the
point where it
can say it's checking hardware, then the WinXP CD _is_
booting; it's
just failing a bit further down the line. This points
to either a bad
CD
(scratch?), or something wrong with your hardware
(RAM? hot CPU? bad
spot on hard drive?). Since you had so much trouble
with Debian
earlier,
I'm about 72.37% leaning toward some sort of hardware
problem on your
machine.
To test RAM you can download memtest86 (either run it
off a floppy or
"apt-get install mem86" and then configure lilo to
offer it as a boot
option). If you can run Mandrake/WinXP/Redhat/Knoppix
without any
problems (compiling a linux kernel is a pretty good
test of RAM), then
chances are your machine is okay, and the problem is
in the WinXP CD
itself.
>3)Booting from the Debian floppy now results in a
>working text mode.
>
>
Excellent! That means that all that is left is to get
X working. What
happens when you run "startx"? You'll likely get an
error about "no
screens found", but that's a generic error that means
nothing. Look
higher up in the output for lines marked with EE or
"No pointing device
found" or "No resolutions usable", etc.
>4) To summarize, I have three problems which may
point
>to a BIOS problem: Debian, I cannot boot the Windows
>CD, and the fact that I must keep the Mandrake lilo
or
>I cannot get into Windows.
>
>
1) Debian - Debian is booting now; it's just not
running X. Realize
that
X sits on top of Debian, unlike WindowsXP in which
Microsoft wants you
to believe the Graphical User Interface (GUI) _is_
WindowsXP. In the
Microsoft world, if you're not looking at the GUI,
you're not looking
at
Windows. But in the GNU world, if you're not looking
at the GUI, you're
not looking at the GUI, and that's all. You're still
in Linux, just in
text-mode.
2) Can't boot WinXP CD - Sounds like either a damaged
WinXP CD or a
hardware problem on your machine.
3) As mentioned above, you have to have _some_ sort of
boot loader.
WindowsXP can't be booted off an external disk as far
as I know;
although the WinXP CD should allow you to
reinstall/repair XP. So, yes,
you must keep lilo (from any of the distros, or
alternatively grub or
something similar) on your drive or you won't be able
to get into
Windows. Or you could reinstall the Windows boot code,
but then you
won't be able to get into Deb/RH/MD.
>5) I am sending this to you directly because it is
>detailed and you are the only one showing an interest
>in the problem.
>
>
Yes, but someone having the same problem three months
from now after
I've been run over by an out-of-control shopping cart
at Super Wal-Mart
and am no longer available won't be able to search the
archives for any
help if this thread is not archived. I'd still
recommend keeping this
on-list.
**********************************************
I used "startx" and could not go into the graphics
mode.
Here are the significant entries from
/var/log/XFree86.0.log
(WW) about cyrillic fonts - not significant
(WW) Cannot open APM
(WW) SAVAGE: No matching Device section for instance
(BusID PC:1:0:0) found
(EE) No devices detected
In order to deal with the uneraseable MBR, I shall
attempt to follow the advice of a technician of the
company which made my computer. It involves wiping the
hard drive clean. If it works and I still have a
computer, I shall then avoid the Mandrake version of
linux.
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