Laptop boot problems

Forum: Laptops
Topic: Laptop boot problems
started by: new_linux_user

Posted by new_linux_user on July 14 2005,01:40

I have a 486 with 16mb ram, and 160 mb hard drive. i have already installed using only a floppy disk (that is all i have), uncompressed dsl, created a 64 mb swap (initialized it, but not sure it is working), and am booting with a boot floppy.

at the boot screen, i type "dsl vga=771". it loads linux24 and gives the error:
"you passed an undefined mode number. press return to see video modes available, space to continue or wait 30 secs"
so I press return and it gives me 7 VGA modes to choose from. so i choose one (doesnt seem to matter which one i choose -> 80x60) then it scans and loasds a bunch of stuff.

then it goes into DSL X Setup, asks me if I want to use Xvesa or Xfbdev xserver. I choose Xfbdev. i say No to "USB mouse", and yes to "IMPS/2 mouse", and i choose a us keyboard.

Then it tries to do some stuff with "bootlocal.sh" file, but it says No such file or directory exists. it creates 2 new xauthority files. Then I get the following error:

"XIO: fatal IO error 104 (connection reset by peer) on X server ':0.0" after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining"

then i get a command line : dsl@tty1[dsl]$

also, if I simply press return at the boot menu, it goes through all the processes, and ends up with an empty screen. it seems like it is working at that point, but it just isnt displayed.

any help?

Posted by new_linux_user on July 14 2005,01:43

i forgot, i also get the error: modprobe: modprobe: can't locate module fb0

please help

Posted by skaos on July 14 2005,13:09

Are you sure the disk is 160 MB? A uncompressed standard install takes a bit more than 120 MB. This plus swap is more than the disk capacity, so it may be that you don't have a complete install. If so, I suggest that you use a 20 MB swap partition and the rest for DSL.

Run "Xvesa -listmodes" (without quotes) at the command line to find what resolutions and colour depths your graphics card supports (the maximum may be 640x480 @ 16 colours). Then run xsetup.sh and startx.

Posted by spotslayer on July 14 2005,23:59

I tried in vain to get a frugal to work on an older 486 laptop. I had 40m and it just wasn't enough horse power. I did get a HD install to work, but I needed XFree. I had exactly the same errors. Getting a command line install was not a problem, it was trying to get a GUI that hosed things.

David

Posted by cbagger01 on July 15 2005,03:09

Your 486 probably doesn't have a video card that supports VESA2.0 graphics modes that are used by the Vesa xfbdev and the XVesa servers.

You may be able to solve by doing a hd install from the text prompt and then download and install xfree86 and configure it for your video card setup, like spotslayer did.

It is a pain in the butt to do, but it is possible.

You could also try some of the other available frame buffers in the F3 boot menu and see if xfbdev will work with one of them.

Posted by tempestuous on July 15 2005,04:22

Your specifications JUST meet the minimum requirements.
Try some other boot options -
"dsl vga=769" this is 640x480 256 colours, or
"dsl vga=normal" or
"fb800x600" (don't include the prefix "dsl") or
"fb640x480"

To minimize RAM usage, you should perhaps also append these boot options -
noicons noapic noagp noaudio nofirewire acpi=off

Posted by JBS on Aug. 03 2005,02:45

I am having the same errors, I have tried the solutions but no luck yet...

I've tried fb640x480, vga=normal, vga=769, all the 'no' boot options, failsafe and just everything that ocurred to me.... yet nothing, either a red/green vertical striped screen, a black screen or an error:

X10 : fatal error .... just like the previous post...

so what can I do?