Dabbling in the Fields of the Lured_

Post #243,564

2/6/06 4:39:04 AM

Dabbling in the Fields of the Lured__er, Mepis stuff

While putting aside peering into the Ubuntu, Mepis installs on Scott's nice Cpq box - here's where my little *nix experiment has gotten-to:

Trying to get a demo CD / Any old demo CD / to successfully load on a 2002 hP Pavilion zt1145 notebook, 1.2 GHz Mobile P-III; 256MB (thus far). Results of a couple demos:

1) Simply Mepis 3.3.1-1 "Live and Install" (same as on Cpq box):

It halts forthwith at "grub>"

This execrably brief comment at [link|http://www.mepis.org/node/7471?PHPSESSID=bf53357641c21936914ebc2b9ebf93a3| Mepis] might be a hint, if I knew precise file loc. on the Mepis CD, for selecting the kernel. The answer re "poor I/O error recovery in grub," is unresponsive; grub wasn't broken (was it?) - and that's the Only answer.

Note the title of this *Mepis* forum - and THIS is the only response to a query with my exact symptoms? Since 8/7/05. Sheesh. They must have known I'd call.

What, do they expect moi to actually Explore the demo CD and know how to 'load kernel' - via osmosis? :-0
This is a DEMO.
'boot kernel' gets: "Kernel must be loaded before booting." cha cha
Yashure.. one might think so.

(And apparently, Mepis is out-of-Knoppix and both share Debian as package manager - only.. not Exactly. But they do apt-get. From different Palaces.)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

2) An old (2+ years?) Knoppix demo (Thanks again, Greg) V.3.1, probably contemporary with this hP notebook though:

Switches set for 'failsafe'-grade hw detection and with correct screen res:
Noted several 'cloop'? errors ref'd to cd, in early boot stage. It gets to X-windows and a tape-loop audio message, sounding like "ni-shor'-da". (Well, it DOES.) Is this the sound of an inode gavotte?
.
.
In time ... a nicely formatted splash screen declares:

KDE daemon (kded) crashed and caused the signal 11 (SIG SEGV)

An applic. receives the SIG SEV signal due to a bug in the ap.
(Might want send bug report, ect.)

As USB detected OK, I could dump the Backtrace report to floppy, which mentions some hex and /lib/linc.so.(various) and a few other locales. Pointless if the data is unlikely to carry many clues. Maybe not pointless.

Test 2 Knoppix retry -

Per hints elsewhere, ran 'testcd' at prompt, no switches for display res or hdwre detection grade, and got:

"Could not find kernel image"; I guess that means: it also 'tested'.
(no cloop errors seen following the testcd command, though - on this try.)
Then, timing-out? sans any command, it tried booting further = got again to 1/16th of opening Knoppix screen on X-Windows. Obv. the sucker found a handy kernel Somewhere...
.
.
.
Later, the small KDE screen came up, attempting to setup desktop; first icon was steady; second one was flashing in-sync with audio accompaniment mentioned above. Then (when I looked back a bit later) screen had vanished, leaving X-Window cursor over the 15/16 grey background and - a working mouse; cordless USB, yet!

FIN.

---------------------------------------------------------------

So then -
Believe there's a site (more than one?) matching one's box or notebook model with existence of drivers for Linux - yes? The Mepis site shows a few gadgets that install OK - but nary a notebook on that list.

But is there yet any compilation, showing the (computer) model detection capabilities of some Leading distros? Also.. once those drivers were created: do the demos tend to have enough room to include data on them all, successively?

(Yes, I do see that if the drivers exist they shall all be found at the Debian Palace, and that via apt-get + some other incantations, one could place these into dozens of config files. Then one has only to burn a self-booting CD - if one does not wish to try to create dual-booting things - before one has even seen a demo run cleanly...)

Or buy a spare notebook HD. Gosh, it's all so simple now.
Did I mention? - I'm on dialup, so must skip the 70 MB downloads of images.

Ah well, it's kinda fun. A few hours at a time.
Any suggestions appreciated, unless they are rude and involve impossible poses.

I, pip B:=A:*.*/V

PS - anyone got a plain old .zip file of loadlin 1.6c-0.4 (for DOS) ?
So I can add it to my Win 98 boot disk and try a lateral arabesque to vmlinuz2 on the #@^$@&* CD?
Debian is DOWN. Is anybody giving those folks any $$ ?
The other sources seem to be in Korean or Cyrillic.

At least, with the NYTimes crossword: you know when you're done sleuthing - -

Post #243,565

by pwhysall

2/6/06 4:49:11 AM

Tried Ubuntu livecd?

It even has the Imric seal of approval!

Post #243,579

by imric

2/6/06 9:18:35 AM

Is that seal, or sigil?

[image|http://www.imrics.net/publish/seal.jpg||||]

-or-

[image|http://www.imrics.net/publish/sigil.jpg||||]

Imric's Tips for Living

Paranoia Is a Survival Trait
Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised...
Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.

Nothing is as simple as it seems in the beginning,
As hopeless as it seems in the middle,
Or as finished as it seems in the end.

Post #244,095

by Ashton

2/10/06 3:11:49 AM

Sorta..

But join some of the naysayers re its 'attitude' problem (I may be new to this flavor of jargon, but logic is logic - and it seems ya takes what they deem is Enough or you have to CL anything else. I like Choices.) 'Course this seems really more about Gnome vs KDE rather than each's incestuous relationship with the engine and transmission.

Also Ub. wouldn't detect even the Hayes Optima modem (on serial port) - but Mepis did.
Maybe 5.10 is now ancient, though. I may also have CD (reader) problems, so I'll get back to elementary troubleshooting. Real soon now.

Post #243,571

by Another Scott

2/6/06 7:39:46 AM

On the laptop - could the CD drive be bad?

Hi Ashton,

It halts forthwith at "grub>"

This execrably brief comment at Mepis might be a hint, if I knew precise file loc. on the Mepis CD, for selecting the kernel. The answer re "poor I/O error recovery in grub," is unresponsive; grub wasn't broken (was it?) - and that's the Only answer.

Note the title of this *Mepis* forum - and THIS is the only response to a query with my exact symptoms? Since 8/7/05. Sheesh. They must have known I'd call.

My reading of that response is that there's something wrong with the CD drive and/or the CD. Others seem to have installed some version of Linux (even with GRUB) on a zt1145 without incident.

The fact that Knoppix also fails indicates that it's not (purely) a MEPIS problem.

Sometimes CDs burned on one system aren't readable by another. Can you burn another Linux CD at a slower speed? Sometimes that helps.

MEPIS runs well on my Thinkpad T41 laptop. :-)

Check the .ISO images on the Compaq. I believe that I included KNOPPIX, Ubuntu (Live and install) and MEPIS. They aren't the latest versions, but they might work better than the CDs you have if you can burn them slow enough.

If you ever want an ISO of some other Linux, etc., (e.g. the latest Ubuntu or Kubuntu) just let me know. It's easier for me to burn an ISO for you than to figure out how to send you a usable utility (I've never tried to do that myself). (I don't think the [link|http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:V5_X86fU_j0J:faq.mepis.net/index.php%3Fsid%3D1046%26lang%3Den%26action%3Dartikel%26cat%3D4%26id%3D15%26artlang%3Den+loadlin+1.6c-0.4&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=6&client=firefox-a|loadlin] package will solve your problems, but IANK). It's a very small package - you can get loadlin 1.6 [link|ftp://elserv.ffm.fgan.de/pub/linux/loadlin-1.6/|here], with docs [link|http://elserv.ffm.fgan.de/~lermen/|here]. I dunno if that package is somehow better than the one you're looking for.

HTH!

Cheers,
Scott.

Post #244,097

by Ashton

2/10/06 6:04:22 AM

2/12/06 3:44:00 AM

Re: On the laptop - could the CD drive be bad? - checking

Well... it loaded Ex Pee from scratch a couple times, in conjunction with the mentioned bug saga.

And - neither Mepis nor Ub. CD will boot on my ancient e-Machine (which booted Knoppix long ago) And.. Mepis CD-ap has trouble 'seeing' that there's a (blank) CD in its slot - And Mepis file manager churns a while, before finally displaying any old data CD - nor will it play or copy a music CD. Etc.

So crude logic suggests a misaligned? or otherwise aberrant player (and yes, IIRC that Was a relatively unused / new? one -- thanks!!) all of which: is a puzzlement.. (RIP, Yul)

And yet.. And yet, my data created on the Roxio, and 'raw' (ie CD not even closed to an intermediate-format) DirectCD: can be read, in ME - which counters that crude logic, somewhat. And Mepis also read a (CD w/ normally-closed file) - Bookmarks.

(though, while ME found and used that html file no sweat (in Fire Fox); Mepis keeps finding the old file I renamed, in Root, as "bookmarks-org" - and not the new one. Strange stuff; perhaps of the ilk of Intelligent Water and homeopathy (occasional efficacy of the latter, I verified in a personal test a few years back. Despite Avogadro's cute number and the cubic-closest packing of large molecules, or fractions thereof.. 6.023, wasn't it?)

(BTW, the really Odd aspect of preparing homeo- dilutions is the process of "sucussion" or whomping the vial against hands a number of times, before ingestion - this really does overlap into the recent Sci forum post re emotions + water. Who'd a thunk.. Can't wait for a perhaps Big surprise when the nano- folks start playing on that scale.)

Time for some CD test utils.. on All of them! Thanks for other tips - at least the notebook has another burner. Will try s l o w motion. Perhaps with sucussion.

But it's still fun, because I don't have to have any of it fixed by the 10 AM meeting Monday morning, with the CIEIO and his brother-in-law, the CTO - the one with the funny tie.

;^>

_______________________________________________________
This just in.. (Fri.)

Heh, as we suavish say -
Talkin atcha via the (earlier) Knoppix 3.3 (!= 3.3.1) demo CD: in the Compaq.
After also successfully booting same in the hP notebook. Just like old times.

(Next I will have to see if, placed in the R/W tray: boot will cycle through All CD-devices and boot from 2nd: the ~suspect CD-writer thingie, too.)

ie - there must be something Beast-style fishy about the various ways these hi burn-speed RWs go about their sprints acrosss the pits == when it comes to Reading what they scribbled. Means that I have 3+ Knoppix demos (left) which are unreadable.. maybe also a bunch in the drives of a few folks I handed them out to? over the months. :-/

So then, if it does boot from Cpq R/W OK .. I can get onto finding why that drive under *nix has trouble noticing there's a blank CD inside.
Yup - found it; somnolent at splash screen for KDE 1st try though; reboot with [don't detect much] - and here I are. SO maybe it doesn't like the install of the burner on Mepis? hmm - maybe there's one in Knoppix. k3b - check. Give it a try.
Over & out.

[early 2-12-06 addendum]
Ummm - unclear what to do with k3B in a Demo - I mean.. it needs its OS on one drive; pondered old days of one-floppy copy-tos: guess I'd need to configure a workspace on HD at boot (or one humongous RAM-disk), have it copy CD, then burn. As it was: greyed out for either drive. Er, just a report; none of this stuff needs any answers; I mean, with a manual as informative as MAN ___ ...[/add]

This K. build also found the Hayes Optima (as did Mepis) - only Doze ME hadn't a clue, forcing me to rummage around for the drivers, sometime.

Guess I'll have to show a visitor tonight, how much you can do with a demo in 5 minutes - smarter, quicker Wizards than the perverse renegrades of Redmond. A rank newbie can connect a modem; dunno re DSL.

ie One (gotcha) Down; on to the next.

We's got K-ubuntu now, I see.. perhaps by the time of Mumblebuntu I shall be ready to try a HD install of something. What do *nix folk wear? beret's taken. I have my Mad Hatter hat in leather -

moi

Edit: who Cares why.

Edited by Ashton Feb. 10, 2006, 06:26:51 AM EST

Edited by Ashton Feb. 10, 2006, 07:57:33 PM EST

Edited by Ashton Feb. 10, 2006, 08:31:15 PM EST

Edited by Ashton Feb. 12, 2006, 03:44:00 AM EST

Expand All History

Post #244,312

by Another Scott

2/12/06 10:17:21 AM

I'm having trouble parsing what you're doing.

Your prose is getting in the way a little. :-)

You're still trying to get Linux to install on the HP laptop? The HP will boot and with run with Knoppix 3.3, but nothing higher? You can't burn a new Linux .ISO from k3B while booting Knoppix?

I can't help with running k3B from a CD boot - maybe someone else can help with that.

I can burn you the latest Knopix (4.0.2), Ubuntu (5.10 - Breezy Badger), Kubuntu (5.10), SimplyMEPIS (3.4.3) and/or anything else that might be useful (e.g. an older version of Knoppix). Burning things on my T41 laptop has been very reliable, so I would hope they would work for you.

Just let me know. :-)

Cheers,
Scott.

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