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Bob005
10-12-2003, 11:57 PM
Ok, i had windows 98, and i installed redhat 8.0. when i restarted my computer to bring up linux after the installation, it would never finish booting. for some reason it is stuck on the comand line that says "INIT: version 2.84 booting". now someone, anyone, how long should booting a system take? i thought that because it was the first ever time it was booting linux, but it has been at that comand line for the past 3 hours and counting! i only have 1 HD, so if this doesn't work, im screwed. yeah, so if anyone knows anything about this, please, help me! :(
bosox79
10-13-2003, 12:05 AM
Originally posted by Bob005
Ok, i had windows 98, and i installed redhat 8.0. when i restarted my computer to bring up linux after the installation, it would never finish booting. for some reason it is stuck on the comand line that says "INIT: version 2.84 booting". now someone, anyone, how long should booting a system take? i thought that because it was the first ever time it was booting linux, but it has been at that comand line for the past 3 hours and counting! i only have 1 HD, so if this doesn't work, im screwed. yeah, so if anyone knows anything about this, please, help me! :(
can you still boot into windows via your linux boot menu?
Bob005
10-13-2003, 08:05 AM
i don't know, it doesn't give me the option to. is it possible to reinstall windows without ever completely booting up linux?
BaVinic
10-13-2003, 09:22 AM
it sounds like your boot loaded ( lilo or grub) did not install right, try re-installing it from the RH8 cd, you should be presented with a menu for red hat and DOS( Linux refers to windows as dos unless you change it) but you should be able to reinstall the boot loader without reinstalling Linux, or losing Windows.
BaVinic
Bob005
10-13-2003, 10:57 AM
ok, i could not find the reinstall for the boot, so i installed all of linux all over again, i selected the lilo boot. it still wont boot. so i put my RH disk into my computer again, and i hit F5 (rescue linux). i went through that whole deal (sorry im new), and after it was done it reinstalled, still no luck. any other ideas? im screwed.
Did you check Redhat's Hardware Compatibility List? It sounds like Linux might be choking on one of your system's components.
Post the complete specs for your machine; maybe we can spot a culprit.
Bob005
10-13-2003, 03:39 PM
well, i cant check my specs out now, because my computer wont boot up, but before i installed it,
i had:
383 mb of RAM
Abou 10 gb of hard drive space
AMD-Athlon-/600 processor
D-Link DFE-530TX+ version 1.00 (10/100Mbps PCI Adapter)
and i dont know my video or sound cards, but my computer is a 'gateway select'. if you know anything about those, i only upgraded the RAM, and added the d-link. everything else is what came out of the box.
Bob005
10-13-2003, 03:55 PM
ok, i got some more info,
its a gateway select 800 deluxe
and
it has a 32 mb NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 M64 Graphics
If it really is hanging on a hardware problem, you can try:
1. Turn off Plug-N-Play OS support in the BIOS.
2. Turn off Power management in the BIOS.
3. Remove any non-essential PCI cards (sound, NIC, etc.)
4. In the the online Redhat Installation manuals (http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/resources/) there are boot-time parameters that you can use to bypass certain hardware issues. Look for the section at the end of the manuals called "Additional Boot Options". Some of the options are to be used during the installation only, but most can be passed to the kernel during normal boot. The different versions of Redhat have slightly different options listed, so you might want to read the relevant parts of the manuals for versions 7.x through 9.x.
Bob005
10-13-2003, 06:24 PM
ok, yeah, im stupid. how do i get to the BIOS if my computer wont boot? would i hit F1? sorry, i must have gotten a stupid disease or something.
bosox79
10-13-2003, 06:29 PM
Originally posted by Bob005
ok, yeah, im stupid. how do i get to the BIOS if my computer wont boot? would i hit F1? sorry, i must have gotten a stupid disease or something.
do you have your win 98 boot disk? if so boot from it then at the A:/ type fdisk/mbr this will remove lilio from your MBR, then you should be able to boot back into windows:)
Originally posted by Bob005
how do i get to the BIOS if my computer wont boot? would i hit F1? Since the computer is hanging well after the BIOS has given up control, yes- at some point at the very beginning of the bootup you should be able to enter your BIOS setup. The exact key you need to hit depends on your particular make of BIOS. "Del", "F1", and "Esc" are probably the most common. Your computer might display a message which tells you.