Re: Trouble Loading Linux

> > I also downloaded the Damn Small Linux from:
> > http://www.damnsmalllinux.com and tried to run from live CD. Same
> > thing happened. This is based on Knoppix and is supposed to work
> > with fairly recent PC's I feel.
> > 
> > Wonder if there could be any other common problem ?
> > 
> > I have a 333Mhz Pentium with 156Mb Ram, Win 98.
> > 
> > Vijay
> > 
Your message about IRQ testing suggests perhaps you have a hardware conflict.

When more than one CD stumbles at a similar place, that suggests a hardware conflict too.

I'm going to mention a couple of hardware problems in this email because I have had them all.

0. For concern that the CD is bootable, try it in another PC or several. Go visit a friend and try the CD on her machine.

	Note that Some CD drives will not boot a bootable CD. Because your computer's CD actually starts booting the LNX-BBC, your CD drive sounds like it is OK. Some CD drives simply have a bug and will not read a bootable CD. I wasted a huge amount of time because I owned one of those screwed up drives. The solution was to replace the CD drive. An old 4x junker borrowed from a friend booted every bootable Linux CD... and my 1998 vintage CD drive simply doesn't work as a bootable drive. 

Here are a couple of possible steps to eliminate hardware conflicts.

Do a full power off for each test. Vacuum or brush out dust from the PC and don't lose screws or leave a loose screw inside the case.

1. Try removing as many cards as you can from your PC. Pull as many cards as you can out all at once... and see if the LNX-BBC boot process proceeds.

	The idea here is to see if two cards might be responding to the same probe. Perhaps a slow card is responding while the software has jumped ahead and is doing something else.
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Here are some further tests, but IDE cables and RAM memory problems do not usually produce IRQ error messages.

2. Look at your IDE drive cables. Unplug any un-necessary devices. 

	If the LNX-BBC cd boots, then examine your IDE devices for the jumper settings. Make a note of how things are initially. I forgot to make notes so I really don't know which way works best. 

3. Run the memtest offered at the LNX-BBC prompt. If you see any errors, unplug memory modules until you see no errors. 

4. If the problem STILL persists, go to the BIOS setup screen and disable any onboard sound or ethernet. Make notes of how it is before you change anything.
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After you get LNX-BBC booting, then re assemble the computer by replacing cards etc. While it is slow and tedious, I prefer to replace cards and undo changes just one at a time and I start the computer after each restore. Occasionally cards must be re seated to make them work. 

As it boots, LNX-BBC reports to the screen everything it discovers. That is the best way to know you have put your PC cards back and they are working right.

You can see the entire boot process after login as root. Type "dmesg" or "dmesg | more" to see the last boot process.

If in doubt, remember Lee's Law of Boot Time Error Messages: "The scarier the error message, the more trivial the problem. Beware of the error without a message."