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DFI computer that otherwise is working perfectly (even runs Xvesa with a 
PCI ATI card and himem.sys) will boot BL3 (loop 3.40, ext2 3.50) or BL2 
with 2.2.16 or 2.2.26 kernels (p1 or p2).  It will boot David Moberg's 
syslinux 2.4.31 1-floppy USB-storage linux.

BL2 will NOT boot using David's 2.4.31 bzimage kernel (which is similar or 
identical to the one on the floppy disk) using loadlin, or two of my 
2.4.31 kernels, nor will BL3 boot with 2.4.31.

It gets as far as the part about Dentry cache hash table and four other 
hash table lines, ending with Page-cache hash table entries.
(The line it does not get to is CPU:  L1  I cache:  16K ...)

It did not help to change the hard drive.

Since 2.2 kernels sometimes do not recognize all the memory, I tried 2.4 
with mem=64M (still crashed) though I had more.  It passed memtest.

I think the L1 cache is on the cpu.  Changing cpu did not help.

Ubuntu Live CD booted with lilo.

I made a lilo boot floppy disk (see archives - you need /etc/lilo.conf, 
/sbin/lilo, and kernel(s) and chain.b in /boot) with BL2 default after 5 
sec, BL350, BL340, and DOS.  It booted to BL2.1 (vga=791 specified in 
lilo.conf which is 1024 resolution text with a framebuffer kernel).  The 
keyboard worked long enough to switch me with Alt-F3 from console VT1 (set 
to display on a TTL monitor) to VT3 then the keyboard lights started 
blinking, the keyboard stopped working, and I lost my cursor.  I can boot 
without mdacon in rc and insmod it after booting.  Problem fixed.
(Maybe lilo gets confused by mdacon?)

What difference between 2.2 and 2.4 might be causing this boot problem 
with loadlin but not syslinux or lilo?  A bug in 2.4 related to cache?

Sindi

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