It just won't boot

[Bob005]

ok, i installed RH 8.0 about a week ago. ever since it finished downloading, it has never been able to boot. it is stuck on the command line that reads "INIT: version 2.84 booting". Once i even left it on over night to load, when i woke up, it was still choking on that same command line. i tried to use both LILO and GRUB, neither worked. i reinstalled both boot loaders several times with no luck.

Currently, own a Gateway Select 800 deluxe with:

*about 10 gigs of HD space before i installed linux
*383 MB of RAM before i installed linux
*AMD-Athlon-/600 processor
*D-Link DFE-530TX+ version 1.00 (10/100Mbps PCI Adapter)
*it has a 32 mb NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 M64 Graphics

and that's all i know about whats in it (sorry i dont know more...).

[hard candy]

How did you install it? Via network install?

[Bob005]

I purchased the three disk set, and installed it from the three disks. also, when i used the disks, i only used disks 1 and 2 --- not disk #3. what is disk #3 for? could that be why linux isn't working?

[bosox79]

Originally posted by Bob005
I purchased the three disk set, and installed it from the three disks. also, when i used the disks, i only used disks 1 and 2 --- not disk #3. what is disk #3 for? could that be why linux isn't working?

what type of install did you choose to do e.g. a workstation or home desktop? did you get an errors during the install process? do any kernel messeges pop up before you get the int error?

[je_fro]

Originally posted by Bob005
ok, i installed RH 8.0 about a week ago. ever since it finished downloading, it has never been able to boot.

What do you mean downloading?
How did you partition that drive?
When you tried to install both bootloaders, did you do a fresh install each time?

[Bob005]

I installed it with the home desktop option. no, i didn't get any error messages at any time during the installation. i didn't set up any of my kernels or any of that, because as you can tell, i am overly new, and i didn't want to mess my linux up (even though it apparenly is).

[Bob005]

i dont know how i partioned the drives, i just let it set them up automatically. yes, i did a fresh install every time i reinstalled my boot loaders, but after i figured out that wouldn't work, i just went ahead and installed just the boot loaders, instead of all of linux all over again.

[je_fro]

Can you try and install again, and this time Manually Partition with Disk Druid. Create a partition table like this:

/dev/hda1 /boot 100 Mb
/dev/hda2 / 9.4 Gb
/dev/hda3 swap 512 Mb

Then use GRUB as your bootloader, and make a boot floppy. See if that makes any difference, and if not, post back and we'll try a walkthrough.

[Bob005]

ok, i am only able to edit so far as lik (/boot) if i try to add " 100 Mb" after /boot, it tells me it is invalid, and so it wont let me. yes i am a friggin idiot. please tell how to get this right.

[je_fro]

Should be an option below to select the size...I remember having problems, too, my first time...