Just a blinking cursor when installing to HDD

Booting, installing, newbie
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chrisperry
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Joined: Fri 02 Sep 2005, 18:52
Location: Georgetown, Ky

Just a blinking cursor when installing to HDD

#1 Post by chrisperry »

i followed the instructions a few times and i only get a blank screen with a blinking cursor.

thanks chris

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#2 Post by Guest »

I read your post a few times and really feel that a bit more information is required to debug your problem.

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chrisperry
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Location: Georgetown, Ky

#3 Post by chrisperry »

Idid thehd install just like it says, i cfdisked made the partitiion, bootable, linux and used the whole 10 gig

i ran install to hd, followed the instructions installed grub, to mbr then when i reboot without the cd i get the(compaq)logo then the screen goes blank with a blinking curser on the top left. doesnt do anything else

Frusterated( after about 15 reinstalls.)

Guest

#4 Post by Guest »

Could you please provide a bit more info about your machine please ?


Compaq like to do things their own way contrary to everyone else.

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Ian
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#5 Post by Ian »

How did you set up the boot procedure, did you create a floppy or use Grub to boot from.

Bladehunter is right, if you could supply the specs of your machine, hard drive size, amount of RAM, any CDROMs or DVDs connected, CPU type and speed, and if it is a desktop or laptop machine, it would make it a bit easier to try and find out what is causing your problem.

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danleff
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#6 Post by danleff »

For those who have not seen it, Chris also has a topic on this issue posted here which has recent replies.
I love it when a plan comes together

--Hannibal Smith

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chrisperry
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Location: Georgetown, Ky

#7 Post by chrisperry »

desktop
amd k62 550
the hd is 10gig
128meg ram
networked to a win xp with cable internet access
cdrom

when i install i use option 2, install grub to mbr i let puppy have the whole hd

it acts like there is no os on the machine

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Flash
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#8 Post by Flash »

What happens if you boot the Puppy live CD with the option not to use the hard drive, then mount the hard drive? Can you see any files on the hard drive?

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Ian
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#9 Post by Ian »

You may have to install Grub by hand. Do a search of the Wiki for instructions on how to do this.

Bruce B

#10 Post by Bruce B »

bladehunter wrote:I read your post a few times and really feel that a bit more information is required to debug your problem.
Yes, he (probably accidently) started a parent topic which should have been a sub-post under another topic. Then there would have been more specifics.

http://www.murga.org/%7Epuppy/viewtopic.php?t=2047

Based on the information I have, I'm inclinded to think that GRUB didn't install correctly. I don't recommend he keep trying to install with the same script over and over either. As I've tried every combination the script has (except the boot from floppy) with somewhat poor success ratio.

For example when I want to install to the mbr and I have hard drives hda and hdc, it wants to install on hdc. Why? I can't boot from hdc.

I tell it to install on hda and it doesn't do it. The mbr doesn't change at all, but it will likely install grub on the mbr of hdc, or maybe not anywhere.

There are other solutions.

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Ian
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#11 Post by Ian »

You can install Grub by hand you just need the Grub files to create a boot floppy and install Grub to the MBR then create the needed directories install the required files then edit the menu.ls file to point grub at the partition/s you wish to boot.

I wrote a simple howto for Grub on the old Simple forum but the files I attached are no longer available there as Barry has closed the forum and it is now read only.

There is info on the Wiki about Grub, all you need are the Stage 1&2 files the file that refers to your filesystem and menu.ls.

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