iB::Topic::A problem with 0.7.2 bootability?

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Topic: A problem with 0.7.2 bootability?, Boot failed

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jlowell

Group: Members
Posts: 21
Joined: July 2004

Posted: July 12 2004,22:07

Sadly, I can't get the latest version of DSL to boot. It's not a BIOS setting problem, I probably download and burn four or five isos a month and this is the first time in a very long time a bootable CD I've burned won't boot. No clue as to why. I can boot the Feather CD without trouble. A flaw perhaps?

jlowell

ke4nt1

Group: Members
Posts: 2329
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: July 12 2004,22:21

Check md5sums? - corrupted download?
Bad media? - Compare burn to image?

73
ke4nt

jlowell
Unregistered

Posted: July 12 2004,23:30

ke4nt1,

Well, some experimentation and at least something interesting to report if not something all that helpful.

I'd like to use DSL with one particular machine, the one on which I'm having trouble getting the CD to boot. I have been able to get the CD to boot on another machine, however, so that would rule out a corrupted download or content problem. The machine on which I'd like to use the CD but can't is an aging Intel AL440LX, PII system, with a Promise ATA TX-2 100 Controller. The box on which the CD works is a very quick PIV system with 1066 RDRAM and SCSI drives. Why this difference? It should boot on both machines but doesn't. I've burned the CD on two different Plextor CD burners with files from two different mirrors with exactly the same result: The older PII machine just won't boot from this dsl-0.7.2 CD. As I'd mentioned earlier, Feather gives me no such problem. What are they, Feather, doing right might you think that's being done wrong here? I'm lost.

jlowell

ke4nt1

Group: Members
Posts: 2329
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: July 13 2004,00:31

Pretty sure you've ruled out media issues,
ALWAYS good to double check those MD5sums to be sure.

When you say it won't boot on the Pentium II, describe what the boot attempts.

1. Bypasses the cdr altogether, and tries to boot from another device.
2. Starts to boot from cdr. I never see the DSL splash screen, F2 options, etc.
3. I see the DSL splash screen, F2 options, I press "enter" , the screen
goes black, and the computer stops booting.
4. Same as above, I press "enter" , I see the penguin in the top left corner,
then stops, gives error message, or dumps to limited shell.

Curious if you've had any experience booting up earlier releases of DSL on this same machine.

73
ke4nt

John

Group: Super Administrators
Posts: 695
Joined: Sep. 2003

Posted: July 13 2004,00:44

First lets start with the basics. If you can run thee script below from the machine you are having problems with to see if the md5sum checks out. I have had odd burns which boot fine on one PC and not another.

Also, what *exactly* happens when you boot?

Invoke it like this:
rawread /dev/cdrom | md5sum
--------------------------------script below
#!/bin/sh
device=$1

blocksize=`isoinfo -d -i $device | grep "^Logical block size is:" | cut -d " " -f 5`
if test "$blocksize" = ""; then
echo catdevice FATAL ERROR: Blank blocksize >&2
exit
fi

blockcount=`isoinfo -d -i $device | grep "^Volume size is:" | cut -d " " -f 4`
if test "$blockcount" = ""; then
echo catdevice FATAL ERROR: Blank blockcount >&2
exit
fi

command="dd if=$device bs=$blocksize count=$blockcount conv=notrunc,noerror"
echo "$command" >&2
$command

45 replies since July 12 2004,22:07

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