Computer won't get past the first boot screen after install

[AdamskiAirsoft]

Hullo,

I've been meaning to try Linux for a good two years now, and finally got to the point where I will install it, and stick with it, and nothing else but it, for a month.

I decided to go with Arch, because I'm a minimalistic kind of guy, don't mind getting my hands dirty, and a few other reasons. So, I got a copy of the "release" version, arch-0.7.2-base.iso, I believe the same as the most recent stable edition from the nethat FTP.

I burned it as an image onto a CD-R, popped it into my CD-ROM drive and rebooted my computer. It came up, I hit enter to boot, it was successful so far. Then I got to the menu screens, where I did the easy part, and just erased my harddrive. Then I selected the base installation from the CD, installed it, seemed fine. I then installed the kernel and boot loader (GRUB) and everything seemed ok.

I type in reboot as it says, it reboots, the first screen pops up, where it says Gateway, Intel Inside, and press F10 for this, and F2 for that. It stayed like that for 5 or so minutes, so I restart. Same thing, restart again. Try to press F10 and F2, nothing. Restart again, same thing. Kept it like that, thinking it was a little laggy and had to do something. It's been on that screen for a good hour and a half now.

[spencerf]

sounds like grub was installed correctly. Try rebooting with you arch disc and doing the recovery/repair mode (forget exactly what its called in arch) and then reinstall grub to the the MBR of your first harddrive and not /dev/hda1

I think its called hd0 offhand. But most likely arch will just ask you if you want to install it the mbr or /boot of of one of your drives. Tell it to install in mbr.

If this doesn't work you might need a noacpi or similar workaround but I believe you should be able to get to the grub screen before this actually is necessary which leads me to believe grub itself isn't properly installed.

Also make sure in your BIOS that the boot order has been switched to

harddrive first.

[AdamskiAirsoft]

sounds like grub was installed correctly. Try rebooting with you arch disc and doing the recovery/repair mode (forget exactly what its called in arch) and then reinstall grub to the the MBR of your first harddrive and not /dev/hda1

I think its called hd0 offhand. But most likely arch will just ask you if you want to install it the mbr or /boot of of one of your drives. Tell it to install in mbr.

If this doesn't work you might need a noacpi or similar workaround but I believe you should be able to get to the grub screen before this actually is necessary which leads me to believe grub itself isn't properly installed.

Also make sure in your BIOS that the boot order has been switched to

harddrive first.

But I can't get that far.

[Kojak]

Well, I guess you can boot the CD again, can't you? Once you have booted the CD, there should be a repair option from where you should be able to launch /sbin/grub-install /dev/hda (if hda is your primary harddisk). If that fails again: Hardware specs please.

[AdamskiAirsoft]

Well, I guess you can boot the CD again, can't you? Once you have booted the CD, there should be a repair option from where you should be able to launch /sbin/grub-install /dev/hda (if hda is your primary harddisk). If that fails again: Hardware specs please.

But I can't get that far.

[Kojak]

Sorry, but you should be able to get this far, unless your motherboard is broken or your CD drive is dead.

[d38dm8nw81k1ng]

sounds like a hardware problem. if it's freezing on boot then something is wrong with your motherboard probably.

[AdamskiAirsoft]

There is obviously nothing wrong with my CD drive or motherboard. This has happened to me twice before, each time I've only been able to fix it with getting a new hard drive.

Really wish I knew what the problem was.

[oz]

The installation CD has been upgraded 3 times since Arch version 0.7.2 came out, so maybe getting a newer installation CD will work. Just guessing, though.

[vengeance]

does it give some weird beeps just after rebooting mite b mobo is failing the POST(power-on self test) check for loose ram's,video cards',etc...