Boot Problem

[MiNiMAD]

My fresh install of fc5 kernel 2.6.15-1.2054 only boots up maybe once out of every 20 attempts. when it does boot it takes about 10 minutes. It gets as far as saying "uncompressing linux... ok, booting the kernel", then stops. If I remove "rhgb quiet" from the kernel argument it gets as far as "io scheduler cfg registered (default)" then stops. Its my first time with linux any help would be very much appreciated.

btw its a laptop with a p4 2.8ghz and 512 megs ram

thanx

[bob]

First of all, try a kernel update (yum update kernel) and see if the latest kernel is better. Secondly, type 'dmesg' and look at the messages that you get from your boot - is there any inidication of a problem there? You can also try as root (su -):
"less /var/log/messages" to see if that gives you any clues. Your system basics are fine, although you might want to plug in the make of the laptop into the search feature and see the brand is somehow involved in glitches.

[MiNiMAD]

It now won't boot at all, I can only get as far as "io scheduler cfq registered". I am guessing I need to boot kernel and access a terminal to update the kernel? I can only use grub at the moment. Is there a command to open a terminal from grub without loading gnome?

[bob]

Check your hardware (as much as possible with a laptop) and then try a reinstallation. First thing though, I'd try a Live CD from another distro - maybe Knoppix, PCLinuxOS or whatever to see if the problem exists with your machine or with the installation.

[MiNiMAD]

I have tried to reinstall but I can't seem to do it. The cd drive is bust on my laptop so i'm installing using pxe from a windows xp desktop machine. I can't work out which file I used to start the install process. there are loads of guides but they are all aimed at installing from a linux box. starting to get slightly annoyed as I managed it the other day. Today I've been trying to find another distro that will let me install using pxe from a windows machine but I've had no luck. I think I might have to dual boot my desktop with xp/fc5 and go from there. I've got no blank cd's so I'm now trying to work out how to install fc5 from hard disk.

[bob]

Yes, you've probably found this one: http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/fedora...harddrive.html It's not what you want, from what you mentioned though. If you DO remember how to install from Windows XP, please post the results so that the next guy can find the way. Good luck.

[bob]

Just found this in another thread: http://imthi.com/blog/73/index.php

[MiNiMAD]

Thanks very much bob, very usefull info, however I've just decided to buy a new cd drive instead. found one on ebay for £12.99.