Strange Loop Error On Startup

[dawg21]

Hey, I'm having a very strange problem with Linux lately. Here's the specs, and the "special details" that make my machine unique:

• P4 2.4GHz
• 512MB RAM (can't remember what flavor of RAM off the top of my head)
• 8GB HDD running SUSE 10.2, with a second IDE drive at 120GB (multimedia drive)
• Liteon CD/RW optical drive
• And, the part that makes my machine so much fun *incredible amount of sarcasm here, can ya tell??*, I have a slide switch (2-pos 3-pole) mounted on a blank PCI slot cover to allow me to clear the CMOS. Why do I have this? Because I have a very screwy BIOS and I don't feel like messing with it... that, and I don't have a floppy drive available to update the BIOS.

Now that you know my specs, I'll explain how I have to turn my machine on (and limitations of power management) then I'll get to the error. Mind you, this is all very important if you're to understand fully how I'm getting this error.

When I'm turning the machine on (or restarting, for that matter) I have to kill power (done via power strip, so it kills everything at once), reach behind and flip the switch, wait 30 seconds for the CMOS to clear, flip it back, turn the power back on, then power up. If I want to have the system clock accurate, and special boot options aside from default, I have to go into BIOS and adjust settings accordingly. This leads to the main problem, discussed below.

I turned my computer on this morning so I could clear out the contents of my thumb drive (Imation 512MB), and after I did the usual hokey startup job, it asked me which OS I wanted... did I want SUSE 10.2 or SUSE 10.2 in Safe Mode? Obvious choice, I went with option A. I always have a habit of hitting the "Esc" button, so I can monitor and make sure everything's kosher. This is when I first experienced this strange problem.

Everything went normal at first, until I noticed the bootup sequence stuck on this loop:

hdc:dma_intr:status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdc:dma_intr:error=0x84 { DriveStatusError Bad CRC }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hdc:dma_intr:status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdc:dma_intr:error=0x84 { DriveStatusError Bad CRC }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hdc:dma_intr:status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdc:dma_intr:error=0x84 { DriveStatusError Bad CRC }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hdc:dma_intr:status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdc:dma_intr:error=0x84 { DriveStatusError Bad CRC }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown

I finally got sick of seeing that message 5 times in a row, so the last time, I went into BIOS and set it to only boot from LS120, HDD-0 and Floppy (non-existent, but w/e at this point... if it works, I won't complain!), and then disabled booting from any other device. This time it worked; it displayed the same code as above but the code was buried, by the time I noticed it, in the technical jargon common to booting PCs.

I took the information from /etc/fstab, which reads thus:

/dev/hda2 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/hda3 /home ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/hda1 swap swap defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
/dev/hdc1 /media/windows vfat defaults 0 0

Obviously, the /dev/hdc1 in /media/windows is my media HDD, it's several years old by now and should probably have been, at the least, backed up or better yet, replaced, but ATM I just don't have oodles of money laying around. I don't have this problem when I leave my USB drive plugged in (my thumb drive) and I power on the machine, it only happens when I have the Media HDD plugged in. Any ideas as to why this might be happening? This is driving me mad.

[CodeRoot]

Any ideas as to why this might be happening?

Yes - the "evidence" suggests that your media drive has developed some "bad spots" on it...

Let's see if I understand all of this correctly:

* The problem you are describing (including having to clear the CMOS) only happens when the second IDE drive is electrically hooked up.

* You are only using Linux (No Windows).

I don't actually see the connection between the drive errors and having to clear the CMOS, etc... (I believe these drive errors could occur even with everything else operating smoothly.)

Suggestion #1:

* Run 'fsck' on it. Read 'man fsck'. Use option '-t vfat' (or you can run 'fsck.vfat' on it, instead).

If, after you have done this, it is not repaired...

Suggestion #2:

* Copy off [to somewhere - burn to CDROM?] any and all data from the second IDE drive that you want to keep.

* Format the drive (perhaps in a native/standard Linux format - i.e., 'ext2' or 'ext3'). Read 'man mkfs' and consider using the '-c' option.

* If you want to go "the extra mile", "to be sure" (you shouldn't have to, but just in case you want to...) - then run 'fsck' on it. Read 'man fsck'.

* When you are satisfied that you have a good file system, put your data back on it...

EDIT: Hey! It just occurred to me -- if '/dev/hdc1' is a second hard drive --- what/where is your optical drive? I don't see it in your 'fstab' file...

[dawg21]

Yes - the "evidence" suggests that your media drive has developed some "bad spots" on it...

Let's see if I understand all of this correctly:

* The problem you are describing (including having to clear the CMOS) only happens when the second IDE drive is electrically hooked up.

* You are only using Linux (No Windows).

I don't actually see the connection between the drive errors and having to clear the CMOS, etc... (I believe these drive errors could occur even with everything else operating smoothly.)

Suggestion #1:

* Run 'fsck' on it. Read 'man fsck'. Use option '-t vfat' (or you can run 'fsck.vfat' on it, instead).

If, after you have done this, it is not repaired...

Suggestion #2:

* Copy off [to somewhere - burn to CDROM?] any and all data from the second IDE drive that you want to keep.

* Format the drive (perhaps in a native/standard Linux format - i.e., 'ext2' or 'ext3'). Read 'man mkfs' and consider using the '-c' option.

* If you want to go "the extra mile", "to be sure" (you shouldn't have to, but just in case you want to...) - then run 'fsck' on it. Read 'man fsck'.

* When you are satisfied that you have a good file system, put your data back on it...

EDIT: Hey! It just occurred to me -- if '/dev/hdc1' is a second hard drive --- what/where is your optical drive? I don't see it in your 'fstab' file...

The issue with clearing the CMOS is there because my BIOS is screwy, I bought it off a buddy of mine and he told me about it being temperamental sometimes, but I just figured I'd use it as a backup machine... strange how things work out. If I don't clear the CMOS then the machine boots, but nothing is displayed onscreen.

Correct, I am using only Linux openSUSE 10.2, no Windoze for ME thank you very much! damn moneysoft...

My optical drive is (currently, I switch between them frequently as I only have one slot for a large drive (thank Shuttle for making such small cases)) an LG CD/RW 12x8x32 (i think those are the right numbers...). I forget offhand just how it is that I have my large drive connected, but I believe it's daisychained on the Linux drive. I could be wrong