Booting from 1.2 x86 iso hangs: Ok, now booting the kernel.

convoi · Guest

ok. i have installed gentoo on 3 computers by now (athlon 500, athlon tbird 900, p3 mobile 600) and everytime everything went fine. i put the 1.2.x86 iso cd into the drive and boot and gentoo boots from cd (after i pressed enter at the boot prompt)

this time, same cd, new computer it's different.
bootprompt, i press enter.

Loading kernel..................
Loading rescue.gz.......................................................................
ready.
Uncompressing Linux... Ok, now booting the kernel.

nothing. no reset, no changes... (pressing the numlock key doesn't change the numlock light on the keyboard)

Ok, i thought.. hmm.. might be a bad system.. try with a redhat boot cd.
works.
Hm. Good system, maybe my fine gentoo boot cd is broken.
So i burned a new cd, same error.
Hmm.. Seems gentoo does not like my system.

It is a PIV 2.0Ghz Northwood, Epox 4G4A+ (Intel 845G Chipset, Onboard Highpoint 372 Raid, Onboard Realtek 8100B LAN, Onboard VGA)

I've searched the net for this error and many people say, this seems to happen if the kernel is compiled for the wrong cpu. But I don't like the idea that no one ever has installed gentoo on a PIV. So there must be some other reason. Are there other Gentoo Kernels out there, I can boot with ?
Or any other suggestions ? Might changing some bios parameters help ???

Guest · Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2002 2:03 am Post subject:

i would think its the highpoint controller maybe....what do you ahve on this and if you do ahve the harddrives on it can you disable the controller and change the hard drive to ide0 to see if the iso boots?

convoi · Guest

funny thing is, i don't even use the hightpoint controller yet. i have on ide drive attached to the normal ide0 controller and one cdrom attache to the ide1.

i also have tried booting with disabled hpt .. makes no difference.

Guest · Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2002 11:23 pm Post subject: try linux no-hlt

At the boot: prompt try 'linux no-hlt' - might fix it, might not

convoi · Guest

doesnt help..
i'm going to binary search for the kernel which breaks it.. since 2.2.20 works, 2.4.19 doesnt (2.5.31 doesnt too) there has to be one (2.3.0 - 2.4.1

which has to work

maulwurf · n00b Joined: 18 Jun 2002 Posts: 10 Location: Germany

Hi,

I have exact the same problem with this mainbord.
The problem is also present in SuSE8.0 & 7.3 and
Mandrake 8.2.
Mandrake 7.2 starts the installation. tomsrtbt is
working.
Distibutions with kernel 2.2.x seems to work.
I think its a problem in the kernel 2.4.x
Maybe it depends on the 82801DB chipset.
I hoped, that it works with kernel 2.5.x
Any ideas ?

Wedge_ · Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2002 1:41 pm Post subject:

I don't think the controller is the problem. I installed from the same iso on my system, which also has the HPT372 controller (Abit KR7A). My HD is on the controller, and it found it fine.

rcc · Guest

Well, you just described the problem I'm having getting the g2workstation-0.5.iso to boot. I have a P4, 2.2 GHz. Get's to that same point, screen goes blank. The only difference is, my keyboard LEDs blink after it hangs.

maulwurf · n00b Joined: 18 Jun 2002 Posts: 10 Location: Germany

Hi rcc,

I think this is another problem.
See
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=10960&highlight=livecd

Guest · Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2002 9:07 am Post subject:

Hi convoi,

maybe this is the solution.

http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=102976224622043&w=2

I can test it only tomorrow

maulwurf · n00b Joined: 18 Jun 2002 Posts: 10 Location: Germany

Hi,

now Suse and Debian works with the mem=512M bootparam.

But gentoo wont boot.

I think its a problem in the gentoo kernel

convoi · n00b Joined: 02 Sep 2002 Posts: 7

i got some more details.

up to linux 2.4.19-pre6 everything is working if i pass the mem=511M parameter (511 because i have 1 mb shared grafix ram and 512M total)

from 2.4.19-pre7 on it fails.
if i copy arch/i386/kernel/setup.c from pre6 to pre7 it works.

ok.. that's one point.

the other funny thing is:
memtest86 (for those who don't know: this is a nice memory testing utility which comes as a small boot cd)
memtest86 has 3 ways of detecting memory size:
bios - std, bios - all and probe
on a normal system, all methods "should" give the same (or very similar) size, which should be the real size of your total mem.

on my i845g epox 4G4A+ board however it's different:
bios - std: 640k (!!)
bios - all: 4091M (!!!!!) and the system immediatly hangs
probe : 511M (which is the correct size in my case, cause i have 512 M ram and 1 M shared gfx ram

maulwurf: suse and debian of course work, as the don't have 2.4.19 kernels. but if you try "knoppix" boot cd or other 2.4.19+ kernels.. it shurely will fail.

in my opinion this is a mixture of bad bios + kernel changes.