AMD K6-300: boot hangs @ "SCSI subsystem driver"

[knewbee]

Hi.

I'm brand new to Puppy (and Linux for that matter), so please be gentle.

I'm trying to run Puppy on an older machine, AMD K6-300, 256MB RAM, Win98SE. I have tried both the Live-CD and the "Run Puppy from Windows 98" methods, and both of them hang during boot.

With the Live-CD method, I get to the puppy menu, then a bunch of stuff scrolls by, much of which is something like "hdb: read_intr blah blah blah error blah blah blah". Then it hangs at "SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00".

With the "Run Puppy from Windows 98" method, it hangs at "Gujin1, gujin2 + go! v0.9 (c) Etienne LORRAIN 2004".

Any ideas?

BTW, I did get the Live-CD method to work on a different machine.

Thanks!

[Lobster]

Welcome to the kennels,

Interesting.

Be brave. Are you able to open your machine and unplug the SCSCI drive? Either of the cables. That would confirm that Puppy is having a problem with your drive.

(what are you gonna boot up from?) [ahem . . .] scrap that idea . . .

OK I am leaving this post in for amusement value and to confirm my addled thinking processes.

I do have quite a few CD players - so if I really wanted to run Puppy I would change the drive. Your situation may be different . . .

Do not worry about being a newby - I have been here many months and still make a complete fool of myself (well it's a hobby . . .)

Hope something can be done for you . . .

[Bruce B]

The Windows 98 method you described and the Live CD are two entirely different boot methods. It would require different troubleshooting.

Let's focus on the Live-CD for now - if you please.

According to what your wrote there is a problem associated with Puppy and hdb.

So what exactly is hdb? You didn't specify.

Due to the fact you said you are new, I will explain a little.

hdb is the slave device on the first ide controller.

It could be a CD-ROM drive, it could be a hard drive. Please describe in detail what you think it is.

[danleff]

if there is only one hard drive in the system (most likely hda) and the cdrom is hdb (the primary slave)...and given the age of the system and the cdrom drive, I wonder if the cdrom drive has difficulty with the media being used.

Are you booting from Puppy burned on a cdrw disk burned on another system with a cdrw drive?

[Ian]

If you could supply the details of your hard drive setup it will make it easier for everyone to help you.

[knewbee]

Thanks to all for responding!

The system has

Primary / Master: HDD, main drive, several partitions, incuding C:
Primary / Slave: HDD, very old, 350MB, used only for back-up
Secondary / Master: CD-ROM
Secondary / Slave: CD-RW

all devices are old (circa 1998), but the P/S HDD is even older (circa 1993)

My Live-CD was burned to CD-R (no multi-session) on another (much newer) system, and boots fine on that system.

I'm guessing you guys will suggest removing the P/S HDD and try, eh?

[danleff]

My Live-CD was burned to CD-R (no multi-session) on another (much newer) system, and boots fine on that system.

Realize that the media that you are using may be fine with the newer system, but not the older cdrom drive in the box that you are trying to use it on. Older cdrom drives have trouble with home burned disks.

What is the speed rating of the cdr media? 52X....?

But, it looks like the problem may be that old secondary drive. Is it formatted as fat16 or fat12?

If you are so inclined, I would disconnect the old drive and see what happens. If Puppy boots, then you know what the issue is.

If Puppy still has a problem, consider the home burned cdr disk media, or the speed that you burned the disk at is not compatible with that old cdrom drive.

[knewbee]

Thanks. I'll try burning the CD using the older (slower) burner. If that doesn't work, then I'll try disconnecting the HDD. I probably won't get a chance to work on this until next week, but I'll report back my results.

[daklander]

Hi.

With the Live-CD method, I get to the puppy menu, then a bunch of stuff scrolls by, much of which is something like "hdb: read_intr blah blah blah error blah blah blah". Then it hangs at "SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00".

BTW, I did get the Live-CD method to work on a different machine.

Thanks!

I'm having the exact lockup at the same point.

The machine I'm trying to live boot on is now running Mepis.
The box is running an Athlon Tbird 1gig processor with 256MB of ram. One 10gig hard drive with one Linux partition and a swap partition. The hd is master and there is a cdrw as slave on the primary slot and a cdrom as master on the secondary slot.
There are no SCSI devices in the pc.

I was able to boot and run the live cd on this box running an Athlon XP-M 1400+ processor with 512MB ram, running 2 40gig hard drives as master and slave on the primary slot and a cdrom and cdrw on the second slot.

Anyone with a direction of where to go with this?

[Bruce B]

I was able to boot and run the live cd on this box running an Athlon XP-M 1400+ processor with 512MB ram, running 2 40gig hard drives as master and slave on the primary slot and a cdrom and cdrw on the second slot.

Anyone with a direction of where to go with this?

I sincerely suspect you answered your own question. Try putting the hard drive(s) on the first channel and the CD-ROM drives on the second channel.

[daklander]

I was able to boot and run the live cd on this box running an Athlon XP-M 1400+ processor with 512MB ram, running 2 40gig hard drives as master and slave on the primary slot and a cdrom and cdrw on the second slot.

Anyone with a direction of where to go with this?

I sincerely suspect you answered your own question. Try putting the hard drive(s) on the first channel and the CD-ROM drives on the second channel.

Thanks for that idea Burce. I didn't think EIDE drives would have anything to do with a SCSI error halt but it's worth a shot. I won't be able to do that swap around until this evening. I'll post the results.

[daklander]

OK, I had the chance to swap things around so now I have a solo hard drive on the first slot. The second slot now has a cdrom as primary and a cdrw as the secondary. I'm still getting the lockup after "SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00".

It boots great on another, this, computer.

[knewbee]

I'm just getting back to this (last week was crazy)... Sorry for the delay.

I burned Puppy at 4x directly on the machine to be booted. Boot still hangs at same spot.

I also noted about 10 lines above hang it says "cp: cannot stat '/usr'/: No such file or directory". Could be a red herring, but thought it might give you all something to chew on.

Tomorrow I will try removing P/S HDD and see if that helps.

daklander: Sorry to hear you're having the same problem. But I'm glad to have some company! ;^)

[daklander]

knewbee, yeah, it's a bummer 'cause BeatrIX is such a great looking distro. I'll keep trying and will post results if I have success. Please do the same.
I ran into new, additional problems last night. The cpu fan quit and I haven't had time to check if it's the fan or the board control.

[knewbee]

I removed the old HDD... Puppy would not boot.
I removed all HDDs... Puppy would not boot.
I get the same hang every time.

Puppy just sits there, like a dead dog.

Oh well, not a good first Linux experience for me... I'm apt to give-up on Puppy at this point, unless there are any further suggestions.

Should this thread get cross-posted to bugs?

[Bruce B]

Sorry to see you guys are still having problems. I've not had problems booting Puppy from CD-ROM, on the other hand I rarely do it, even on updates.

Often I don't even burn a CD disc.

Here is a breif sketch of how I do it.

1) I copy files from the disc or .iso file:

• a) I put image.gz and vmlinux where I want, usually in a subdirectory of C:\ (a FAT16 partition)
  b) I put usr_cram.fs in the same partition I plan to install the pupxxx file

2) I edit GRUBs menu.lst accordingly

----------------------------------------------------

It always goes well. But there is a catch, I use GRUB for DOS, it doesn't need to be installed, it is just a single file one can copy anywhere they want on any DOS partition. You have to have MS-DOS or Windows 9x installed to run GRUB for DOS off the hard disk. (There is a way to do it with XP, but I don't use NTFS or XP, so I can't tell you how).

Also, one needs to use the text editor and make a menu.lst file for GRUB.

So what's the catch? The idea of using GRUB for DOS hasn't caught on. I've given up trying to sell the idea.

[Guest]

OK. This has become a moot issue for me though I apparently have a bit of a clue as to where the problem was and it's not the hard drive, in my case.
I had a problem with the CPU fan failing and things obviously got pretty hot. Anyway, I grabbed my, intended, dedicated audio box and threw in that 10 gig hard drive and Puppy boots just fine so there's an issue with either the MoBo, the CPU or the cd drives causing the hang after the SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00" remark.
I'll pick up another fan and try it again though I'll have to use an even smaller hard drive.

[Guest]

knewbee, yeah, it's a bummer 'cause BeatrIX is such a great looking distro. I'll keep trying and will post results if I have success. Please do the same.
I ran into new, additional problems last night. The cpu fan quit and I haven't had time to check if it's the fan or the board control.

What a lamebrain. Of course you all knew I meant Puppy, right???

[daklander]

Really a lamebrain. I forgot to sign in.

DOH...

[Guest]

Video card, I had the same problem & based on my windows experience, if there is a problem try video. Different card, boots right up.

Hope that helps someone.

Bill M