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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Death of a computer? was Re: [BL] More fun with Xvesa and trident card
  • Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 03:29:37 +0000 (UTC)

DFI computer, one of three of te same model that sometimes won't boot linux with loadlin unless you first boot with Win9X DOS. Given to us to recycle but so were several others that work fine (needed new floppy or CD-ROM drives).

We replaced a hard drive and a cpu fan (which was causing it to play Fur Elise) and now it has started whistling that tune again sometimes when I turn it on.

I had the following three problems with BL2:


1. 'Not an image file' when I boot without Win98X DOS, about 1/3 of the time.
2. Crashes with xinit and BL3 Xvesa and icewm if I add to .xinitrc xmodmap.
3. Linux unzip in DOS partition gives 'bad CRC' and on file in linux
partition crashes, once to the point where I needed to run e2fsck -b

Last time I tried to run startx with the xmodmap .xinitrc I had to go into Bl3 and run e2fsck on BL2, again, for the same set of error messages produced by linux unzip:
Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer.....

While in Bl3 I mounted the Cd-ROM drive and then tried to unmount it and got the same Unable to handle kernel Null pointer dereference at virtual address 0000.

Then I dialed and tried to use links and it could not find www.google.com, because it put an : after it (it was not me, I checked).

I typed lynx and got
Bus error.....Attempt to access beyond end of device (which I had seen on the OTHER computer when BL3.32 would not boot from loop unless I switched from Win98 DOS to any other DOS).

This computer does not appear to be very good for linux but DOS works fine. Why? Two others of the same model which I have not used much had the same Not a kernel image problem. I looked up the kernel NULL pointer business and lots of people reported getting it while doing various things including an umount once, and they had to power off and on again. I got past it to the next crash at least. One was testing kernel 2.2.16-4 and another 2.2.10. Perhaps this is a bug affecting this model motherboard and that generation kernel?

Does linux strain the hardware more than DOS?

Does anyone else have experience with a desktop pentium that gets these odds sorts of errors with Bl2 and Bl3?

We have a slightly slower motherboard that will take the 4 64MB SIMMs and the cpu at a reduced speed. Maybe the SIMMs are causing part of this problem so I will try different ones first with icewm/xmodmap/Xvesa in Bl3 and linux unzip in BL2. Or run a memtest first on them. We just put them in recently. WOuld memory cause this sort of problem with unzipping files? (DOS only uses the first of these four SIMMs). And NULL pointers, and keyboard remappings in Xvesa? Or play Fur Elise before you even get to DOS or linux? At least I have two reproducible problems to test on now.

All ideas welcome. It is my best computer as far as RAM and ISA slots but they are all overkill on the memory anyway.

Will a board that plugs into one ISA slot to make four work on computers other than what we found it in?

Sindi




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