Re: [TCLUG:7674] Boot problems

[Chris Kesler <chris@pconline.com>]

I'll probably get flamed for this.  I had the 0's and 1's on my screen
when I put together a new system.  I couldn't get Linux to boot off of the
drive, so I put DOS on it to see if I could get that to boot.  It did, so
then I put Linux on it again, and now Linux booted off the drive.

I think that the problem was with the master boot record on the drive. 
Since it was brand new, the mbr was blank.  It seems like LILO depends on
having a previous OS on the drive.

I hope I'm wrong.  But, you can try it.  Boot with a DOS floppy, then do a
'fdisk /mbr'.  Then boot with a Linux floppy, reinstall LILO, and then see
if you can boot off of your hard drive.

I'd suggest trying freedos.  It would be nice to know that your machine
_never_ had any Microsoft code on it.  Let me know what happens.


On Thu, 19 Aug 1999, Hanson, Bob C. (PC) wrote:

> Hello
> 
> I just got done setting up a new system here at work running Mandrake 6.0.
> 
> I can boot with the floppy drive but not to the hard drive. If I let the
> system boot to the HD the only thing that comes up are 0's and 1's scrolling
> down the screen. I reinstalled and reformatted the system 3 times with the
> same problem each time.
> 
> System specs are as follows. AMD K6-2 450, SeaGate 8.6GB drive, 128MB ram,
> 3Com 10/100 NIC, Matrox G200 Video Card and a Micro-Star MS-5169
> motherboard.
> 
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