Cannot fully boot after initial install.

[ScotK]

I installed gentoo (2005.0) recently and am using lilo as my boot manager. After completing the installation, I can use lilo to boot into
my windoze partition, but when I try to boot into gentoo, it starts the process, gets at least as far as mouting my partitions,
then the screen turns into a series of veritcal lines intersperesed with periodic random dots.

It seems to have stopped writing ANYthing to /var/log/messages, but it used to and as far as I could see before was the mounting of my last
/etc/fstab parition. After that, I don't know how far it gets since nothing more is written to messages and the info on the screen
scrolls by too quickly to catch.

If I try to go to other ctrl-alt-F* screens, nothing happens (or else they're all the same pattern). The computer is not
completely hung since caps and num lock will illuminate when pressed.

Any idea what is wrong or what I should look at to try to debug this? I seem to be able to do everything I've tried when I
boot from the install CD and chroot to the installation, but I can't complete a successful boot to the new install. (I built my own kernel.)

I attach my /etc/fstab. I also have a SATA drive, but I'm not mounting any of those paritions at this time, though I did at least try to
build the kernel with proper SATA support. (Although I also tried building one without and removing the SATA card - to no different
effect.)

Thanks,

Scot


# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
# $Header: /home/cvsroot/gentoo-src/rc-scripts/etc/fstab,v 1.14 2003/10/13 20:03:38 azarah Exp $
#
/dev/hde1 /dos vfat iocharset=iso8859-1,umask=0,codepage=850,noauto 0 0
/dev/hde2 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hde3 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hde5 /usr ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hde6 /var ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hde7 /tmp ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hde8 /record ext3 defaults 0 2
/dev/hde9 /usr/local ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hde10 /opt ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hde11 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hde12 /data ext3 defaults 1 2

/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /cdrw auto noauto,ro 0 0
/dev/cdroms/cdrom1 /dvdrw auto noauto,ro 0 0
#/dev/fd0 /floppy auto noauto 0 0

none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec 0 0


Note: I do not have a separate /boot parition - /boot exists on /. This doesn't seem to be a problem here, though, since I am at least
starting to boot into linux. (It did perhaps cause me to give up on trying to get grub to work, though.)

Here is my lilo.conf

boot=/dev/hda
prompt
timeout=100
default=gentoo

#gentoo linux
image=/boot/linux2.6.11
read-only
root=/dev/hde2
label=gentoo

#gentoo no sata
image=/boot/linux2.6.11-nosata
read-only
root=/dev/hde2
label=nosata

#windoze
other=/dev/hda1
label=dos

[NeddySeagoon]

ScotK,

You had trouble with grub because you don't have a real /boot partition but still had one declared in /etc/fstab when you tried to emerge grub.
Grub installs things into /boot. If /boot is listed in /etc/fstab, but not mounted, the grub ebuild attempts to mount it and fails with an error.
If you fix /etc/fstab grub will install OK. However, its not your problem.

If you made the framebuffer console in your kernel, its likely its that in a mess. If you have got as far as setting up an Graphical Display Manager, then there is a much bigger scope for things being wrong. We need to know more about your boot sequence.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[ScotK]

Neddy,

I am compiling a kernel now without framebuffer support and will report on how that goes.
Otherwise, what can I tell you about my boot sequence that would be helpful?

I have not setup a GDM (yet). I have installed X, but have also boot with gentoo single and get the same problem, so I
don't think the problem is (yet) in my X config.
Besides, by the amount of text scrolling by before the screen goes blitz, the problem is fairly early in the boot sequence.

Thanks,

Scot

[ScotK]

Update- I can now boot the new kernel without the framebuffer!

Now, what did I do wrong with the framebuffer configuration? My video card was in there and I chose it - should be OK. Is there a common
place to fail here?

Thanks!
scot

[NeddySeagoon]

ScotK,

Choosing your video card in the framebuffer is often the wrong things to do. No so much at teh framebuffer console stage, later ib X where framebuffer drivers conflict with the X drivers.

You may have set a video parameters for your framebuffer that your display cannot cope with althogh that normally gets you an 'out of range' message on teh display.

Use the vga-tng framebuffer. It works with almost any hardware and does not conflict with any X video drivers I know of.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[ScotK]

Thanks, Neddy. I'll try it.

scot