Boot hangs after fresh install

[Ned Voorhees]

Hello,
I am a Fedora newbie, although I have used other flavors of unix for a
number of years.  I have just downloaded and installed FC3 32-bit
2.5.9-1.667.  I checked the media before the install and it passed. 
The installation experience was nice/easy and all seemed to go as
expected.  At the end of the installation process, I was prompted to
eject the cd and click a button to reboot.  I did this and the machine
hung on startup.  After waiting for 10 minutes or so, I rebooted again
(and several more times) and it always hangs in the same place.

This machine is an old Aptiva with a Pentium 350 with 128M RAM.  I
checked the hardware just before installing Fedora core by booting the
existing Windows 98 OS that was installed on it.  Win98 came up just
fine.  It is not dual boot - blew away *everything* on the hard drive
to install one new partition with Fedora core only.

Below are the messages shown on the screen at boot time:
--- snip ---
Booting 'Fedora Core (2.6.9-1.667)'
root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
  [Linux-bzImage, setup=0z1400, size=0x155da5]
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img
  [Linux-initrd@0x7ef3000, 0xecfed bytes]
--- snip ---

The above is all that is shown on the screen when the boot process
hangs.  If anyone has any suggestions on what I might want to do or
check, I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks much,
Ned

[Dave Jones]

On Sat, Jan 01, 2005 at 02:50:42PM -0500, Ned Voorhees wrote:
> Below are the messages shown on the screen at boot time:
> --- snip ---
> Booting 'Fedora Core (2.6.9-1.667)'
> root (hd0,0)
> Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
>   [Linux-bzImage, setup=0z1400, size=0x155da5]
> initrd /initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img
>   [Linux-initrd@0x7ef3000, 0xecfed bytes]
> --- snip ---
>
> The above is all that is shown on the screen when the boot process
> hangs.  If anyone has any suggestions on what I might want to do or
> check, I would very much appreciate it.

When you get to the bootloader screen, if you press 'e' you
can edit the command line, and remove 'quiet' from it.
You'll then see all the kernel messages, and see exactly where
it hangs.

Dave (hating 'quiet' more and more each day)

[Ned Voorhees]

Thanks very much Dave.

I was able to remove the "quiet" as you suggested.  The boot process
messages look good up until I see the message "Configuring kernel
parameters:" on a line by itself.  That is the last message that I see
when it hangs.  I can hit return and see line feeds at this point, but
nothing else seems to be going on (no hard drive activity, etc.).

Any further thoughts or suggestions (Dave or anyone else)?

Thanks for your help,
Ned

On Sat, 1 Jan 2005 14:55:23 -0500, Dave Jones  wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 01, 2005 at 02:50:42PM -0500, Ned Voorhees wrote:
> > Below are the messages shown on the screen at boot time:
> > --- snip ---
> > Booting 'Fedora Core (2.6.9-1.667)'
> > root (hd0,0)
> > Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
> > kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
> >   [Linux-bzImage, setup=0z1400, size=0x155da5]
> > initrd /initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img
> >   [Linux-initrd@0x7ef3000, 0xecfed bytes]
> > --- snip ---
> >
> > The above is all that is shown on the screen when the boot process
> > hangs.  If anyone has any suggestions on what I might want to do or
> > check, I would very much appreciate it.
>
> When you get to the bootloader screen, if you press 'e' you
> can edit the command line, and remove 'quiet' from it.
> You'll then see all the kernel messages, and see exactly where
> it hangs.
>            Dave (hating 'quiet' more and more each day)

[Darren Coleman]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this will be any help to you really, I just thought I'd
share my experiences.

I too tried installing Fedora Core (2) on my "old" Linux PC, which is pretty
basic in terms of configuration - one hard drive, graphics card, Athlon
1.3Ghz Thunderbird processor, no sound card or other peripherals, 768Mb of
RAM.

After I had installed Fedora in exactly the same way as you and rebooted,
the boot process hung at exactly the same point.  I tried all kinds of
kernel boot parameters to no avail.

In the end, on a whim, I installed Red Hat 9 which worked flawlessly first
time.

I upgraded the kernel on my Red Hat 9 installation to a recent version of
the 2.6 kernel, a process I have done countless times on other systems, and
when I booted the new kernel it got stuck at exactly the same position as
Fedora Core did.  It wasn't kernel panic'ing or anything like that, it
wasn't even getting to the first step.

The only thing I could conclude was that there was some serious hardware
incompatibility between my system and the 2.6.x kernel.  From the sounds of
it you have the same problem.

I would be interested to know what your hardware configuration is so I can
compare it against mine, as I would like to install and use Fedora
successfully at some point.

Regards,

Darren
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [e-mail] [mailto:fedora-list-
> [e-mail]] On Behalf Of Ned Voorhees
> Sent: 01 January 2005 20:16
> To: Dave Jones
> Cc: For users of Fedora Core releases
> Subject: Re: Boot hangs after fresh install
>
> Thanks very much Dave.
>
> I was able to remove the "quiet" as you suggested.  The boot process
> messages look good up until I see the message "Configuring kernel
> parameters:" on a line by itself.  That is the last message that I see
> when it hangs.  I can hit return and see line feeds at this point, but
> nothing else seems to be going on (no hard drive activity, etc.).
>
> Any further thoughts or suggestions (Dave or anyone else)?
>
> Thanks for your help,
> Ned
>
> On Sat, 1 Jan 2005 14:55:23 -0500, Dave Jones  wrote:
> > On Sat, Jan 01, 2005 at 02:50:42PM -0500, Ned Voorhees wrote:
> > > Below are the messages shown on the screen at boot time:
> > > --- snip ---
> > > Booting 'Fedora Core (2.6.9-1.667)'
> > > root (hd0,0)
> > > Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
> > > kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb
>
> quiet
> > > [Linux-bzImage, setup=0z1400, size=0x155da5]
> > > initrd /initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img
> > >   [Linux-initrd@0x7ef3000, 0xecfed bytes]
> > > --- snip ---
> > >
> > > The above is all that is shown on the screen when the boot process
> > > hangs.  If anyone has any suggestions on what I might want to do or
> > > check, I would very much appreciate it.
> >
> > When you get to the bootloader screen, if you press 'e' you
> > can edit the command line, and remove 'quiet' from it.
> > You'll then see all the kernel messages, and see exactly where
> > it hangs.
> >            Dave (hating 'quiet' more and more each day)
>
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[Kam Leo]

On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 12:02:12 -0000, Darren Coleman  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm not sure if this will be any help to you really, I just thought I'd
> share my experiences.
>
> I too tried installing Fedora Core (2) on my "old" Linux PC, which is pretty
> basic in terms of configuration - one hard drive, graphics card, Athlon
> 1.3Ghz Thunderbird processor, no sound card or other peripherals, 768Mb of
> RAM.
>
> After I had installed Fedora in exactly the same way as you and rebooted,
> the boot process hung at exactly the same point.  I tried all kinds of
> kernel boot parameters to no avail.
>
> In the end, on a whim, I installed Red Hat 9 which worked flawlessly first
> time.
>
> I upgraded the kernel on my Red Hat 9 installation to a recent version of
> the 2.6 kernel, a process I have done countless times on other systems, and
> when I booted the new kernel it got stuck at exactly the same position as
> Fedora Core did.  It wasn't kernel panic'ing or anything like that, it
> wasn't even getting to the first step.
>
> The only thing I could conclude was that there was some serious hardware
> incompatibility between my system and the 2.6.x kernel.  From the sounds of
> it you have the same problem.
>
> I would be interested to know what your hardware configuration is so I can
> compare it against mine, as I would like to install and use Fedora
> successfully at some point.
>
> Regards,
>
> Darren
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [e-mail] [mailto:fedora-list-
> > [e-mail]] On Behalf Of Ned Voorhees
> > Sent: 01 January 2005 20:16
> > To: Dave Jones
> > Cc: For users of Fedora Core releases
> > Subject: Re: Boot hangs after fresh install
> >
> > Thanks very much Dave.
> >
> > I was able to remove the "quiet" as you suggested.  The boot process
> > messages look good up until I see the message "Configuring kernel
> > parameters:" on a line by itself.  That is the last message that I see
> > when it hangs.  I can hit return and see line feeds at this point, but
> > nothing else seems to be going on (no hard drive activity, etc.).
> >
> > Any further thoughts or suggestions (Dave or anyone else)?
> >
> > Thanks for your help,
> > Ned
> >
> > On Sat, 1 Jan 2005 14:55:23 -0500, Dave Jones  wrote:
> > > On Sat, Jan 01, 2005 at 02:50:42PM -0500, Ned Voorhees wrote:
> > > > Below are the messages shown on the screen at boot time:
> > > > --- snip ---
> > > > Booting 'Fedora Core (2.6.9-1.667)'
> > > > root (hd0,0)
> > > > Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
> > > > kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb
> >
> > quiet
> > > > [Linux-bzImage, setup=0z1400, size=0x155da5]
> > > > initrd /initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img
> > > >   [Linux-initrd@0x7ef3000, 0xecfed bytes]
> > > > --- snip ---
> > > >
> > > > The above is all that is shown on the screen when the boot process
> > > > hangs.  If anyone has any suggestions on what I might want to do or
> > > > check, I would very much appreciate it.
> > >
> > > When you get to the bootloader screen, if you press 'e' you
> > > can edit the command line, and remove 'quiet' from it.
> > > You'll then see all the kernel messages, and see exactly where
> > > it hangs.
> > >            Dave (hating 'quiet' more and more each day)

If you want to test your graphics, I/O, and memory try either a
Knoppix or Ubuntu Linux distro.  They both provide live CDs with 2.6.9
kernels.

[Jack Spaar]

On Sat, 01 Jan 2005 15:15:52 -0500, Ned Voorhees wrote:
> Thanks very much Dave.
>
> I was able to remove the "quiet" as you suggested.  The boot process
> messages look good up until I see the message "Configuring kernel
> parameters:" on a line by itself.  That is the last message that I see
> when it hangs.  I can hit return and see line feeds at this point, but
> nothing else seems to be going on (no hard drive activity, etc.).
>
> Any further thoughts or suggestions (Dave or anyone else)?
>
> Thanks for your help,
> Ned

I had this same problem on two separate upgrades from FC2.  I fiddled
around and the problem resolved itself on the next boot or two.

I think I hit ctl-C or DEL at the stuck point.  The boot then continued
with many failure messages.  Then I shut down and rebooted, and everything
was ok.

I seem to remember on one machine I told grub to boot single-user, and it
came up cleanly.  Then it was able to reboot multi-user without a hitch.

Sorry I know this isn't a great solution.  Just another data point.

--Jack

[Patrick Boutilier]

On 02/01/05 04:38 PM, Jack Spaar wrote:
> On Sat, 01 Jan 2005 15:15:52 -0500, Ned Voorhees wrote:
> > Thanks very much Dave.
> >
> > I was able to remove the "quiet" as you suggested.  The boot process
> > messages look good up until I see the message "Configuring kernel
> > parameters:" on a line by itself.  That is the last message that I see
> > when it hangs.  I can hit return and see line feeds at this point, but
> > nothing else seems to be going on (no hard drive activity, etc.).

X is probably failing to start. Remove rhgb from the grub kernel line 
and then figure out why X isn't starting.
> > Any further thoughts or suggestions (Dave or anyone else)?
> >
> > Thanks for your help,
> > Ned