titous09 Posted June 15, 2004 Report Share Posted June 15, 2004 So ive got this unused HP sitting around and want to run linux on it. For some reason i can't boot to CD-ROM to install mandrake (dunno what it is, stupid BIOS). Anyway, I've intalled Manrake succesfully on another computer and so I've switched hard drives and i try to boot. It gives me this error message: there is more above it but i need to pick a place to start copying what i see on the screen. ------------------------ Mounting sysfs Creating root device Mounting root filesystem mount: error 6 mounting ext3 flags defaults well, retrying without the option flags mount: error 6 mounting ext3 well, retrying read-only without any flag mount: error 6 mounting ext3 pivotroot: pivot_root(/sysroot,/sysroot/initrd) failed: 2 Remounting devfs at correct place if necessary Mounted devfs on /dev Freeing unused kernel memory: 272k freed Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel. Can anyone help me with this? Do I have to install Mandrake on the mobo that it's run from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted June 15, 2004 Report Share Posted June 15, 2004 As the BIOS doesn't let you install via cd (which is quite strange... how old is the comp???), have you thought about the possibility of putting the hardrive of the HP into the other comp (removing the original hd first) for a clean install? I assume that you are able to plug in /switch harddisks. It would be (IMHO) the easiest way to install it properly. And: do you have an ext3 or reiserfs journaled file system? I heard/read of several guys who had problems with ext3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titous09 Posted June 15, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 15, 2004 that is what i did...took the HD out of the HP and installed mandrake on another comp, then switched it back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidzoo Posted June 15, 2004 Report Share Posted June 15, 2004 My guess here is that when you installed it on your other computer it was a second drive, correct? If you really can't boot from cd-rom, you'll need to take the hard drive back out of that computer and put it into your other machine to do some troubleshooting. If you really did install it when the hard drive was a secondary drive, it's an easy fix. I'm not sure if it will let you do this from within mandrake. That's the only thing I worry about. If you can get a livecd distro (knoppix, pclos, mandrakemove, etc) it would be better. Boot to the livecd. Once you get booted into the desktop, open up a console and su to root (just type su and hit enter in most cases, in knoppix, there is no root password). You will need to know which partition contains your Mandrake / partition (if that's all that's on the drive, and it is a secondary drive, it will be hdb1). I will assume this is the case. Type the following, those enclosed in <> are commands: mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt <enter> chroot /mnt <enter> vim /etc/fstab <enter> In that file, press the 'i' (no quotes) key for insert mode and replace all occurrences of 'hdb' with 'hda' (no quotes). Once that is done, press the Esc key, then :wq (colon w q) and hit enter. That will return you to the command prompt. Once there, type: vim /etc/lilo.conf <enter> Do the same as above. Press i and replace anything that says with hdb with hda. Once you're done, save the file as above (Esc :wq <enter> ). Almost done. Once you're back at the command line, type lilo to make sure the changes are saved in lilo. At this point, you should be able to shut down the computer and swap the drive back and have everything work. If something is different than I listed above, let us know and we can help you from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted June 16, 2004 Report Share Posted June 16, 2004 This is easier to do. Boot with MEPIS. Mount your root partition. Edit you /etc/fstab so that it is correct for the computer you are in. Remember that hda is ide primary master, hdb is ide primary slave, hdc is ide secondary master, and hdd is ide secondary slave. Be sure your partitions in the new computer match the definitions for the new computer. You can als edit /etc/lilo.conf the same way. Save and exit. Boot it up! I have done this before without a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titous09 Posted June 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2004 Zoo, it was the only HD in the computer. Ixthusdan, what is MEPIS and how do i boot with it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted June 16, 2004 Report Share Posted June 16, 2004 Oops! :woops: I re-read this thread and discovered you can't use your cdrom to boot. (agonizing pain!) Sorry, but my suggestion is no good. Out of curiosity, what is the model number and brand of your computer? (I'm still trying to help!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidzoo Posted June 16, 2004 Report Share Posted June 16, 2004 Zoo, it was the only HD in the computer. I still think it's an issue with lilo and your partitions. lilo is looking for /boot in one place, and it's not there for some reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titous09 Posted June 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2004 (edited) the computer was an old 1.3 AMD HP compy. the model of the mobo is A7V-VM. I've tried to look up some things about this mobo and it seems a lot of ppl have boot problems with it. I can hardly get into the bios on this comp. Also, another thing to note, when i tried to start mandrake on an even older gateway computer (200 MHZ 32mb ram) the same error occurs. So perhaps it's not the mobo? Or do I not even meet system requirements. The thing to also note is that this HD will boot normally and correctly into Mandrake on the computer that it was installed on (one i scrapped together, 466 MHz 256mb ram) Zoo, what does boot to livecd mean? I was talking to a friend (comp e/comp sci) and he said that you really can't switch out HDs like that from comp to comp. Is this true? Edited June 16, 2004 by titous09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted June 16, 2004 Report Share Posted June 16, 2004 These 'home' HP 's really are crap.... they tend to put in any junk and rely on the big name to sell. every time i end up with a real pig of a system its one of these or a compaq... now they merged.. they deserve each other... however... get thje full model number and check the HP compaq forums... often HP hack the bios for something like adding a language and screw it up. (ie they wanna sell an american model in mexico or a frnech in germany... or the one i had was german in france... you might find lots of people with the same problem (I did) and their was a bios upgraxde that partially helped BUT I could not get it to take 128MB DIMMS as the original Asus Mobo should have done! However the easiest way to get round this if you cant boot from CD is to do a network install. You copy the files onto a linux box with ftp or nfs or http and then make a boot disk that sets up the network and finds the server with the install. this way the detection can procede properly.... sometimes chipsets are just too incompatible to do the moving the HDD trick! but this way it will be clean! To be honest though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spinynorman Posted June 16, 2004 Report Share Posted June 16, 2004 To be honest though Continued on page 94? :unsure: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hirogen2 Posted June 16, 2004 Report Share Posted June 16, 2004 If you cannot boot from CDROM, I suggest hijacking rescue floppies (walk over to SuSE) and use them to get into the system. Still using devfs? It's marked obsolete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titous09 Posted June 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2004 However the easiest way to get round this if you cant boot from CD is to do a network install. You copy the files onto a linux box with ftp or nfs or http and then make a boot disk that sets up the network and finds the server with the install. this way the detection can procede properly.... sometimes chipsets are just too incompatible to do the moving the HDD trick! but this way it will be clean! how do i do this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmpatrick Posted June 16, 2004 Report Share Posted June 16, 2004 How much ram do you have in that box? 64MB is the minimum IIRC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
titous09 Posted June 16, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2004 the box i installed mandrake with has 256mb and the box i want it to run on has 256 mb also Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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