My troubles installing LINUX

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

NT and Windows will destroy LILO when you install. 
Before installing Windows9X or Windows NT boot from a DOS diskette and run 
fdisk /MBR to clean the master boot record. Install Windows, then boot 
Linux from your resue floppy. Then, the simplest way to reset lilo is just 
issue the command (as root); /sbin/lilo or from YaST.
Randall Hofland wrote:
> Mike;
> 
>     Interesting insight into my boards and it may be the answer to my
> problems with the Mandrake 7 distribution, although I am using AGP video
> cards. I have actually discovered that the primary problem with the Dual Boot
> setup is that NT trashes my LILO files while installing. I also suspect that
> I need to delete the existing LILO entirely while building the NT install and
> then reinstall it when NT is completely installed (I can do this fairly
> easily in SuSE 6.3 with YaST v.1). I can selectively boot up the system
> either on the CD for system building or the hard drives as needed and where
> LILO resides (I use the Main Boot Record). The strange thing is that the
> systems run quite well by themselves but crash each other when installed
> together.
>     Now that I know where my problems are, I think I can now get all of my
> servers up and running without too much more trouble. I am quite impressed
> with the boards once I have the software up and running. I'll keep the
> Discuss Group posted.
> 
> Randy Hofland
> 
> 
> 
> Mike Bilow wrote:
> 
> > The Supermicro P6DLS is a rather eccentric motherboard, to say the least.
> > It has a few, well, "quirks," especially when it gets too near the Linux
> > Adaptec drivers.
> >
> > First of all, running the bus at 75 MHz may well cause trouble.  I have
> > never tried this, but it would be one of the first things I would look at.
> >
> > Second, the most likely source of trouble on the P6DLS is -- get this --
> > PCI card plug order.  Some of the PCI slots have different capabilities
> > from each other, so often rearranging the cards will solve mysterious
> > problems, especially with video.  Often, if you are using a PCI video
> > card, it helps to put it into either the slot closest to or futhest from
> > the power supply.  Both bus mastering and resource allocation order will
> > be changed.  When you see funny video things on the P6DLS, PCI card order
> > is the leading suspect.  We once had a Number Nine PCI video card that
> > would only work in one slot if there was a 3C905 Ethernet card present.
> >
> > Third, you absolutely must make sure that your Linux kernel is compiled
> > with IO-APIC support or this motherboard is not going to work.  You should
> > test by booting Linux with SMP disabled to see if you have any different
> > behavior; do this by specifying "nosmp" to Lilo when prompted.
> >
> > -- Mike
> >
> > On Sat, 18 Mar 2000, Randall Hofland wrote:
> >
> > > FYI Update on LINUX installs;
> > >
> > >     I was able to fully install Mandrake 7 to the hard drive of my
> > > server box (Supermicro P6DLS boards with dual Celeron @ 525 MHz, 128 Mb
> > > DIMMs CAS L2) and then exit the install and reboot. The machine freezes
> > > with a screen that is blank except for a "g" at the bottom left. I have
> > > not been able to configure X because of issues with using an old PS2 VGA
> > > monitor despite setting the X configurations within the acceptable range
> > > (but I don't really need X on the server anyways). Unlike my install
> > > issues with SuSE where it usually does not get through LILO, this freeze
> > > is beyond the LILO boot.
> > >     I am now suspecting a hardware issue on the motherboards but can't
> > > figure out what can be the problem. The SCSI drive is properly
> > > configured as a boot device in Bios and the Adaptec drivers for the on
> > > board UW-SCSI seem to boot up via the BIOS installation as well. I have
> > > not discovered any obvious points of contention during my explorations
> > > of the BIOS and SCSI utilities. My only real concern is that either my
> > > running the bus at 75 rather than 66 MHz causes some data errors
> > > (unlikely since I have have already tried loading SuSE at the 66MHz
> > > setting) or that the DIMMs have some sort of configuration problem (BIOS
> > > is set to autodetect but I have also tried manually setting to CAS L2 or
> > > L3).The one thing I have not done with this board (but did with another
> > > problem child) was to update the BIOS to detect faster CPU speeds.
> > >     This is truely making me crazy. Please give me some idea what I need
> > > to look for.
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> 
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-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org


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