Re: Certain distros not booting?
Do you think it could be drive specific? Either the drive or the media are out of spec? Can the drive really read the problem CDs? dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/null count=200 This should report an error if there is a problem reading the media. If this works, then the CD is getting read and I do not know what to suggest. On Fri, 2005-09-16 at 10:09 -0400, Cole Tuininga wrote: > Hi all - I have a little bit of an odd situation I was hoping somebody > might be able to shed some light on. > > Somebody has asked me to take a machine with a 300+GB hard drive, and > install 5 or 6 different distributions of linux on it for them. The > idea is that they want to play with the different version for a while > before picking one. > > The hard drive is the master on IDE0, and the CD drive is the master on > IDE1. > > Here's the odd part. > > Certain distributions' install CDs won't boot. I can boot Ubuntu (both > live and install CDs), I can boot Knoppix, but I cannot boot either > Fedora Core 4 or CentOS 4.1. When I put them in, the boot process just > acts as though there isn't even a CD in the drive. > > I'm reasonably certain that both CDs are good - I used them just a > couple days ago. > > It's not boot order in the BIOS - I have that set to use the CD drive > first. > > Anybody have any thoughts? I'm more than happy to provide any required > information that I didn't post here... > -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp. 1 Court Street, Suite 378 Lebanon, NH 03766-1358 voice: 603-653-8139 fax:320-210-3409 -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Certain distros not booting?
On Friday 16 September 2005 10:09 am, Cole Tuininga wrote: > I'm reasonably certain that both CDs are good - I used them just a > couple days ago. Long shot: I had a fan stop that I didn't notice. The lasers in two CDROMs overheated leading to deteriorating output. The behavior was similar to what you describe. Some CD would read, others would not, but all check good on an independent system. Swapping the CD drive is fairly quick and it would eliminate at least that possibility. Jim Kuzdrall ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Certain distros not booting?
On Fri, 2005-09-16 at 10:59 -0400, Jim Kuzdrall wrote: > Long shot: > >I had a fan stop that I didn't notice. The lasers in two CDROMs > overheated leading to deteriorating output. The behavior was similar > to what you describe. Some CD would read, others would not, but all > check good on an independent system. > >Swapping the CD drive is fairly quick and it would eliminate at least > that possibility. In talking with the person who provided me the system, this may not be far off track. They are telling me that the drive is old enough that they sometimes have trouble with CD-Rs, etc. Yeah - I think it may be time to retire that drive. ;) -- If we quit voting will they all go away? Cole Tuininga Lead Developer Code Energy, Inc [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP Key ID: 0x43E5755D ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Certain distros not booting?
On Fri, 2005-09-16 at 10:09 -0400, Cole Tuininga wrote: > Hi all - I have a little bit of an odd situation I was hoping somebody > might be able to shed some light on. > > Somebody has asked me to take a machine with a 300+GB hard drive, and > install 5 or 6 different distributions of linux on it for them. The > idea is that they want to play with the different version for a while > before picking one. > > The hard drive is the master on IDE0, and the CD drive is the master on > IDE1. > > Here's the odd part. > > Certain distributions' install CDs won't boot. I can boot Ubuntu (both > live and install CDs), I can boot Knoppix, but I cannot boot either > Fedora Core 4 or CentOS 4.1. When I put them in, the boot process just > acts as though there isn't even a CD in the drive. > > I'm reasonably certain that both CDs are good - I used them just a > couple days ago. > > It's not boot order in the BIOS - I have that set to use the CD drive > first. > > Anybody have any thoughts? I'm more than happy to provide any required > information that I didn't post here... > I've run into this sort of thing before and used loadlin as a work around. make a boot floppy (dos-ish) with the cdrom driver and mscdex, then use a 2nd floppy with loadlin on it to load the install kernel from the cdrom. Be sure to use loadlin version 1.6c as it supports larger kernels. ftp://elserv.ffm.fgan.de/pub/linux/loadlin-1.6/update-1.6c/ I've used this to install fedora on a machine with a non bootable scsi cdrom drive. works like a charm. -- Frank DiPrete <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Certain distros not booting?
On Fri, 2005-09-16 at 12:00 -0400, Frank DiPrete wrote: > I've used this to install fedora on a machine with a non bootable scsi > cdrom drive. works like a charm. I believe it ... unfortunately this machine has no floppy drive. 8) -- "I have tact. I just choose not to use it." -Ben Scott Cole Tuininga Lead Developer Code Energy, Inc [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP Key ID: 0x43E5755D ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Certain distros not booting?
On Fri, 2005-09-16 at 12:00 -0400, Cole Tuininga wrote: > On Fri, 2005-09-16 at 12:00 -0400, Frank DiPrete wrote: > > I've used this to install fedora on a machine with a non bootable scsi > > cdrom drive. works like a charm. > > I believe it ... unfortunately this machine has no floppy drive. 8) > heh. it's always something. I guess you can swap out the cdrom or bring a floppy drive with you. good luck ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
Re: Certain distros not booting?
Do you think it could be drive specific? Either the drive or the media are out of spec? Can the drive really read the problem CDs? dd if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/null count=200 This should report an error if there is a problem reading the media. If this works, then the CD is getting read and I do not know what to suggest. On Fri, 2005-09-16 at 10:09 -0400, Cole Tuininga wrote: > Hi all - I have a little bit of an odd situation I was hoping somebody > might be able to shed some light on. > > Somebody has asked me to take a machine with a 300+GB hard drive, and > install 5 or 6 different distributions of linux on it for them. The > idea is that they want to play with the different version for a while > before picking one. > > The hard drive is the master on IDE0, and the CD drive is the master on > IDE1. > > Here's the odd part. > > Certain distributions' install CDs won't boot. I can boot Ubuntu (both > live and install CDs), I can boot Knoppix, but I cannot boot either > Fedora Core 4 or CentOS 4.1. When I put them in, the boot process just > acts as though there isn't even a CD in the drive. > > I'm reasonably certain that both CDs are good - I used them just a > couple days ago. > > It's not boot order in the BIOS - I have that set to use the CD drive > first. > > Anybody have any thoughts? I'm more than happy to provide any required > information that I didn't post here... > -- Lloyd Kvam Venix Corp. 1 Court Street, Suite 378 Lebanon, NH 03766-1358 voice: 603-653-8139 fax:320-210-3409 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
