Re: ack! help!!!! something went dreadfully wrong!

On 08/01/2004, Savanna wrote:
> i tried that just now and it won't give me any mode. it auto-boots into lilo
> startup. i tried space, tab, enter, typing 'linux' etc...it won't respond. it
> just boots up lilo automatically.

Hold the shift key down to get the prompt.

> btw, re: rober'ts email:  i did ask on here if it was safe for me to do this
> and i was told by some that it was. please don't flame me for trying something
> which i was told was safe to do. i'm not blaming anyone at all, but i did ask
> and i'd appreciate not getting slammed for it, okay?

You were told this because nobody else has had any problems with it.
Barring a kernel miss-upgrade, its next to impossible for KDE to
break your harddrive. You almost certainly had this problem before the
upgrade, but were unaware of it (see next para)

> and btw, that message spamming the screen about hdb being in trouble only
> starts after i try to log into kde with the panel in kdm. it doesn't start
> before. so obviously something is messed up with kde or with my hd in response
> to my having upgraded. i'll upgrade the kernel if i have to but i have no idea
> how to do that. if somebody can please tell me how to do that, it would be
> very much appreciated.

Assuming you havnt upgraded your kernel by accident, the message
you're getting almost certainly points to a broken harddrive, a
corrupt block (or more) or maybe a loose drive cable. If an fsck
doesnt fix it (I doubt it will), I would try checking the IDE cables
in your PC are seated correctly.

Your installation of KDE probably overwrote the bad area on the disk
and when you login on kdm its trying to run the programs in that area.
This is _probably_ the reason you only see it then. Like someone else
said, remove KDE and see if you still get them. Unfortunately if it
really is a HD problem this will give you a false sense of security.

Either way, I'd backup your data now as I tend to replace a drive when
I start seeing these errors.

Marcus

-- 
Marcus Williams -- http://www.quintic.co.uk
Quintic Ltd, 39 Newnham Road, Cambridge, UK
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