Re: [tlug] Hang on Install with Laptop

["Jim O'Connell" <oconnell@example.com>]

On Wed, 23 Apr 2003 17:07:10 +0900 (JST)
Charles Muller <acmuller@example.com> wrote:
Subject: [tlug] Hang on Install with Laptop
> I had to get a new laptop for one of my projects, and couldn't stand to pay
> the M$ tax one more time, so I bought a no-name (actually, named Clevo D400S)
> laptop with no OS installed.
> 
> I've spent most of the past two days trying to get some kind of Linux
> installed without success.

I'd give Knoppix a try, just to help pinpoint where the trouble is, without going through the time involved in a real install.
> 
> In RH9, the screen just goes blank after the first prompt. With RH8, I get a
> little further, to the point where it says "Initializing PC Card Devices..."
> and it hangs.

I had that happen with RH9.  The second time, I did the "Check Disk" option and found I had bad media.  
(With a disk set that worked fine for a desktop install - it bombed on my thinkpad.)
If you downloaded, I'd check the MD5 sums. 
Of course this is less likely since it happens also on RH8, but if you downloaded that too, it's possible.

> 
> In both cases, I tried all of the switches suggested, including "noprobe",
> "text", "lowres", etc., and then a few suggested on the Red Hat lists, such
> as "nousb", "nodma", "noapmd", etc., with no change.
> 
> So I tried Mandrake 9.1, got a few screens into install, but got hung up at a
> message that says "Could not uncompress second stage ramdisk.  This is
> probably an hardware error while reading the data. (this may be caused by a
> hardware failure or a Linux kernel bug)."
> 
> I found this in the Mandrake Cooker help files, but with no solution given.
> 
> Any suggestions for strategies? Windows2000 installed fine, and the ISO CDs
> work OK on other machines.

Could it be bad memory?  Did you add memory that you can yank and try again with? 
Take a look at: http://www.wirefarm.com/archives/000132.html#000132
for memtest86, which does extensive memory testing, way beyond what that test at boot does.

Good luck - I hope it's just bad media and not bum hardware.
--Jim
> 
> Chuck
> 
> 
> ---------------------------
> Charles Muller  <acmuller@example.com>
> Faculty of Humanities,  Toyo Gakuen University
> Digital Dictionary of Buddhism and CJKV-English Dictionary [http://www.acmuller.net]
> H-Buddhism List Editor [http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~buddhism/]
> Mobile Phone: 090-9310-1787
> 
> 
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-- 

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Jim O'Connell
Global Dining System Support
jim at global-dining dot co dot jp
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