OK, I just tried Knoppix, which has a similar startup sequence. Knoppix successfully gets past its "USB/Firewire" step but then freezes for awhile saying "Looking for CD in /dev/hda ".
Then it says it fails with the same error message as DSL gave, followed by an error message about IRQ 18: "nobody cared!". I guess Knoppix feels bad when that happens.
So then I downloaded a kubuntu live CD, which provided a very friendly interface. It seemed to do so much before failing that I thought it must be working, but eventually it said that it couldn't mount the CD. I was given a shell with a fairly good set of programs in a RAM drive. Is there any way I can gather information about the problem from here?
I've also tried physically rearranging the IDE devices (switching between primary and secondary, master and slave) and fiddling with BIOS settings, to no avail.
Can someone explain how it is that so much can be loaded from a CD drive that is supposedly undetectable?snv, I couldn't guess what's wrong, but you might try a (k)ubuntu live CD, simply because it seems to give more decriptive error messages and provides a shell.The Toshiba laptop has one of the CD/DVD multidrives. (No other CD/DVD drives).
Maybe it doesn't like that type of drive, for some reason?
Quote (Qwertie @ Jan. 16 2006,10:14)
snv, I couldn't guess what's wrong, but you might try a (k)ubuntu live CD, simply because it seems to give more decriptive error messages and provides a shell.
I'll give Knoppis a try tonight when I get home (if the baby gives me an hour or so break) and let you know what it says at my end. Perhaps we can diagnose between our two machines, and see what is similar?
By chance is your CD Rom a "DVD Super-Multi Double Layer Drive"??I don't know what Super Multi means. It's a dual layer 16x with no brand name on the front. Btw, Knoppix might not help you because it's so similar to DSL.Next Page...
original here.