have i ruined it! Boot screen frozen

Forum: HD Install
Topic: have i ruined it! Boot screen frozen
started by: bernie123

Posted by bernie123 on April 11 2006,16:56

i used the DSL boot CD and it gave a list of options on the first screen and i pressed F1 to go onto the next screen. I then wanted to go back to the first screen, in case i miss read anything...

Nothing let me get back to the first screen so i restarted.

It is completely ruined. it now just goes back to a crashed boot screen. I've restarted hundreds of times , but nothing.

what do i need to do? clear the ram/cmos? or is it ruined. doh!

Any help much appreciated.

I'm trying to install on a Toshiba Sat 4080xcdt.

Posted by Guest on April 11 2006,17:40

Try to reboot by different ways. Like take battery/power cable off when "crash" screen is showed, and try to press all kinds of an keyboard buttons when on crash screen and senseless panic helps always with linux and toshiba.

Posted by bernie123 on April 11 2006,19:02

took the RAM out and worked fine. Except it didn't work. How do you actually boot.

You type in the command to boot it. Then it boots and leaves you with a command prompt. What do you have to do there? tickle it?

Posted by bernie123 on April 11 2006,19:38

why does it get stuck at the 'creating new authority file' line and then leave a prompt?

Is it supposed to do this?

Posted by newOldUser on April 11 2006,21:15

When the first screen comes up, what do you type in?

Have you tried something like:

DSL nopcmcia vga=normal

and then hitting the ENTER key?

Posted by bernie123 on April 15 2006,17:34

Yes, I have done that. And tried several different commands.

It starts booting linux, goes through normal ugly PC boot thing then it just stops and a command prompt just flashes and you can type stuff in.

I know I'm excellent at describing the situation, but i presume I'm doing something basic wrong that an experienced user would be able to spot very easily.

Is there a walk through someone can point me to?

I presumed that all you had to do was type a boot command and press enter and a live linux would boot. Why am i having problems? Is it something to do with GRUB? What is GRUB?

Thanks. I hate learning curves!