User Feedback :: A problem with 0.7.2 bootability?



I think that this is a problem with the boot loader.

Check out this post for details:

http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....and+3.3
In rereading thru the thread here I noticed these things in particular....
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I have been able to get the CD to boot on another machine, however, so that would rule out a corrupted download or content problem. The machine on which I'd like to use the CD but can't is an aging Intel AL440LX, PII system, with a Promise ATA TX-2 100 Controller. The box on which the CD works is a very quick PIV system with 1066 RDRAM and SCSI drives. Why this difference?


Could the Promise ATA be a challenge? I'm assuming it's an outboard add-on?
I would try pulling it, for grins and giggles anyhow, and see if it boots then.
Still could be a corrupted download, since one is accessing the scsi drivers, and one is accessing another part of the disc.

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Thinking that the boot image might be faulty, I used rawrite to make a copy of it to a floppy. The floppy with the image alone will boot into initial DSL display so the image would seem to be OK. But the CD with the very same image dies. Odd, isn't it.

Not necessarily..  Your using a different bus to send your data thru.(floppy)
Did you try a "failsafe" option at this point? or "dsl noacpi" or others?
Seems to me you've proved that the image WILL boot your computer.
We just need to get the HD bus to take the cdrom..
You're not using a CDRW, are you??
Anyone know of any flakiness with Promise ATA and kernel 2.4.22xfs?
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OK, the md5sum situation appears problematic.
Here is the output from rawread /dev/cdrom | md5sum
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e
Where do we go from here?

If you can get knoppix, feather, etc to boot, use that to WGET the iso file.
Don't use a windows browser, grab an old copy of ws-ftp95, or CuteFTP, or SmartFTP, or something like, and use that.
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Attempting to narrow things down, I tried the DSL CD with a brand new CDRW drive [/quote
[quote] we've tried a brand new CDRW in the important machine and it doesn't help

Try it with a cdr, not a cdrw..  I have horrible troubles with cdrw's on SOME
machines.. [ at HOME ] mine at work are plextors also , and never a problem AT WORK..
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And, yes, the message I get is "boot failed"

except from a floppy...  or maybe a cdr?..  Give these ideas a try, and let us know..

73
ke4nt
First of all, allow me to express my thanks to everyone here that had tried to offer some clearer understanding of this problem, most recently cbagger01 and ke4nt1. ke4nt1, by any measure, an outstanding analysis of the principal points of this thread.

I would hasten to offer a clarification on my use of the term, CDRW, ke4nt1. I've used it, perhaps incautiously, to describe only the capability of the drive in question, read only or read/write, not the capability of any form of media. Simply to let you know, I use only writable, not re-writable, media here, but my terminology appears to have been less than helpful in any event. The device initially in use on the computer in question was a CD reader. Since tonight's new installation, it's been a CD reader/writer, or, as I termed it, a CDRW, meaning CDRW drive. I regret the confusion.

Now, to these masterful analyses. First that of ke4nt1.

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Could the Promise ATA be a challenge?


Possibly, but not of necessity in my mind. The Promise Controller is the fairly recent Ultra ATA TX-2 100. However, hardware detection on the Gentoo 2004.1 livecd has misidentified the device connected to it in the past, seeing it as /dev/hda when it should have seen /dev/hde. This matter is being treated as a likely bug by Gentoo development at the moment. As a matter of fact, I was compelled to use the KNOPPIX CD to read the hardware correctly and to jump start the Gentoo install on this machine. Earlier Gentoo livecds have not had this kind of difficulty though.

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Did you try a "failsafe" option at this point? or "dsl noacpi" or others?


No.

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Seems to me you've proved that the image WILL boot your computer. We just need to get the HD bus to take the cdrom.. You're not using a CDRW, are you??


Covered extensively in the above mea culpa. :)

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If you can get knoppix, feather, etc to boot, use that to WGET the iso file. Don't use a windows browser, grab an old copy of ws-ftp95, or CuteFTP, or SmartFTP, or something like, and use that.


Interesting approach. I'll get back to you with a report on it. Thanks again for taking the time to analyze this thread.

And now, cbagger01. From your url, sir:

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could it be a problem with syslinux (does DSL use it?) not working with older hardware.


Worth looking at, eh? Does DSL, in fact, use syslinux with 0.7.2?

Regards.

jlowell
DSL is based on the knoppix 3.3 livecd (version with 2.4.22-xfs kernel)

I believe that the bootloader for knoppix 3.3 is syslinux and that they converted over to isolinux with knoppix 3.4 due to problems with syslinux

I don't know exactly what the "problems" were but maybe they involve your model of ide controller.  This is about all I know on the subject. Hopefully it will be of some help.
What's really crunching my brain is WHY does feather and knoppix
boot/load no problem..  
Isn't feather simply a remaster, like DSL?
It would follow that it uses the same syslinux as DSL....

?? ?? ??

[EDIT]

Nope, it is stripped from KNOPPIX 3.4... my bad..

[/EDIT]

73
ke4nt
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