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mythryll
12-03-02, 05:11 AM
Hi everyone.
I am having a lot of trouble installing Mandrake 9 or Redhat 8 on my new system. This happens with MDK9, I get similar errors with RH 8.
I have tried several times, and the installation works fine, the system probing selects Geforce 4 Generic (I have also tried with GeForce 2 DDR Driver) and the video test works! The problem appears only when I boot for the first time after the installation. The screen goes blank after I select the linux boot from either LILO or GRUB (I have tried with both). I also tried booting with another video mode (80x25 or 80x50). Then after a few lines that seem normal the screen fills with zeros and other numbers enclosed in brackets ('[xxxxxxxx]') and this goes on forever. Also tried setting the login mode to text..
I suppose something goes wrong when the system tries to find my devices (the plug 'n' play probing at the begining). I tried changing the BIOS setting 'Plug'n'Play OS' to NO but I got the same.
Could this be a problem with my GeForce graphics card?
The system is consisted of
P4-2GHz, 256 Ram, Asus P4B266 MB, Asus Geforce 4 MX-420 DDR with 64Mb, Sb-live value soundcard, internal sound card with SPDIF in & out, 10/100 network card with Realtek Chipset.
I have also tried installing MDK 8.2 but I got the same..
I have used MDK 8.2, MDK 9.0, RH 7.2 and RH 8 on an older system with
ATHLON XP 1.8Ghz, 256 Mb RAM, Chaintech Kudoz-7 MB, GeForce 2 - MX (replaced now by a RIVA TNT-2).
Everything worked like a charm..
I have heard somewhere about a similar problem when someone had to issue the init 5 command at boot prompt, or the system would not boot (same blank screen).
Here is another link with the same problem
http://www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/hardware/hgforce.html#gf4
I need help guys!

Mythryll

mythryll
12-04-02, 02:27 AM
Hi again,
I have tried with another video card (Riva TNT-2) but got the same results. I also tried removing all of my extra adapter cards (sound, network, etc.) and disabling the integrated ones (on board sound). I still got the same thing..
It must be something with the PNP probing at the start of the boot process..
Maybe it's poor motherboard chipset support or maybe the USB 2.0 controller (I tried however to disable it but still the same ..)
I will stop posting here, since this doesn't seem to be a graphics issue..
However, if you got an answer or suggestion for me, please reply, I will be waiting..

bwkaz
12-04-02, 06:38 AM
Zeros and numbers in brackets? That sounds a bit like a kernel oops report...

It might be the motherboard chipset -- what is the chipset? I'm too lazy to go look up P4B266 myself. ;)

mythryll
12-04-02, 07:56 AM
The chipset is intel 845D
Thanks

bwkaz
12-04-02, 11:38 AM
Hmm, that should work just fine...

Have you tried swapping RAM boards around? Maybe run a memtest86 overnight (www.memtest86.com)?

mythryll
12-05-02, 01:42 AM
Yes I tried yesterday with another memory chip I had on my second machine (which was running RH8 and MDK 9 right before that) and still got the same..
I also tried re-installing MDK and this time I put in all the extra kernels (eg. enterprise, secure, smp, etc.)
When I tried booting with either enterprise or secure, the scrolling of numbers stopped and I got a message saying that there was a kernel paging failure (or something like that)..
So I am guessing that it must be a problem between the chipset and the kernel..
Thanks..