No booting

Forum: User Feedback
Topic: No booting
started by: Lodovik

Posted by Lodovik on Aug. 03 2005,00:45

Since about version 1.0, I cannot boot DSL on my computer. When booting, I see the two little penguins, the cursor flashes a couple of times and disappear. Then, nothing on the screen except the two penguins at the top left. Sometimes, if I press Enter, I get the disclaimer and it stops there afterwards. If I boot with the new lowram option, the IDE drives are detected and it hangs just after that.

I've tried everything:

-Safemode, and other boot options
-Tried every version from 1.1 to 1.4
-Downloading ISOs from various sites
-Burning Iso and Syslinux version
-Removing backup files on the HD
-Crossing my fingers at every new version I tried

My Computer:
-Asus P4P800 mobo with a P4-2.4
-1 Gig of RAM
-160G SATA and 120G IDE HDs
-LG DVD/CDRW and LG DVD-RW
-Nvidia FX5700 Ultra and SB Live! Value
-Generic LAN adaptor

So, I'm stuck with an older version of DSL that works perfectly. But, of course, I would rather use the latest DSL with all the enhancements made recently. I don't have the exact version of my presently working DSL but it dates from April 14th, 2005.

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Posted by adssse on Aug. 03 2005,04:15

Umm... What the heck is info about bingo doing on here?

Posted by cbagger01 on Aug. 03 2005,04:40

It's the attack of the evil automated SPAM bots.

Too bad I'm a nice guy so I won't try to find a way to d.o.s. the jerks.

This time

Posted by Delboy on Aug. 03 2005,09:42

Try the boot.img floppy boot disc approach. I couldn't get new version 1.4 to boot via CDrom on my newer PC. but it works with the boot floppy inserted along with the CD iso.

Posted by mstrhelix on Aug. 03 2005,15:04

I would try to burn you disk at a lower speed.
I would also make sure that i burn an ISO image to cd and then make the cd bootable b4 I burn it.

Posted by Lodovik on Aug. 03 2005,17:57

Ahhh, I'm back with DSL 1.4, writing this reply on my computer. After much experimentations, I've found a way to boot in DSL 1.4. The problem was the boot floppy image. By using an older boot floppy with the newer DSL, it worked!

Since I use the syslinux version, the only thing I now have to do is to extract the ISO, change the bootdisk image and reburn it.

After reading suggestions (thanks to those who answered here, except for the bingoman spammer), I tried booting DSL from a floppy. This is where I noticed no CD access, so I tried an older boot disk and it worked.

I wonder if using an older boot disk with the newer versions of DSL may cause some problems, though...

Posted by cbagger01 on Aug. 03 2005,22:11

What boot disk version did you use that worked?

Posted by Lodovik on Aug. 04 2005,01:38

I just checked the content of the boot disk. Most files are dated 2004-07-29, the F2 file (DSL cheatcodes) is dated 2004-11-06. The Ldlinux version is 2.04. I don't remember from which version of DSL I extracted it. I had modified it to change the defaults boot options.

By the way, I've just burned my boot CD using the Syslinux and this boot.img file and it worked fine. Now, I boot directly from the CD and it works like it did before. Since my CD is multiboot, I have to use the floppy boot image to integrate DSL in my menu.

Posted by 9a6or on Aug. 06 2005,18:05

My PC locks up after the penguins if I don't disable the SATA hard disk. I noticed that you also have a SATA HD so I thought this was going to be the solution to your problem. Now that you found another cure it makes me wonder why my PC locks up when I leave the SATA drive on...

Posted by Lodovik on Aug. 06 2005,21:14

Did you try an older version of DSL (prior to 1.0) just to see if it boots OK? Maybe you can also use an older boot disk, like me.

I also have to disconnect my USB card reader to boot (as I had to do before). I tried with both a Sandisk CF reader and a no-brand 19-in-1 reader and I couldn't get it to boot if it's connected (even with no memory card inserted). But this happens with almost all the Linux distros I've tried. Could be a BIOS issue. The card readers work OK when connected after booting.