Problems with RedHat post-install Re: [TriLUG] I'm a linux newbie!

[Sinner from the Prairy]

A Dimarts 02 Juliol 2002 01:51, JWarner va escriure:
> Hello,

Hello. I changed the subject, so it is clearer what is your problem.

> I'm currently taking a course at Wake Tech, it is a linux course.

Great! Excellent knowledge.

> I have extensive hardware knowledge, so I pieced together a machine,
> that I would assume would load RedHat 7.2 with no trouble.

Cool

> My machine consists of:
> 691 chipset motherboard (slot 1)
> Celeron 300A CPU
> 196 MB SDRAM
> 15 GB Quantum HDD
> Sony 1.44 MB 3.5" floppy
> 44x CD-Rom (I believe it is a Delta)
> MSI GeForce 2 Pro 64 MB Video Card
> SMC 1255 Network Card

I foresee no trouble at all.

> Hard drive is set to master on IDE0, CD is set to master on IDE1
> Pin b21 on the CPU is covered, making my motherboard think it is a
> 100 FSB CPU.  My problems occur with or without this covering.

Have you overclocked the thing? 

> Redhat 7.2 is a copy of CD's ordered from www.linuxdistros.com.

> On with the install:
> 1) Chose the graphical installer upon boot from CD.
> 2) anaconda loaded
> 3) Chose English as Install language, kybd config is generic 105
> intl. pc, US English, with Dead keys enabled. 4) mouse is 2 button (2
> button generic ps/2), emulate 3 buttons is checked. 5) Install type
> is Custom
> 6) Disk partitioning setup: I chose "Have installer automatically
> partition".  It reported that the drive was not initialized (I had
> just run "zap.exe" and "wipe.exe" in dos mode on another machine [zap
> and wipe are utilities I downloaded from IBM.COM])  Asked me if I
> wanted to initialize the drive, I said yes. 
> 7) told it to remove all partitions on system prior to continuing. 
> 8) chose GRUB as my boot installer, told it to put it on /dev/hda
> (Master Boot Record)

OK. Seems right so far. But, /dev/hda ? /dev/hda1 ?

> went on, told it to install everything.  All seemed fine, it created
> swap, formatted, installed packages (took about 45 minutes), and then
> it rebooted my system.

Regular stuff. Expected.

> I went into my bios, told it to boot from HDD0 (in bios), and saved
> and exited.

Mmmm. Why?

> POST sequence went without any errors, proceeded to "Verifying DMI
> Pool Data" and then sat there.  Nothing happened.  I don't know what
> is wrong, but I would assume (that might be part of my problem) that
> it would start loading Linux.  I tried pressing keys, seemed to
> respond only to "Ctrl+Alt+Del".  No messages (nothing like the
> shutdown messages I received when I hit "Ctrl+Alt+Del" when I had
> RedHat 5.2 on the same system.

It is not getting to the boot loader. I recomend you to boot from the 
rescue floppy that you created (you made one, right?) and see if you 
can boot the system.

> Any help would be, well, helpful.

> Thanks in advance to any advice given by anyone.

You can also rty to go to RedHat errata and see if there's something 
similar overthere.

Another possibility, it can be that your motherboard's chipset cannot 
recognize that +8GB HDD, so it fails to boot from it.

You said that you installed GRUB, so we can discard the trouble of +1024 
cylinders that you might have with older LILOs, older Motherboards and 
big HDDs.

Anyone else has an idea?



Salut,
Sinner
-- 
http://www.ibiblio.org/sinner/     Linux User # 89976
Running on Mandrake 8.2 - Kernel  2.4.18-6mdk     Linux Machine # 38068