PunkerTFC
01-05-2003, 12:11 AM
Ok, I am trying to install 7.3 on my newly aquired N3210. At the moment, I am booting off the CD, and the hard drive is completely wiped (no partitions, nothing, just raw space). When I boot from the CD, I come into the linux boot program, where you can set install options and start the install. I either press <enter> or type "text" and press <enter> (<enter> goes into the graphical install, text <enter> goes into the text install). I load up two files, initrd.img and vmlinuz (no extension)(these files take a while to load, maybe 2-3 minutes). Once these load I go into what looks like linux starting up , but with the red hat linux thing up at the top. It goes through it's think for a second or two, then stops, and the cursor hangs. When it stops there is 6 lines above the hung cursor that look like error messages. These lines read (exactly):
crc error<6>FReeing initrd memory: 195k freed
EXT2-fs: unable to read superblock
cramfs: wrong magic
FAT: unable to read boot sector
isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev=09:00, iso_blknum=16, block=32
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 09:00
It reads to me like some sort of hard disk error (just my guess). If anyone could offer an explaination and a way to fix it, I would be much oblidged! I have been waiting to have a linux machine for a while. My desktop has too much stuff on it for me to risk dual-booting it, and this laptop that I am on now only has 1.5 GB of hard drive space, and my sister uses it also, so I can't switch the OS entirely. But this new N3210 laptop I got from my friend (for free) is perfect for a linux machine, because windows was acting up a lot. There is also a bit of a saga to this attempted linux install. Maybe if I post that it will help explain all this. So here it is:
Friday afternoon: Boot from red hat 7.3 CD 1(while windows is still on the machine), got into installer, all the way to the partitioning part. It would not auto partition, it gave me a message about "partition table corrupt/does not exist". So, by accident, I deleted c: in fdisk (/dev/hda1 as it appeared in linux fdisk, more on /dev/hda0 later). After that, I could not boot from the cd, or it would boot, but the initial boot program would not install correctly and the cursor would hang.
Friday night: Believing that the installer wasn't loading because there was no c:, I re-installed windows to get my c: partition back. But the red hat installer still would not boot properly.
Saturday afternoon: While looking at the hard disk in windows fdisk, I noticed that there was a strange 274 mb non-dos partition on the hard drive, which (I now) remember has been there ever since I got the laptop. I decided that the small partition might be the culprit of my install problems, so I deleted it. The install still did not work, although this is when I started getting my current error messages
Later Saturday Afternoon: While talking to a friend on AIM, he suggested that I totall wipe everything off the hard drive, so that it is all raw space, which I did. I am still getting the error messages, and (occasionally) the installer will not boot properly. It seems to help if I have a floppy disk in the floppy drive.
That is all the info I can give, everything that I have done to the laptop involving linux. If someone knows this problem and can give me a solution, I would really really appreciate it!
crc error<6>FReeing initrd memory: 195k freed
EXT2-fs: unable to read superblock
cramfs: wrong magic
FAT: unable to read boot sector
isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev=09:00, iso_blknum=16, block=32
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 09:00
It reads to me like some sort of hard disk error (just my guess). If anyone could offer an explaination and a way to fix it, I would be much oblidged! I have been waiting to have a linux machine for a while. My desktop has too much stuff on it for me to risk dual-booting it, and this laptop that I am on now only has 1.5 GB of hard drive space, and my sister uses it also, so I can't switch the OS entirely. But this new N3210 laptop I got from my friend (for free) is perfect for a linux machine, because windows was acting up a lot. There is also a bit of a saga to this attempted linux install. Maybe if I post that it will help explain all this. So here it is:
Friday afternoon: Boot from red hat 7.3 CD 1(while windows is still on the machine), got into installer, all the way to the partitioning part. It would not auto partition, it gave me a message about "partition table corrupt/does not exist". So, by accident, I deleted c: in fdisk (/dev/hda1 as it appeared in linux fdisk, more on /dev/hda0 later). After that, I could not boot from the cd, or it would boot, but the initial boot program would not install correctly and the cursor would hang.
Friday night: Believing that the installer wasn't loading because there was no c:, I re-installed windows to get my c: partition back. But the red hat installer still would not boot properly.
Saturday afternoon: While looking at the hard disk in windows fdisk, I noticed that there was a strange 274 mb non-dos partition on the hard drive, which (I now) remember has been there ever since I got the laptop. I decided that the small partition might be the culprit of my install problems, so I deleted it. The install still did not work, although this is when I started getting my current error messages
Later Saturday Afternoon: While talking to a friend on AIM, he suggested that I totall wipe everything off the hard drive, so that it is all raw space, which I did. I am still getting the error messages, and (occasionally) the installer will not boot properly. It seems to help if I have a floppy disk in the floppy drive.
That is all the info I can give, everything that I have done to the laptop involving linux. If someone knows this problem and can give me a solution, I would really really appreciate it!