FC4 being quite odd on my lappy

X11 · Post by **X11** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:39 am

I can't boot the Fedora Core 4 (i386) installer (DVD) because for some reason the kernel really dislikes my laptop. I get no error, as soon as vmlinuz (the kernel) and the ramdisk are loaded, it just reboots.

This happens with no other Linux 2.6 kernel I have used before and I thought someone might be able to enlighten me as to whats up. I cant make a floppy to boot either because like all modern hardware, my laptop has no floppy drive. It can't boot of a USB Memory stick either.

Anyone know what the holy Zarquon is going on?

Void Main · Post by **Void Main** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:54 am

A floppy drive wouldn't do you any good anyway. The 2.6 kernel will not fit on a floppy. Could it be a bad burn, or an incompatibility between the disc and your laptop (try burning at the lowest speed, etc)?

X11 · Post by **X11** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 9:58 am

Not a bad burn, it boots perfectly on other machines (I just tested it).

Everything else works fine on my laptop in regards to booting.

ZiaTioN · Post by **ZiaTioN** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:04 am

Interesting.

That does sound like a bad burn due to the fact that it starts to boot and then reboots. Other reasons a system would do this would be bad memory or bad power supply but those two are not specific to booting.

You should try grabbing the latest version of Knoppix and see if you can boot all the way into the desktop with that distro. If you can then it would not be the 2.6 kernel itself but something specific to your particular disk.

I myself have had issues with the DVD Image for FC4 before not booting at all. Multiple system never recognized it as bootable media while some others did. I ended up just having to grab the 4 CD Images. That may be a last resort option for you also.

X11 · Post by **X11** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:07 am

I just did a full mediacheck on the fscking disc, its not a bad burn for certain. Everything else boots on it, I was going to run FreeBSD (Installed it and everything last night) however I found it doesnt support my Wifi PCMCIA card.

X11 · Post by **X11** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:08 am

Also, obviously if it ran FC3 for a long time, its NOT THE LINUX 2.6 KERNEL, but something SPECIFIC TO THE BUILD OF IT.

X11 · Post by **X11** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:18 am

Well, now it boots into a crash. I found something about Viao notebooks in the FAQ

Some Sony VAIO® notebook systems may experience problems installing Fedora Core from CD-ROM. If this happens, restart the installation process and add the following option to the boot command line:

pci=off ide1=0x180,0x386

So I booted with that and now it just crashes nicely

However the crash looked related to ACPI, so I just added the acpi=off option as well, and now it looks like its booted.

Thanks Fedora Core 4 Team for another QULARTY release.

Void Main · Post by **Void Main** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:06 pm

And thank you Sony for QULARTY hardware. Maybe it won't boot unless the CD has the Sony rootkit on it. :)

X11 · Post by **X11** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:31 pm

Its not Sony hardware smarty pants. Its pretty Generic hardware, that I am just finding recent 2.6 kernels are not liking one bit.

If Linux is going to continue being this unstable on my laptop, its going to run a better operating system that supports my wifi card no matter what people think, unless your willing to send me a better laptop that runs FC4, im quite happy to run Operating Systems that actually work.

ZiaTioN · Post by **ZiaTioN** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:52 pm

X11 wrote:I just did a full mediacheck on the fscking disc, its not a bad burn for certain. Everything else boots on it, I was going to run FreeBSD (Installed it and everything last night) however I found it doesnt support my Wifi PCMCIA card.

If you want to run BSD you may want to try using DriverLoader for your wireless drivers. The docs on their site state it can be used on all Linux distros but I am not sure about BSD. You could also try Debian or Gentoo or any other distro too. FC is not the only game in town.

X11 · Post by **X11** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 1:18 pm

I am thinking of trying Gentoo, the laptop ran Debian for a while but I just didn't like it at all. In fact, the whole distro really sucked in terms of stability.

The problem with running Gentoo is the laptop overheats pretty easily in the summer here in Australia from doing any cpu intensive tasks.

Calum · Post by **Calum** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 10:11 am

X11 wrote:I just did a full mediacheck on the fscking disc

now that's an amusing spoonerism!

also, X11 i have to say i smiled when you called void main "smarty pants" a few posts ago! how many people would ever do that?