free edition will not first boot for first timer

[johnwillyums]

Hello. I'm a total newbie. I'm not even very knowledgable with Windows XP home. I purchased Linux Magazine and got a free DVD of Mandriva Linux Free 2007 Spring and installed it following Falko Timme's method on howtoforge.com.

Everything seemed to be going well but when it came to the first boot I got the blue screen with a progress bar at the bottom left.

This progress bar moved along about half an inch and then stopped. I left it for over an hour and it did not move. I pressed esc and nothing happened so I rebooted using the tower button and tried Mandriva safe mode.

After a few pages of text the screen froze with this-

<kernel panic-not syncing:fatal exception in interrupt

<1>BUG:unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address ffffe320

printing eip:

c 0116b82

*pde=00004067

*pte=378be021

Dops:0003(#26)

SMP

Modules linked in intel_agp

agpgart usb storage SCSI-mod

ehci_hcd uhci_hcd usbc

one tsdev evdev ext3 jbd

cpu:o

EIP:0060(<c0116b82>) not taintedVLI

EFLAGS:0001000(2.6.17-13mdv#1)

EIP is at clear_local_APIC+Ox32/0x180

 

I then escaped using the tower button and rebooted into Windows. Windows informed me I had installed new hardware and needed to reboot so I did.

This time I tried the straight boot into Mandriva again and again the progress bar stopped after about half an inch.

Therefore I tried booting into safe mode again and once again it quickly stalled but on a different page.

I got:

EIP:(<LC01bdc2f>) copy_strings+0x13f/0x220 SS:ESP 0068:f7ebbe5c

/etc/rc.modules:line 14:1195 segmentation fault modprobe $module$args

>/dev/null 2>&1

 

I'm really disappointed as I've been so looking forward to trying Mandriva. I am using a Celeron 3.06 on an 80gb hard drive which I've divided roughly in half with Windows XP home and Mandriva.

XP seems to be working ok but I don't know what to do next to get Mandriva running.

 

Please help, John Williams

[scarecrow]

I woudn't really call "Celeron 3.06 on an 80gb hard drive" as a description of the hardware you are using.

[ianw1974]

I'd take a look at the boot menu, you can choose some options and boot with:

 

linux noapic

 

and add some more to the end of the line such as nolapic acpi=off, and thus looking like:

 

linux noapic nolapic
linux noapic nolapic acpi=off

 

and see if it helps boot it any further. Try one at a time, and see what happens. Also, what type of hard disks do you have? IDE? SATA? What SATA controller? Maybe it's not supported and causing the problem.

[johnwillyums]

Hi. Thanks for your swift response.

As I said I'm a newbie to computers in general let alone Linux.

I've looked in my control panel and I think my drive is IDE.

The drive I am using is a Samsung SPO842N and I have controllers for IDE/ATA/ATAPI in my control box.

I am also using a NVidia GeForce 6600le graphics card.

 

I don't really understand where

you want me to add the extra code. In the safe mode after it has stalled?

 

Sorry to be such an idiot, John Williams

 

Edit-I just tried booting Mandriva in safe mode another couple of times.

First time I got-

Fixing recursive fault but reboot is needed

so I rebooted in safe mode again and got-

EIP:(<C011772d>) smp_apic_timer_interrupt+0x2d/0x80 SS:ESP 0068:f7e97dbc

 

I escaped and tried again and got to-

EIP is at clear_local_APIC+0x32/0x180

 

Both times I had a little flashing cursor in the bottom left corner. I tied typing in linux noapic as you suggested but could not type anything at all.

 

Perhaps you could explain in more detail.

Thanks John Williams

Edited May 11, 2007 by johnwillyums

[ianw1974]

When you boot from the CD, you should get a menu of options to choose. Scroll down, there should be one something like "Installation - ACPI Disabled". Can you try this?

 

Alternatively, press ESC on the menu and you'll get prompted to exit to a prompt. Then you can type what I mentioned above.

[johnwillyums]

When you boot from the CD, you should get a menu of options to choose. Scroll down, there should be one something like "Installation - ACPI Disabled". Can you try this?

 

Alternatively, press ESC on the menu and you'll get prompted to exit to a prompt. Then you can type what I mentioned above.

 

Thanks for your swift response.

I put the DVD back in and chose that in the BIOS. I could not find "Installation- ACPI disabled" but managed to get into a text booter, I typed in linux no ACPI and that got me into a fresh install. When prompted I selected "upgrade" rather than install.

This went very quickly and I was once again prompted to reboot.

I now have several choices in my boot menu-

Boot Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring

Boot Microsoft Windows

windows 1

Boot Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring(safe mode)

alt_windows

alt_windows1

 

I chose Mandriva safe mode and got this-

EIP:(<c01bdc2f>) copy_strings+0x13f/0x220 SS:FSP 0068:f7903e5c/etc/rc.module:line 14:1208

segmentation fault 109ge-t

$o "Loading Module:$mdule"

<6>floppy drive(s) fd0 is 1.44m

 

So, I am no farther forward and this is getting scary. I have to go to work now but will be back on line tomorrow afternoon (GMT)

Please help!

John Williams

[ianw1974]

Ah OK, so your installation worked the first time around but on reboot you had the problem? OK, what I'd suggest is booting from the CD normally and doing a normal installation rather than upgrade, because you've got a bit of weird stuff going on. Since you've not been able to use it, this won't harm, and it also get's us back to a clean slate. Of course, make sure you don't format your Windows partition, but you will be OK to format the partitions created for use with Mandriva.

 

Then, after the install has finished, reboot for the first time. When you get the selection screen for Mandriva, Windows, etc, etc, press ESC.

 

You can now then type:

 

linux noapic

 

and boot your newly installed system and see if you get any further with it. If it does boot successfully, then we can edit the boot loader permanently to use the noapic option. Otherwise, if it doesn't work, then try by adding another of the parameters that I listed above in my previous post, nolapic and also acpi=off too if the second addition doesn't work and try all three together.

[johnwillyums]

Ian,hope you are there

After pressing escape at the boot choice I was taken to-

GNU GRUB version 0.97 (639klower memory/1046784kupper memory)

 

This gave me the following choice-

linux

linux-nonfb

windows

windows1

 

I tried both linux and linux-nonfb. I selected linux and pressed e to edit the command before booting.

This gave me two choices-

 

Kernel(hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=/dev/hda5 resume=/

This had an arrow after the slash pointing to the right

Secondly there was-

initrd(hd0,4/boot/initrd.img

 

Once again I selected e to edit the command. I tried it with both commands. I then typed your suggestions (linux noapic etc) directly on the end of the commands with no spaces and pressed enter. This took me back to the previous screen with the two commands but with my addition now added to the end of the line. As prompted I then pressed b to boot. This took me back to the original blue splash screen and sadly the boot bar progressed a few centimetres and then stopped.

 

So, having reinstalled I still cannot access the system. Am I typing in the commands correctly or should I be starting a new line? Am I choosing the right command?

 

The magazine suggested that this was going to be easy and no problem for newbie windows users like me. It's turning into a nightmare. I now have half my hard drive taken up with a system I can't use and I'm growing despondent. I appreciate your help but perhaps this is just beyond me.

 

Thanks, John Williams

[johnwillyums]

"It seems that Mandriva doesn't like your hardware. You could try to install it again, but if that doesn't help, then there's probably no cure..."

 

Hi, I posted a similar mailing on HowToForge Forums as I originally posted here and this above is the reply I got from Falko Timme.

Do you think this is the case or can I salvage this?

Anyway I've looked at the post about uninstalling Mandriva and each reply seems to be saying it's difficult and not for non techy people.

I can't believe I've just thrown away half of my hard drive.

Please help

John Willams

[ianw1974]

OK, you're using grub, so when you press e to edit the line, at the end of the kernel line you need to put the parameters without the "linux" bit that I told you before as that's normally for people using lilo instead of grub, so:

 

Kernel(hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=/dev/hda5 resume=/ noapic

 

however, I think you have a problem with the resume line as this is normally to pick up from the swap partition in case of suspend, etc. So I would be tempted to edit the line like this first:

 

Kernel(hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=/dev/hda5

 

and try and boot with that. Otherwise:

 

Kernel(hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=/dev/hda5 noapic

 

because the resume is for resuming the system from a suspended state. And uninstalling isn't hard, no matter what the distro is. It's a case of wiping out your hard disk partitions for Linux, and then putting the XP CD in to recover the MBR.

[johnwillyums]

Hi, thanks for your reply

 

I just tried what you suggested.

The full line after /hda5 finished -resume=/dev/hda6 splash=silent vga=788

I deleted all of the last part from hda5.

I then added noapic and tried to boot and got to this-

EIP:(<co1bdc2f7>) copy_strings+0x220 SSI:ESP 0068:f7919e5c

/etc/rc.sysinit:line 507 segmentation fault modprobe $module>/dev/null 2&1

 

So I seem to be getting a bit further. What should I try next?

Thanks very much for your continuing help

 

John Williams

 

PS. I just tried again. This time I added noapic directly after resume/=

That got me to-

EIP is at clear_local_APIC+0x32/0x180

 

Another thought occurred to me. I have installed Mandriva on my c. drive alongside Windows, I also have a d. drive, a120gb Maxtor IDE which is over 3/4 full of music and photographs.

I had thought this has nothing to do with it as I haven't touched it. Could this be what's messing me up?

I really want this to work. Thanks again, John

Edited May 13, 2007 by johnwillyums

[johnwillyums]

Just noticed something else. I just went into My Computer (in Windows) and noticed that my d drive now appears in blue text rather than black as it did before.

I opened the d drive and the adobe file is also appearing in blue type.

I opened the adobe file and files marked acrobat 5.0 and acrobat 7.0 are in blue.

Other folders in there are still black eg adobe photoshop cs2 and adobe photoshop elements 2.0.

 

This seems a mysterious thing to have happened and coincidental with my installing Mandriva on the c drive.

Does this help throw any further light on my problem?

 

I'm currently playing some music off the d drive so it's still functioning. Haven't tried photoshop yet, should I?

 

Thanks for listening, John

[ianw1974]

After you added noapic, did you try adding the others, so the end of the line would look like:

 

noapic nolapic acpi=off

 

as you add each one in turn. Try with just noapic and nolapic at first, and add the acpi if that fails to boot.

[AussieJohn]

In that boot line you added noapic. Try adding nolapic and also acpi=off.

Try them by adding one at a time. All 3 might do it for you.

 

Cheers. John.

 

Ian you beat me by a couple of minutes.

Edited May 14, 2007 by AussieJohn

[johnwillyums]

Dear Aussie John and IanW,

Thanks for your continuing help,

I tried adding code as you suggested.

Having deleted the end of the line up to hda/5 I added first- noapic nolapic

 

This gave me-

udevd-event [1564] run_ program: '/lib/udev/path_id' abnormal exit

 

Secondly I tried all three- noapic nolapic acpi=off

 

This gave me-

udevd-event[1262]:run_ program:'/lib/dev/usb_id' abnormal exit

 

As you can see the only difference seems to be the number after event.

It feels like I'm getting somewhere, what do you think?

I'm off to work now, it's just before 8.00am in Uk but will be back to try whatever you can suggest around 7.00pm

 

Thanks again,John Williams