Machine won't boot, sort of

[Robert Citek]

Hello all,

I got a couple of identical donated machines over the weekend, both 1
GHz PIII's with 256 MB of RAM and 20 GB HDDs. One machine boots
Knoppix 5.1.1 just fine. The other doesn't. If I use a Knoppix 5.1.1
CD, I can run memtest just fine (I usually stop it after 3 or 4 tests,
which all pass). However, if I try to boot linux from the Knoppix CD,
it starts to load the kernel and then reboots. I've tried each of the
following boot options, all with the same result:

> knoppix
> knoppix 3
> debug -b 1
> failsafe debug -b 1

Any thoughts as to what might be causing this problem?

Regards,
- Robert

[peanut369]

Are you sure they're identical? Maybe different video cards.

[Robert Citek]

Yup. On-board video. What's odd is that it reboots during the time
the kernel is loading. It doesn't panic. It just reboots. No
message, nothing.

Regards,
- Robert

[cch...@gmail.com]

Givin this situation, 2 identical machines, one that boots and one
that doesn't, after doing the obvious checks (making sure cables are
seated right and that sort of thing) I would start switching things
out from one to the other. Memory first (then test the boots) cd-roms,
then processors...but that's just me.

On Sep 2, 1:35 pm, "Robert Citek" <robert.ci...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yup.  On-board video.  What's odd is that it reboots during the time
> the kernel is loading.  It doesn't panic.  It just reboots.  No
> message, nothing.
>
> Regards,
> - Robert
>

[Umarzuki Mochlis]

have you tried boot option
xmodule=vesa

http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes

2008/9/5 cch...@gmail.com <cch...@gmail.com>

--
Regards,

Umarzuki Mochlis
http://umarzuki.com

[Robert Citek]

On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 5:40 AM, cch...@gmail.com <cch...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Givin this situation, 2 identical machines, one that boots and one
> that doesn't, after doing the obvious checks (making sure cables are
> seated right and that sort of thing) I would start switching things
> out from one to the other. Memory first (then test the boots) cd-roms,
> then processors...but that's just me.

What's odd is that it's not a "doesn't boot" but more of a "sort of
doesn't boot". It runs memtest just fine. It also boots FreeDOS just
fine. What it doesn't boot is linux. Or rather it doesn't complete
booting Linux. I get "loading kernel ......." followed by reboot.

Like you, I am suspecting hardware. I've checked cables and have
tried swapping the RAM to no effect. What I haven't checked for yet
is capacitor plague:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

One of the symptoms describes my experience: Spontaneous reboots

Regards,
- Robert

[Robert Citek]

The xmodule= cheatcode does not get processed until after stage 5 and
only if you enter graphics mode (runlevel 5). This one machine
doesn't even make it to stage 1.

http://www.cwelug.org/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi?Knoppix/BootProcess

Regards,
- Robert