Ross L. Posted August 7, 2005 Report Share Posted August 7, 2005 (edited) Well I am not sure if every computer I build hates Linux or what. My current patient comes in the form of a slightly modified IBM Aptiva, which is about 6 years old. For those who don't know what an Aptiva is, here are some specs: AMD K6 3D 350MHz ATI Rage Pro 4MB AGP built-in video 32MB ram (wish I still had a few PC100 sticks to spare around here sleep.gif) 1.5GB Western Digital Cavier 360000 HD an old Creative SoundBlaster ISA (very old but it supposedly works) a DVD drive by who knows who (lol) a brand new Linksys Ethernet PCI card. The motherboard is an IBM spinoff of the ASUS P5A-VM, which is a microATX with built-in sound. Anyways, I burned DSL to a cd and then booted up my pc with it and it seems to boot fine but it stops at the detecting hardware screen. Help? Edited August 8, 2005 by Ross L. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted August 7, 2005 Report Share Posted August 7, 2005 can you specify where exactly at the hardware detection the stuff hangs? in case you have any printers or usb-devices plugged into your system, remove them for now. i don't know if there really is a distro out there that will run with only 32 mbram. if dsl doesn't do it, i guess no other distro will do that job. edit: made some researches: well.. i read in other forums that they managed to install debian with e.g. icewm or rox on a 32mb ram, 200mhz system and also slackware. so, you do have alternatives for a gui in case dsl won't work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross L. Posted August 7, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2005 It is hanging up right after it Auto Configures hardware. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted August 7, 2005 Report Share Posted August 7, 2005 i just booted my dsl cd and after hardware setup, it tried to write the fstab file, so the first question is if your harddisk is partitioned or not. you might try booting dsl with one of the extra options it offers at the boot prompt. i will reboot mz dsl and also take a look at the options it gives. don't give up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted August 7, 2005 Report Share Posted August 7, 2005 okay, the exact boot procedure after autoconfiguring the devices is mouse soundcard harddisks network automounting at the boot prompt hit f2 for boot options and try with the failsafe mode first and if that doesn't work, try the expert mode, only allowing your system to configure and load your hardware and corresponding modules one by one. then you could find the hardware part that is causing the trouble and skip it temporarily. good luck :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross L. Posted August 7, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2005 i just booted my dsl cd and after hardware setup, it tried to write the fstab file, so the first question is if your harddisk is partitioned or not.you might try booting dsl with one of the extra options it offers at the boot prompt. i will reboot mz dsl and also take a look at the options it gives. don't give up. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Umm I had originally partitioned the drive using DrakX on another machine. okay, the exact boot procedure after autoconfiguring the devices ismouse soundcard harddisks network automounting at the boot prompt hit f2 for boot options and try with the failsafe mode first and if that doesn't work, try the expert mode, only allowing your system to configure and load your hardware and corresponding modules one by one. then you could find the hardware part that is causing the trouble and skip it temporarily. good luck :) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That's the thing though. My pc freezes immediately after it finishes Auto Configuring. I put the hard drive into another machine and installed it from there. I then put the hard drive back in and no different results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted August 7, 2005 Report Share Posted August 7, 2005 unplug the mouse and try to boot again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted August 7, 2005 Report Share Posted August 7, 2005 I thought 32MB wasn't enough for mandriva? :unsure: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted August 7, 2005 Report Share Posted August 7, 2005 I thought 32MB wasn't enough for mandriva? :unsure: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> correct. we are trying to get %$&*'#§%! bloody dsl running on his old box. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted August 8, 2005 Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 I thought 32MB wasn't enough for mandriva? :unsure: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> DSL = Damn Small Linux, for the record... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted August 8, 2005 Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 Thanks scarecrow. That cleared it up for me too. I couldn´t work out what dsl as in adsl had to do with memory size etc. Now I am starting to follow what the heck they are talking about. Cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross L. Posted August 8, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 (edited) Well I tried unplugging the mouse and it still won't boot. It hangs up in the same spot. I could try taking out the old ISA sound card. Maybe that would fix it... *EDIT* Sorry for not being specific about what DSL was. >< Edited August 8, 2005 by Ross L. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted August 8, 2005 Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 Thanks scarecrow. That cleared it up for me too. I couldn´t work out what dsl as in adsl had to do with memory size etc. Now I am starting to follow what the heck they are talking about. Cheers. John. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> :lol: i added this information to the title, in case someone else is wondering what we are talking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted August 8, 2005 Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 The motherboard is an IBM spinoff of the ASUS P5A-VM, which is a microATX with built-in sound. your idea of removing the soundcard is a good one as i just remembered that you have two cards, one on-board sound. this CAN produce i/o errors and result in a freezing system but what leaves me a bit puzzled is that knoppix and dsl usually can boot a system with two soundcards. just give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross L. Posted August 8, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2005 It fixed it!!!! Now I can sleep. I wonder if GAIM will run on it? I had to reinstall DSL cus I crashed it (low memory is a huge problem). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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