Running Linux, 5th Edition - Matthias Kalle Dalheimer [42]
Running into Trouble
Almost everyone runs into some kind of snag or hang-up when attempting to install Linux the first time. Most of the time, the problem is caused by a simple misunderstanding. Sometimes, however, it can be something more serious, such as an oversight by one of the developers or a bug.
This section describes some of the most common installation problems and how to solve them. It also describes unexpected error messages that can pop up during installations that appear to be successful.
In general, the proper boot sequence is as follows:
After booting from the LILO prompt, the system must load the kernel image from floppy. This may take several seconds; you know things are going well if the floppy drive light is still on.
While the kernel boots, SCSI devices must be probed for. If you have no SCSI devices installed, the system will hang for up to 15 seconds while the SCSI probe continues; this usually occurs after the line: lp_init: lp1 exists (0), using polling driver
appears on your screen.
After the kernel is finished booting, control is transferred to the system bootup files on the floppy. Finally, you will be presented with a login prompt (either a graphical or a textual one) or be dropped into an installation program. If you are presented with a login prompt such as: Linux login:
you should then log in (usually as root or install--this varies with each distribution). After you enter the username, the system may pause for 20 seconds or more while the installation program or shell is being loaded from floppy. Again, the floppy drive light should be on. Don't assume the system is hung.
Problems with Booting the Installation Medium
When attempting to boot the installation medium for the first time, you may encounter a number of problems. Note that the following problems are not related to booting your newly installed Linux system. See "Problems After Installing Linux," later in this chapter, for information on these kinds of pitfalls.
A floppy or medium error occurs when attempting to boot
The most popular cause for this kind of problem is a corrupt boot floppy. Either the floppy is physically damaged, in which case you should re-create the disk with a brand-new floppy, or the data on the floppy is bad, in which case you should verify that you downloaded and transferred the data to the floppy correctly. In many cases, simply re-creating the boot floppy will solve your problems. Retrace your steps and try again.
If you received your boot floppy from a mail-order vendor or some other distributor, instead of downloading and creating it yourself, contact the distributor and ask for a new boot floppy — but only after verifying that this is indeed the problem. This can, of course, be difficult, but if you get funny noises from your floppy drive or messages like cannot read sector , chances are that your medium is damaged.
The system hangs during boot or after booting
After the installation medium boots, you see a number of messages from the kernel itself, indicating which devices were detected and configured. After this, you are usually presented with a login prompt, allowing you to proceed with installation (some distributions instead drop you right into an installation program of some kind). The system may appear to hang during several of these steps. Be patient; loading software from floppy is very slow. In many cases, the system has not hung at all, but is merely taking a long time. Verify that there is no drive or system activity for at least several minutes before assuming that the system is hung.
Each activity listed at the beginning of this section may cause a delay that makes you think the system has stopped. However, it is possible that the system actually may hang while booting, which can be due to several causes. First of all, you may not have enough available RAM to boot the installation medium. (See the following item for information on disabling the ramdisk to free up memory.)
Hardware incompatibility causes