> I was booting off the bootdisk and when the initial message and the boot: > prompt comes up, I hit enter, and it loads the root.bin, prints 4 periods, > and then hangs, like this: > > loading root.bin.... > > I tried all the boot images, resc-1440, resc-1440-safe, resc-1440-tecra, > resc-1440-safetecra, and they all have this problem.
Noble: I had exactly this problem when trying to install Debian on an older AST Ascentia laptop. I had a linux router diskette that booted with no problem; the most obvious difference I could see was that the linux router disk used SYSLINUX 1.44, and the Debian install diskette used SYSLINUX 1.42. Well, I couldn't think of an easy way to convert the Debian install diskette to 1.44, so instead I created a boot disk with LILO and the distribution root.bin. I used the Bootdisk HOWTO as my guide. If you don't have a Linux machine, or the HOWTO doesn't make any sense, I can send you a copy of the disk image I created. Other- wise you can read the description of what I did at the bottom of this mail. Hang on to your old rescue floppy, because when you're prompted later in the install for that diskette, you'll need to use that one, not the new one with LILO. All that having been said, I don't really know why the standard Debian install disks don't work on some laptops. If anybody else has any insight into this, I'd appreciate hearing it. Marc If you're still interested, read on... You'll need the resc1440.bin disk image and a file called bdlilo.conf, which you'll create as follows: ----- begin bdlilo.conf ----- boot =/dev/fd0 install =/boot/boot.b map =/boot/map read-write backup =/dev/null compact image = /linux root =/dev/fd0 ----- end bdlilo.conf ----- Then do this: $ mount -t msdos -o loop resc1440.bin /mnt $ ls -l /mnt/linux -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 715260 Mar 3 1999 /mnt/linux $ mke2fs -i 8192 -m 0 /dev/fd0 750 $ mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /floppy $ rm -rf /floppy/lost+found $ mkdir /floppy/boot $ mkdir /floppy/dev $ cp -R /dev/fd0 /floppy/dev $ cp -R /dev/null /floppy/dev $ cp /boot/boot.b /floppy/boot $ cp bdlilo.conf /mnt/linux /floppy/ $ lilo -v -C bdlilo.conf -r /floppy $ rdev -r /floppy/linux 17134 $ umount /floppy $ dd if=/mnt/root.bin of=/dev/fd0 bs=1k seek=750 ---------- Marc Mongeon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Unix Specialist Ban-Koe Systems 9100 W Bloomington Fwy Bloomington, MN 55431-2200 (612)888-0123, x417 | FAX: (612)888-3344 ---------- "It's such a fine line between clever and stupid." -- David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel of "Spinal Tap"
