Slackware boot problem

Quoting Vaughn Treude <vltreude@deru.com>:

> Hello again:
> I have yet another problem; this one is for the Slackware gurus out there. I
>
> cobbled together an ancient P166 machine with three small drives: two IDE
> and one SCSI, the latter on an initio controller. I then installed Slackware
>
> 9, putting root on the first IDE drive and /usr onto the SCSI, and home and
> swap on the second IDE drive. I never did get it to boot from the hard
> drive, but now it no longer boots from floppy. (This machine has no CD-boot
>
> option.) I believe I did the original install with the "scsi" boot image
> (or it may have been scsi2 image, I don't recall.) I also created a boot
> floppy during the install, and I do have image 1 and image2 disks. Every
> time I try to boot it, it says "Loading vmlinuz ................ Ready" and
>
> then hangs.
> I've tried all possible boot disks: scsi, scsi2, adaptec, bare, and the one
>
> I created. They all do the same thing. Is there an option I should give the
>
> kernel at the boot: prompt? I even tried creating a Knoppix 3.2 floppy, and
>
> that wouldn't boot either. I tried the "failsafe" option on that floppy, but
>
> it complained that it couldn't find that version of the kernel - I supposed
> they didn't have room for it on there.
> Any suggestions? I'd like to get a Slack system up and running for testing.
> Thanks!
>
> Vaughn Treude
> Nakota, Software, Inc.

Didn't notice if anyone else answered your questions, so here goes.

On the second Slackware 9 under ISOLINUX/SBOOTMGR is a great little boot disk
program Smart Boot Manager. I quote:

"sbootmgr.dsk  This nifty little tool allows selecting various devices to boot
              from a menu, and even allows booting a CD-ROM in machines where
              the BIOS doesn't support it. . ."

Use Sbootmgr to boot to the CD root and look on the first or second CD for a
kernel that you think might work. You might try a small install ignoring the
SCSI drive and just using the two IDE drives. If that works then all you should
need to do, I would think, is find a kernel that supports the SCSI controller.
The Slackware documentation should help yhou there

Dennis Kibbe




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