Re: 486 and Linux

From: Robert Heller (heller_at_deepsoft.com)
Date: 12/06/03 

Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2003 22:05:12 +0000

  "Eirik" <hannibalkannibal@yahoo.no>,
  In a message on Sat, 6 Dec 2003 16:40:46 +0100, wrote :

"> "Eirik" <hannibalkannibal@yahoo.no> skrev i melding
"> news:P1mAb.3832$n31.68625@news2.e.nsc.no...
"> >
"> > "Robert Heller" <heller@deepsoft.com> skrev i melding
"> > news:561a$3fd1d90e$d0c7e1fd$15536@nf2.news-service.com...
"> > > "Eirik" <hannibalkannibal@yahoo.no>,
"> > > In a message on Sat, 6 Dec 2003 12:10:13 +0100, wrote :
"> > >
"> > > "> "Robert Heller" <heller@deepsoft.com> skrev i melding
"> > > "> news:1280a$3fd160d9$d0c7e1fd$12855@nf2.news-service.com...
"> > > "> > "Eirik" <hannibalkannibal@yahoo.no>,
"> > > "> > In a message on Fri, 5 Dec 2003 18:32:31 +0100, wrote :
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> > "> The situation is this:
"> > > "> > "> I've got an old 486, 32 MB RAM and RedHat Linux 4.1 to install
"> on
"> > it.
"> > > "> > "> Every time I try installing it, I get the 'L 04 04 04' message.
"> > > "> > "> Someone told me that it maybe would work if I made a partition
"> of
"> > only
"> > > "> 5-10
"> > > "> > "> MB, and installed LILO on this partition. However, this didn't
"> > work,
"> > > "> and now
"> > > "> > "> I need to know how I can make it work.
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> > Two questions:
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> > 1) Why RedHat Linux 4.1? Why not RedHat Linux 6.2?
"> > > "> I dont't have it
"> > > "> I have RedHat
"> > > "> > Linux 6.2 installed on my '486-based Laptop [6gig HD] (no, I don't
"> > use
"> > > "> > Gnome or KDE -- I use fvwm2). I have RedHat Linux 6.1 installed on
"> > my
"> > > "> > '486 based print server on a 4gig SCSI disk (AHA-1450B controller):
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> > smaug.deepsoft.com% sudo /sbin/fdisk -l /dev/sda
"> > > "> > Password:
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> > Disk /dev/sda: 64 heads, 32 sectors, 4095 cylinders
"> > > "> > Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 bytes
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
"> > > "> > /dev/sda1 1 65 66544 83 Linux
"> > > "> > /dev/sda2 66 194 132096 82 Linux swap
"> > > "> > /dev/sda3 195 1731 1573888 83 Linux
"> > > "> > /dev/sda4 1732 4095 2420736 5 Extended
"> > > "> > /dev/sda5 1732 1796 66544 83 Linux
"> > > "> > /dev/sda6 1797 3845 2098160 83 Linux
"> > > "> > /dev/sda7 3846 4095 255984 83 Linux
"> > > "> > smaug.deepsoft.com% df -lk
"> > > "> > Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
"> > > "> > /dev/sda1 64419 36406 24686 60% /
"> > > "> > /dev/sda7 247855 7397 227659 3% /home
"> > > "> > /dev/sda3 1522742 429355 1014693 30% /usr
"> > > "> > /dev/sda5 64419 8593 52499 14% /var
"> > > "> > /dev/sda6 2029283 117 1924258 0% /var/spool
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> > 2) What *exactly* does your partitioning look like? Can you post
"> the
"> > > "> > output of '/sbin/fdisk -l /dev/hda' and/or 'df -lk' here?
"> > > ">
"> > > "> The machine doesn't boot, and therefore I cannot access those
"> commands.
"> > > "> I have made a partition of 10 MB(hda1), a swap partition and the rest
"> > in one
"> > > "> large partition. I think the disk is about 1 GB.
">
"> Now I booted with the rescue disk from RedHat. Neither /sbin/fdisk nor df
"> worked.

*Exactly* what sort of errors did you get?

"> /etc/lilo.conf looks like this:
">
"> boot=/dev/hda
"> map=/boot/map
"> install=/boot/boot.b
"> prompt
"> timeout=50
"> image=/boot/vmlinuz
"> label=linux
"> root=/dev/hda3
"> read-only

OK, this looks OK, assuming that /boot lives entirely under cylinder
1024. (There is a chance that what LILO and what your laptop's BIOS
believe the disk geometry to be might differ -- there is a way to fix
that, though).

Now, we need to find out what the partition table really looks like --
that is, we need to get fdisk and df outputs.

Now that you can boot up with the rescue disks, you need to mount
everything and get to a working state. The 'old' RedHat rescue image is
rather primitive and limited (this being before modular kernels and
bootable CDs).

You probably need to do this:

Once the rescue image is booted and you are at the shell prompt do:

mkdir /mnt/newroot
mknod /tmp/hda1 b 3 1
mknod /tmp/hda3 b 3 3
mount -t ext2 /tmp/hda3 /mnt/newroot
mount -t ext2 /tmp/hda1 /mnt/newroot/boot
chroot /mnt/newroot

This should now give you a system with all of your proper utilities.

Now, you should be able to run fdisk:

/sbin/fdisk -l /dev/hda

and df

/bin/df -k

If things *look* good, that is the /boot file system is entirely below cylinder
1024 -- both its start and end cylinders are < 1024, you can re-run
lilo, using the -v option:

/sbin/lilo -v

Note all of the messages lilo reports.

Then you want to shutdown, being sure you exit from the chroot shell:

exit

and unmount the file systems cleanly:

umount /mnt/newroot/boot
umount /mnt/newroot

Now reboot, but stop in the BIOS setup and get the BIOS to tell you what
it believes the hard disk's geometry is. Compare this to what fdisk
believes the geometry is.

Between what fdisk tells you, lilo tells you and what the BIOS tells
you, there should be a clue as to your problem.

">
"> > >
"> > > Do you have a boot floppy? Actually, you should be able to make a boot
"> > > floppy on any working linux machine and use that to boot up the machine
"> > > OR you can make a boot/rescue floppy set from the RH 4.1 CD. You should
"> > > be able to boot the machine up with one of these.
"> > I wasn't able to, I'll try with another one.
"> > You just need to know
"> > > the partition number of the root file system. You can also download a
"> > > Tom's root disk -- this is a mini-linux system that fits on a single
"> > > floppy disk and has a basic set of utilities that allow you to explore a
"> > > possibly broken system.
"> > >
"> > > I'm presuming that /dev/hda1 is (was) mounted as /boot, the swap as
"> > > /dev/hda2 and the rest as /dev/hda3? If /dev/hda1 starts at cylinder 1
"> > > and uses less than 1024 cylinders, you should be OK, unless something
"> > > is wonky in /etc/lilo.conf. Presumably, all of your boot up files
"> > > (second stage lilo, kernel image, initrd, etc.) are all on /boot (and
"> > > NOT someplace else). I don't know is RH 4.1 actually has a /boot
"> > > directory -- some of the *early* Linuxes did not with early Slackware
"> > > (kernel 0.99.<mumble>), the vmlinuz file lived right at the top of the
"> > > file system (/) -- there was no /boot directory at all.
"> > >
"> > > *I've* never bothered with a /boot file system, I've always gone to a
"> > > moderately small root file system (/) and then had separate file systems
"> > > for /var, /usr, and /home and possibly additional file systems
"> (/scratchN,
"> > > /var/spool, etc.) on larger disks.
"> > >
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> > ">
"> > > "> > "> GrüBe,
"> > > "> > "> Eirik
"> > > "> > ">
"> > > "> > "> "Eirik" <hannibalkannibal@yahoo.no> skrev i melding
"> > > "> > "> news:621Ab.3992$Y06.67483@news4.e.nsc.no...
"> > > "> > "> >
"> > > "> > "> > I have tried making a small partition of 10 MB(+10M in fdisk,
"> > > "> right?). It
"> > > "> > "> > doesn't work. I still get the L 04 04 04 thing.
"> > > "> > "> >
"> > > "> > "> > "Eirik" <hannibalkannibal@yahoo.no> skrev i melding
"> > > "> > "> > news:QPprb.5263$mf2.71084@news4.e.nsc.no...
"> > > "> > "> > > I have got an old 486 66 MHz with 32 MB RAM. When I have
"> > installed
"> > > "> Linux
"> > > "> > "> > on
"> > > "> > "> > > it and try to boot, all I get is this:
"> > > "> > "> > >
"> > > "> > "> > > "L 04 04 04 04 04 04 04 04 04 04 04 04 04 04"
"> > > "> > "> > > und so weiter.
"> > > "> > "> > > I have tried installing LILO on /dev/hda, /dev/hda1 and on a
"> > > "> floppy, but
"> > > "> > "> > the
"> > > "> > "> > > same happens every time.
"> > > "> > "> > >
"> > > "> > "> >
"> > > "> > "> >
"> > > "> > ">
"> > > "> > ">
"> > > "> > ">
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> > \/
"> > > "> > Robert Heller ||InterNet:
"> > heller@cs.umass.edu
"> > > "> > http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/~heller ||
"> > heller@deepsoft.com
"> > > "> > http://www.deepsoft.com /\FidoNet: 1:321/153
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> >
"> > > "> >
"> > > ">
"> > > ">
"> > > ">
"> > >
"> > > \/
"> > > Robert Heller ||InterNet: heller@cs.umass.edu
"> > > http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/~heller || heller@deepsoft.com
"> > > http://www.deepsoft.com /\FidoNet: 1:321/153
"> > >
"> > >
"> > >
"> > >
"> > >
"> > >
"> > >
"> >
"> >
">
">
">

                                     \/
Robert Heller ||InterNet: heller@cs.umass.edu
http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/~heller || heller@deepsoft.com
http://www.deepsoft.com /\FidoNet: 1:321/153

                                                              

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Boot failure after installation
    ... You just type fdisk devname where devname is the disk device. ... You can only mount a file system. ... Use newfs to create file systems on each of the partitions except swap & c. ... Just boot it up and run it. ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • Launching OS from different motherboard (was recovering secure data for client)
    ... the BIOS is bad. ... Can I boot the original drive and file system ... with rescue CD and change the config files first. ...
    (alt.linux)
  • Re: Weird XP Start-Up Problem - Please help!
    ... that has the fdisk command on it. ... I noticed you say the BIOS was updated so I ... CHECKING FILE SYSTEM ON D: ... reboot I get the standard "Sorry for the inconvenience" screen to ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: "Invalid partition table" after installation
    ... I've ensured that the first slice (boot slice) is smaller than 1.5 ... I've tried to figure out what the BIOS thinks the geometry ... Sony CD-RW CRX19 (what I boot from to install) ... The solution is to force the scratching of the MBR on the disk first before running sysinstall fdisk. ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • RE: Hard Drive not Found
    ... One suggestion is to go into your bios and change the ... this will force the bios to refresh that table, ... >before the file system comes into the picture. ... I try to boot the ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)