Message-ID: <3A2BA7B6.59C8E496@iname.com>
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2000 14:18:30 +0000
From: Chris Reeves
Andrew Smith wrote:
I'm setting up a small Linux network for my school. I'm trying to
SuSE 6.1 on the server - an old AST machine (P100, 32MB RAM) which has a new hard disk (13.6GB). After upgrading the BIOS to the latest version, I booted up from floppy and installed via CD. Installation goes fine until the system is started and YaST attempts to run to configure everything. The YaST 'splash screen' comes up, but then the machine just sits there doing sod all... I took a look at other consoles when this happened - on one of
(forgotten which) there was a 3 line stack dump. How can I solve this problem?
The disk is partitioned physically in this order: hda1 /boot 20MB hda4 swap 128MB hda2 /home 5GB hda3 / 8GB
Also, the system cant be started by LILO. LILO installs fine, but when
install them the
machine is switched on, it cant find an OS and asks for a system disk... any ideas?
Did you install LILO into the MBR? You might have accidentally installed LILO onto the root partition. Under normal circumstances, you would at least get an 'L' when you boot up, unless the BIOS is set to not try and boot off the HD (which may be the case, since you upgraded the BIOS).
Can you use the suse boot install floppy and use the feature "boot installed system", when you specify /dev/hda3 for /?
Yes. After the first install failed and the system didnt boot, I tried using the bootdisk to start the system and it boots fine. But then it sees that the installation hasnt finished, so starts up YaST, which crashes. Because no terminals are started by the time YaST is started, the machine is usless and requires a hard reboot (reset button).
Also try adding the linear option to lilo.conf.
Will do so (will next have access to the machine on tuesday). Out of interest, what does this do?
The linear option 'Generate[s] linear sector addresses instead of sector/head/cylinder addresses.' Basically, some drives get confused about their geometry (or at least, there is confusion between the drive, BIOS, and LILO). To counter this, the 'linear' option make LILO use linear sector addresses which are translated at run time, and which are entirely independent of the disk geometry in terms of cylinders, etc. Hope that helps, Chris -- __ _ -o)/ / (_)__ __ ____ __ Chris Reeves /\\ /__/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ / ICQ# 22219005 _\_v __/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\