Re: Old PC - ASUS P5A-B - Will not boot Linux (Ubuntu)

From: AdmiraalC (atj.crone_at_hccnet.nl)
Date: 11/03/04 

Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2004 00:35:41 +0100

Do not forget to disable the virus protection in the bios to give Linux
acces to the Master Boot Record.
The best place for Lilo is the master boot record of the first harddisk.
You can restor the Master boot record Whith a Windows 89 floppy containing
fdisk.
command is fdisk /mbr
The rest of the bios settings cen be left standard.

"Thomas Jahns" <Thomas.Jahns@epost.de> schreef in bericht
news:87d5yvvo3a.fsf@ID-48333.user.dfncis.de...
> mark4asp <mark4asp@ntlworld.com> writes:
>> I partitioned my HD:
>>
>> Number type size format partition
>> #1 primary 63.9M ext3 /boot (bootable)
>> #5 logical 1G ext3 /
>> #6 logical 1G ext3 /home
>> #7 logical 6G ext3 /usr
>> #8 logical 10.7G ext3 /var
>> #9 logical 1G ext3 /tmp
>> #3 primary 624M swap swap
> ^^^^
>
> Does this mean the swap partition is last on the disk? That's not a
> good idea, if swap is ever used it should be pretty fast (best put
> directly after /boot at the beginning of the disk). Unfortunately this
> output is rather short. Could you perhaps try to see what "fdisk -l"
> issued from a console tells you (should be available via Alt-F2 or
> Alt-F3 from most Linux installation media).
>
>> THERE IS NO MENTION OF IT "Detecting HDD Primary Master". The
>> final error message is:
>>
>> "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"
>
> That probably means the boot sector in the mbr of your disk sees no
> active partition. Have you checked wether your bootable /boot partition
> is also the (only) active partition? You could check this from your
> Ubuntu boot media or any other system with partitioning utility you have
> on a bootable cd (even Windows XP cd will do).
>
>> Q: Did I make a fundamental mistake in partitioning my disk for
>> Linux. If so what should my partitions have been and why did
>> Ubuntu install itself without errors (if I made mistakes)?
>
> Not in any way to prevent booting per se.
>
>> Q: Given that I've run this HDD under Windows using Ultra DMA
>> mode, how suspicious is it that my computer tells me that the
>> HDD is "CHS, Mode 0"
>
> What part of your computer tells you this?
>
>> Q: Is there a way to find out which particular Mobo / BIOS
>> versions have been tested for Ubuntu Linux?
>
> This is mostly a question specific to the Linux kernel. Ubuntu takes
> most modifications from debian, so you might want to search both
> projects' pages. But because your system doesn't even load the boot
> loader it's not relevant to your problem. And the fact that the install
> went fine tells me that all hardware absolutely necessary is working
> fine.
>
>> Q: Should I burn the BIOS with an earlier version (earlier than
>> 1010), to try to get it working? [I think I already have the
>> most recent BIOS]
>
> Not unless you find a specific problem report.
>
>> Q: Should I change the BIOS settings for the HD (from LBA to
>> LARGE) ?
>
> Not really. I think that might one day have been useful for relatively
> old operating systems (think older than Win95).
>
>> Q: Should I switch off "AGP Bus Turbo Mode" and try again - or
>> can't this possibly affect the HDD?
>
> I don't see any obvious connection but can't give any good
> recommendation either.
>
>> Q: Should I give up?
>
> Not at all, you are probably just stuck with a very simple problem. Not
> seeing the wood for all the trees as we say in Germany is just so normal
> for human beings, that even a moment of contemplation can give you just
> the right idea how to tackle this.
>
> Thomas Jahns
> --
> "Computers are good at following instructions,
> but not at reading your mind."
> D. E. Knuth, The TeXbook, Addison-Wesley 1984, 1986, 1996, p. 9

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