Re: Trouble Loading Linux

I had written:
>> When was the last time your system was booting safely? Maybe there's
>> some clue in that.

Your reply:
> It has been a long time since my PC booted without errors I guess. About
> 2 or 3 weeks ago it used to take 9 minutes to boot !! So, I recently
> ran bootlog analyser and [... after some repairs and removing devices...]
> 2 to 3 minutes. So, I decided to forgot the issue. Any solutions in this 
> regard welcome.
 
Hmm.  Well, the LNX-BBC is designed to be usable as a rescue disc, but
software cam only go so far when hardware has real problems.  I'm going
to answer somewhat and then suggest better places to find help, 'cuz I
think the LNX-BBC wasn't really what you're looking for quite yet.

> How do I check my CMOS ? What do I check for ? If there is a problem, how 
> do I correct it ?
 
Every PC compatible computer - even an old 80386 - has a chip in it made
out of "complementary metal oxide semiconductor" - CMOS - which contains
their basic power on self test code (POST) and the very, very basics of
how to access device signals and reach for that first boot device (Basic
Input Output System, or BIOS).   When your computer says something like...

	Hit DEL for SETUP (EXTENDED SET)

or 	Press F2 for Setup

... it's telling you what key has been assigned to let you into a menu
to get at the options stored in that chip.  Unfortunately this isn't a 
good place to teach you all about your BIOS menu if the options make no 
sense to you - better to get a local geeky friend to help you out.  They 
don't need to be linux-geeky, just knowing their own computer a little 
bit would be fine.

If you can get as far as booting with any other CD, then maybe LNX-BBC 
can help you after that.

> I am still unable to check md5sum. 
> Most programs I got for this are not straightforward. 

What programs did you think you were using to check if your download was
good?  (You're saying "it doesn't work" without telling us which "it"
you mean.)  

> What is a good program that helps to check md5sum easily ? Thanks.
 
On which platform?

Your symptoms did not look to me like you got a bad burn of LNX-BBC,
but it could be so.

Within any Linux distribution, there is a program named md5sum, and all
it does is spit out a little math signature.  So if I'm at a prompt...

My_linux_box * star * ~ $ md5sum bbc-2.1.iso
0cbbc83f4f9dc19f55b9e15287a8a7f4  bbc-2.1.iso

...and then I check the Download page to see if it's the same (by
browsing http://www.lnx-bbc.org/download.html)...

By golly, it matches, so the ISO9660 image (raw cdrom) I downloaded is
indeed the bits we intended to use.  Now my only task is to safely and
properly burn it onto a CD.  You seem to have done that.  If you're
worried that the burned CD may have a glitch in it, you can tell md5sum
tp point at a device instead of a plain file:

My_linux_box * star * ~ $ md5sum /dev/hdc

(assuming your CD bay is an IDE in a common configuration; it might be 
/dev/hdd instead.)

> Also what is an IDE card ? Thanks.
 
IDE is the type of interface most PCs have in their computers to read
the hard disks.  Usually the plug for this interface is on your
motherboard.  People who like to improve their computers might add an 
extra card to provide that service in a better, stronger, faster way -
and if that's been done to your system, maybe they forgot to tell the
motherboard to stop using its boring one.  But if so then I recommend
you call the geeky friend who helped you do that, because folks who *do*
this tend to research all these buzzwords first... and therefore he or
she should at *least* be able to help you with the CMOS stuff above.

> Vijay

All the best of luck

However, the LNX-BBC crew is not a technical support team.  If you're 
still lost after all this I recommend your next note try reading
www.linuxgazette.com, check out the knowledge base there, and maybe work
up a more complete question for their Answer Gang.  If so don't forget
to describe whatever it was you were really trying to do with your
computer, too, and what's supposed to be on it.  

  . | .   Heather Stern                  |         [email protected]
--->*<--- Starshine Technical Services - * - [email protected]
  ' | `   Sysadmin Support and Training  |        (800) 938-4078