[Gllug] Laptop failing to boot

[Mark Preston]

	I am just writing to thank all of those people who replied to my posting 
last month regarding error messages and a laptop failing to boot (Kim 
Hawkin, Steve Nicholson, and Dave Cridland). To be honest if you'd have 
asked me before I would have said that a knackered hard disk was the 
least likely explanation. As luck would have it due to previous problems 
  I already had a spare hard disc for the laptop in question purchased 
some months ago (I had sent the laptop back for hard disc inspection 
while it was still under warranty and they had repaired it). This was 
inserted and Windows 98 installed first time - this must mean I'm 
getting better at installations - it used to take about 6 months. Having 
  got the scanner/ printer / zip disk all working last weekend I was 
looking  forward to the fun of spending my lunchtimes trying to install 
some of the recent distros that I had recently downloaded and burnt onto 
cdroms. I started out with Mandrake 9.0 beta which seemed to be going 
along fine until the screen went dead on the second install disk. Using 
the first disk only I managed to get it working, but with a huge number 
of error messages it was clearly going to be an uphill struggle. So I 
decided to try Debian 3.0, but this also proved troublesome. I managed 
to get a root prompt, but no X-server/ window environment - no surprise 
really as I've never managed to get X configured with Debian - this will 
remain one of my ambitions in life. Then I tried Mandrake 8.2 which to 
my complete amazement has turned up trumps. Since last installing onto a 
laptop I've managed to improve my installation with Mandrake on other 
machines to the point where I can get Apache, PostgreSQL and PHP all 
working nicely together. This I duly did on the laptop and also the 
internet connection configured correctly by running kppp internet 
dialer. I have found recently that this hasn't been the case for some 
reason and that the only way I have managed to get connected previously 
has been by running minicom, chat  and pppd and working my way through 
the articles in Feb/March 2002 Linux Journal. Ending up with su root and 
typing pppd call uklinux.
The printer (HP890C) also works well using Cups and I can now see that 
I can look forward to actually using this set-up in preference to 
Windows 98. Needless to say there is a way to go but I'm absolutely 
thrilled at this prospect. The main plus point for the Mandrake set-up 
is that I have got to the point of having 
JavaScript/PHP/Apache/PostgreSQL working so that I can input patient's 
names and address details into a database and also search the database 
using the patient surname and select patients for their details to be 
added to  my forms. These can then be printed out. The thing that really 
  topped it off was the sound seems to be working fine as well. Even my 
nice new laptop running Mandrake 8.2 doesn't have the sound configured 
correctly.
This sort of ties in with Branden Faulls who wrote:-
 >I've been waiting till I could get Debian 3.0 off of the Linux Format
 >coverdisc next month, but I think I'll reinstall something else till 
 >then.
 >Best practice in terms of learning to secure myself better.  The fact 
 >that
 >I'm unsure of my security means that I'm probably vulnerable.

 >When reinstalling,  do I need to reformat my windows partition in the
 >interest of sanitizing the system?

I hope Debian 3.0 works out for you Branden, but I would say get a few 
distros and just try them out until one works well for what you want. 
You could install Debian and learn to live from the command line for 
great security, but it's a pretty dour existence in my view. Unless you 
want to just run Linux I can't see the point of reformatting your 
windows partition when you come to install Linux.

A couple of final questions before I go. When I boot up I get the 
following messages after the lines
Auto detecting IDE devices
Enter Ctrl-Alt-S for System Configuration Utility
[these are normally present I think]
Suspend to disk partition signature not found
Please run OVMKFIL.exe!

Can anybody shed any light on this, or indeed tell me how to run 
OVMKFIL.exe? The system seems fine otherwise.

Also is it possible that some of the problems I had installing Mandrake 
9.0 and Debian 3.0 were to do with the size of the CDrom? I have used 
650Mb ones previously and these were burnt onto 700Mb disks. I was 
getting a number of {DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error} messages 
  at certain points, amongst other things.
Regards from Mark Preston





-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug