Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> sindi keesan wrote:
> > > What exactly do you mean by does not boot?  Do you see
> > > the kernel info scroll by?
> >
> > It gives me a line and a half or so of ....... and then
> > 'not an Image file'.
>
> So init never gets started (and the startup scripts are
> not actioned).
>
> > I get something about an I/O error.
>
> The most likely cause of your problem is hardware.
> Or DrDOS.  Or bad housekeeping.

It is a combination of hardware, DRDOS, and the version of BL.
I can boot BL2 on this computer from DRDOS, or BL3 on most other computers 
from DRDOS or MSDOS but on this one only from Win9X DOS.  Hal has the same 
problem with later Slackwares on one computer - loadlin works from Win9X 
DOS but not DR-DOS, MS-DOS.  We even tried PC-DOS (not yet FreeDOS).

> > This used to happen with BL2 as well, but seems to have
> > cured itself.
>
> Yeah right.
>
> > But BL3 never boots properly.  This is all from DR-DOS or
> > MS-DOS.
>
> Which versions of MS-DOS have you tried?  Have you used
> each version to partition the HD from scratch or are you
> simply sys-ing them to partitions created by a different OS?

We left the partitions as made by PQ-MAGIC.  MS-DOS 6.22.  I don't think 
we tried earlier ones.  DR-DOS 7.03.  PC-DOS (some recent version from a 
friend).  Both Win95 and Win98 DOS work every time.  DR-DOS was working 
about half the time and now almost all the time with BL2, but none of the 
time with BL3.  If you are interested I can do more experiments and keep 
better records but I don't want to reformat or repartition with each DOS, 
just find some way to use the three computers for BL3 if possible without 
needing to use Windows DOS in the process.  We use PQ-MAGIC to 
format/partition and then DR-DOS as the OS on the hard drive, or PC-DOS or 
MS-DOS or Win9X-DOS booting from floppy disk to do tests or boot linux 
with loadlin.

I have had interesting problems with the various DOSes and three midi 
players.  On a Win9X DOS computer two of them work perfectly except after 
using the third one.  On a DR-DOS computer the third one works perfectly, 
one of the others works fine after using that one, and the other one of 
the three plays at half speed.  I rebooted with MS-DOS and got the same 
results as on the Win9X computer.  So the DOS version has some effect on 
those programs.  Why not on loadlin, which is a DOS program, and uses 
memory.  The DOSes use memory differently.

> Your systems always seem to be flakely.  I suspect you are
> having intermittent hardware issues.  Or perhaps you have
> created HD instability by partitioning/repartitioning/
> formatting/reformatting with different operating systems.

Intermittent is the correct word.  PQ-Magic is not an operating system. 
We have problems if we use DR-DOS fdisk and then put on MS-DOS or vice 
versa (I forget which - it won't recognize the c: drive if we put on 
DR-DOS and then boot from MS-DOS floppy).

> > Hal has one computer with similar problems
>
> Really?  I thought his problem related to booting big Slackware
> bzimages (not the BasicLinux zimage).

He reported back to me personally that Win9X DOS cured his loadlin 
problem of booting Slackware, which is not BasicLinux but related.

Not all my systems are flakey, just half of them.  One laptop that won't 
work with any DOS but FreeDOS or Windows DOS, and these three, and the one 
that won't work with Win98 himem.sys and Xvesa.

> > So why does BL2 boot but not BL3?
>
> Why did BL2 not boot before?

Corrosion?  BL2 now boots, BL3 does not.  Does one of them somehow stress 
the hardware more?  I have two of these computers with linux on them to 
experiment on.  I will take better notes and report back again.

> > BL3 won't boot with ro, I tried.
>
> Of course not.  I told you BL3 needs rw.
I tried by accident when I could not access C: to read hd.bat and had to 
construct my own version which I did by copying BL2 boot.bat.


> > I tried the same kernle, same loadlin, same boot file
>
> Same boot file?  How?  BL3 has two different boot files
> (both of which are different from the two BL2 boot files).

I changed ro to rw in the batch file used by BL2 to boot to HD.
I changed the partition name.  The differences were ro vs rw, and the 
software on the BL2 and BL3 partitions.
> > Maybe this is not a kernel problem
>
> Maybe not.
>
> > but something else giving the 'not an Image file' message?
>
> What exactly does that line say?  The complete line and the
> three lines before it.

Got to check the computer in the other room:
1.  Boot into DR-DOS on hard drive.
2.  Boot BL2 hard drive version:
LOADING ................................
...............................
Then switches from my TTL to the VGA monitor and back again after
putting lots of information on the screen.

1.  Reboot from Bl2 back to DOS.
2.  Boot BL3 hard drive version:
ARGH!  It worked this time.  Maybe BL2 temporarily fixed something?
Usually BL2 boots with loadlin but not after I first try with BL3.

I will try powering off and on again and booting BL3 first. It worked this 
time too.

I will let you know next time it does NOT work on this computer.  I may 
have finished burning off the corrosion?  Every time we were about to 
recycle these three computers they would start to work again.  We would 
pull the jumpers off the board, and take out the cpu and RAM, then the 
second computer would behave, we put the first one back together.... 
Perhaps this temporarily cleaned off some corrosion?  Maybe running it too 
hot when the fan stuck (and it played Fur Elise) was the fix?

These computers were sitting around for a couple of years in someone's 
shed, then we had them for a year or two before using them.  They were not 
among the ones with mice nests in them, at least.  Part of a batch of 50 
given to us to recycle.  We got 8 pentiums working, one of which won't 
warm reboot.  Some just needed drives replaced.

> > What part of bootup does that?
>
> loadlin looks for image files (kernel and initrd).
> In the loop version, initrd mounts an image file (fs.img).
>
> Perhaps your HD version of BL3 is mistakenly looking for
> initrd or fs.img (because of your fouled install-to-hd)?


No, it worked twice now.  This is intermittent, must be hardware related 
but I have no idea why the DOS version matters.  If I had fouled up the 
installation process it would not have worked with Win9X DOS but not 
MS-DOS or PC-DOS or DR-DOS.


> > I used the HD BL3 so don't have lilo.
>
> You can install the lilo package from BL1 or the one from
> Slackware 4.0

At the moment this does not appear to be necessary.
Thanks for somehow scaring the computer so it works right.

Sindi

keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org