Freeze booting kernel 2.4.22-10mdk: mdk 9.2, Acer TM252LC

[thekro]

Hi there.

I am having trouble running Mandrake 9.2 on an Acer Travelmate 252LC.
The machine came with XP on, and I did a CD install. My first problem was that after the "hit enter to upgrade or install prompt", the install would hang on a blank screen. Using F1 and text mode showed me that the install was hanging booting the kernel (which was 2.4.22-10mdkBOOT).

So, I ran the install with the alternate kernel (2.2.19-BADZ5). This worked fine, although I got two error messages along the way:

-after detecting USB devices, I got: Error: we now use kernel PCMCIA support and this won't work with a 2.2 kernel.

-a bit later (before being prompted for keyboard layout, I think), I got:
PCMCIA support no longer exists for 2.2 kernels. Please use a 2.4 kernel.

Despite these errors, the install went OK, and I updated the XP boot.ini file to use LILO text mode (and XP boots fine).

However, when I try to boot linux now, the system hangs booting the kernel again. Booting using "linux-nonfb" to get more messages shows it's hanging on:
Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel

I have tried booting using noapic, nolapic, nopcmcia - none of these seem to work. By using a rescue disk, I've discovered that all the linux options in LILO are trying to load the 2.4.22-10mdk kernel (which was hanging during installation). However, I have no idea how to put a different kernel there for use by LILO.

Thanks for any advice
TheKro

[Hellmasker]

use a resuce/boot cd or somethign to get write access to the /etc/lilo.conf file.

edit the line that says
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.22-10mdk

for the entry labelled linux or mdk or whatever its called.

before this, check what kernels u have installed, by tpying ls /boot

if u specify anythign other than an availible kernel it wont load.

I doubt the problem is not fixable. Try adding acpi=off and (i think its this) pcmcia=off

[Dolda2000]

Would you mind trying another distro? Different distros use very different installation kernels and work very differently good on different exotic hardware.

[thekro]

Dolda2000: Thanks for the suggestion - I'm rather sold on RedHat/Mandrake, since I've been using them pretty much exclusively for about 8 years now, but if all else fails, I guess I'll have to try something else.

Hellmasker: I don't have any other kernels in /boot. It puzzles me that mandrake only installs one kernel into my /boot, particularly when it's not the kernel I booted for installation. I have tried booting with acpi=off and nopcmcia - also didn't help, unfort.

Thanks
TheKro

[thekro]

Bit of an update:

Just tried knoppix - the version on our archive is 3.3Beta, using kernel 2.4.22-xfs.

The CD freezes at exactly the same space as my mandrake install:

Loading vmlinuz.......
Loading miniroot.gz
<screen clears>
Uncompressing Linux.......Ok, booting the kernel.
<Freezes>

(I only get the last message using vga=normal or the knoppix-txt boot choice - otherwise the screen just goes blank.)

TheKro

[Hellmasker]

hers a plan, download a binary kernel (ie. precompiled) and then boot off the install disk using whatever kernel u have to. then install this new kernel, then try to reboot using it.

[thekro]

I can't see how to get any kernel I download, onto the system to install it.
If I boot off install disk, I can't mount my windows partition or a memory stick. I can't fit the kernel onto a floppy (formatted with e2fs), so how do I transfer the kernel onto the Linux filesystem?

TheKro

[thekro]

Hmm, tried slackware 8.1 and 9.1 installs. Both of them had no problem
booting the "bare.i" kernel (default - 2.4.18 for 8.1, and 2.4.22 for 9.1).

So what can I do to keep running mandrake, and not have to install some other distro?

Also, can I possibly boot the slackware cd, get it mounted, and get it's working 2.4.22 kernel onto my mandrake box. Will this work?

TheKro

[Hellmasker]

ur memory stick might need special driver sso i wouldnt try it from a boot cd, but the windows partitions can be accessed by typing

fdisk -l /dev/hda (to finnd out what partition is windows if u dont already know)
mkdir /mnt/win_hd
mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/win_hd

(replace hda1 with whatever the widnows aprtition is)