Linux/Unix - boot failure

Author

boot failure

adam salam

2004-01-26, 3:07 pm

Hi everybody

I have an old hp desktop there was windows 98 installed and working perfectly.

lately, I have tried to install linux mandrake software so I delete and repatition HD and insalled linux.

insallation process was perfect and went smoothly, when the system rebooted, some thing went wrong

I have got all 99 on the screen: like that:

L 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99
99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99
99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99

and many of that 9s.

I tried to install NT 4.0, I could repartiton and format the HD but again when the machine rebooted to start the installation the same problem happened:

L 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99
99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99
99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99

I could access the HD when boot from startup floppy, and using fdisk.

what could be the problem please?

Boulware5

2004-01-26, 3:49 pm

Why didn't you post this on the Linux forum?

Anyway, that exact same error message I got myself when trying to install Slackware. Basically your mbr is screwed up when you get lilo errors. What I did was the following.

If you set the CMOS/BIOS to "LBA" (linear block addressing) you generally should add the corresponding "linear" line to your /etc/lilo.conf. You would then have to re-run /sbin/lilo -v. This fixed it for me. fdisk /mbr didn't work for me; I needed the word "linear" in my lilo config file.

adam salam

2004-01-27, 8:59 am

quote:
Originally posted by Boulware5
Why didn't you post this on the Linux forum?

oops..

that is my mistake

quote:

Anyway, that exact same error message I got myself when trying to install Slackware. Basically your mbr is screwed up when you get lilo errors. What I did was the following.

If you set the CMOS/BIOS to "LBA" (linear block addressing) you generally should add the corresponding "linear" line to your /etc/lilo.conf. You would then have to re-run /sbin/lilo -v. This fixed it for me. fdisk /mbr didn't work for me; I needed the word "linear" in my lilo config file.

but I have reformat and reformat that HD many times why I need to go through that linux hassle?

please just help me get my little PC back working fine with windows and I promise you will never touch linux again

Boulware5

2004-01-27, 12:56 pm

quote:
Originally posted by adam salam
oops..
that is my mistake

but I have reformat and reformat that HD many times why I need to go through that linux hassle?

please just help me get my little PC back working fine with windows and I promise you will never touch linux again

You mean you completly formatted and only installed windows and this still happens??

adam salam

2004-01-27, 1:16 pm

quote:
Originally posted by Boulware5
You mean you completly formatted and only installed windows and this still happens??

Exactly !!!

first I susbected the HD, but I could access it with fdisk and also when booting from NT cd it could be detected and formatted!!!

Boulware5

2004-01-27, 1:25 pm

quote:
Originally posted by adam salam
Exactly !!!

first I susbected the HD, but I could access it with fdisk and also when booting from NT cd it could be detected and formatted!!!

Weird. Does fdisk /mbr do anything?

adam salam

2004-01-28, 6:58 am

quote:
Originally posted by Boulware5
Weird. Does fdisk /mbr do anything?

after using fdisk for many times, I tried boot from w2k cd and install, the problem solved and w2k installed

don't ask me how

I think Linux

stick in one of the HD pipes system and need to be pursued to get out

>>>>>....

me? I dunno...

2004-01-28, 12:52 pm

Hi Adam, try redhat9, it practically installs itself

adam salam

2004-01-28, 1:44 pm

quote:
Originally posted by me? I dunno...
Hi Adam, try redhat9, it practically installs itself

Thanks

In fact I have tried to install redhat9, as you said it installs it self, but when reached some installation point it asked for the secoend cd

that I don't have ready I need to download another more than 650 MB, and who knows, it might ask me for the third and fourth cd

bsdboy

2004-01-28, 3:29 pm

redhat9 has three cds.

me? I dunno...

2004-01-29, 3:24 am

http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=7

Boulware5

2004-01-29, 3:56 am

RedHat will soon be discontinuing it's consumer product line. If you like Red Hat, check out fedora. Or if you want to try something else, go for Mandrake or Suse. They are both really easy to install.

Papiya

2004-01-29, 8:51 am

i've recently had touble installing mandrake 9 on some pc's at work (hp). suse would be a good choice tho since novell is using it now.

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