Booting problem...

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rubberd91
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Booting problem...

Post by rubberd91 »

I recently installed ReactOS on my old computer and the ReactOS bootscreen comes up fine and then the screen goes blue for a looooong time and stays like that. :?
Z98
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Post by Z98 »

To be able to offer any help, we're gonna need more information.
Jepael
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Post by Jepael »

Z98 wrote:To be able to offer any help, we're gonna need more information.
Well, I have the same problem, on a PC that can boot Ubuntu 6.06 LTS live CD without problems.

I downloaded the .install ISO file, burnt it to CDR (verification ok), and booted from the CD.

First the bootloader asked to press enter to boot from the CD, no problem there.

Then screen has a blue background, and on the bottom, it is shown that kernel, hal and all that is loading.

After that, the screen is propably cleared and written again, and the only thing left on the screen is "Reactos 0.3-release setup" on blue background, and there is a line below the text, but the line is brown I think and it is misaligned a bit to the left from the text. Then, nothing happens, the computer just sits and waits. If I press the eject button on CD-Rom drive, the kernel notices this and shuts itself down with appropriate message about ejecting install media.

I also tried booting the .ISO on VMWare, and the first time I booted it, it also took a few seconds until the install screen saying "Welcome to Reactos Setup" appeared, but it did not freeze completely like my PC did. One thing is different though, the line below the "Reactos 0.3-Release setup" text is gray like the text and center-aligned below the text.
EDIT: The line is also brown on VMWare before the screen is redrawn with all the welcome texts. After that it is gray.

My PC is (torn apart on the carpet, but anyway) and has the following stuff connected:
-Gigabyte GA-686BX motherboard (rev 2.2, Intel 440BX chipset)
-400MHz Celeron, 66MHz FSB
-256MB in two DIMMs, PC66 CL2
-4GB IDE HDD (primary master)
-IDE CDROM (primary slave) (I also tried another CD-ROM, didn't help)
-S3 Trio 3D AGP video board (Daytona)
-Creative PCI sound card with ES1371 chip
-3Com 3c905B-TX network adapter
-PS/2 keyboard, no mouse
-No USB, RS232, floppy disk drive, secondary IDE or ISA slot devices.

It would take too much time to write all the BIOS settings here, but if somebody suspects any problems there, I'll write them too. I'll also try to reproduce the problem on other junk PCs I happen to have.

- Jani
Jepael
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Location: Tampere, Finland

Post by Jepael »

Well, back again from testing.

I changed the motherboard (plus some other components) and I got the same result. Then I tried booting the 3.0.3 release CD on a completely different system, and it worked there.

Is there a way of debugging what goes on with the computer when it does this? Some debug output to COM ports or screen? I think it has something to do with initialising drivers or HDD or something, as the HDD made some reading noises before the red-lined text became normal with the welcome screen. Will it hang if the HDD has some perverted information like NTFS partitions or something? Or just some driver does not initiaise properly?

Hardware where problem still exists:
*Asus P2B rev 1.10 (BX chipset?)
*P2 300MHz CPU
*128MB of RAM in one PC66 DIMM slot
*Some ATI Rage AGP VGA card
*CDROM and HDD in first IDE channel
*different HDD than in previous non-working setup

Hardware which works:
*HP Vectra VL
*KZM-6120 motherboard rev.11 (no idea what chipset, can check dmesg)
*500MHz P3 CPU, 100MHz FSB
*256MB mem, one PC133 DIMM
*some HDD on IDE1, has Ubuntu Linux 6.06 installed
*some CD-Rom drive on IDE2 (the laptop type slim ones)
*no PCI/ISA cards
*Internal 3Com ethernet controller
*Internal CS4280 audio contorller
*Internal Matrox AGP VGA controller

- Jani
Elledan
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Post by Elledan »

I'd definitely try it on a barebones system first, i.e. only the bare essentials to make the system work. That should at least rule out whether the soundcard, NIC or such are somehow causing issues.

Run some memory/HDD test and such while you're at it.
Jepael
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Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:19 pm
Location: Tampere, Finland

Post by Jepael »

Elledan wrote:I'd definitely try it on a barebones system first, i.e. only the bare essentials to make the system work. That should at least rule out whether the soundcard, NIC or such are somehow causing issues.

Run some memory/HDD test and such while you're at it.
I don't think memory or HDD is the problem. What I would like to know is that what it means that the line below the text stays brown. A driver problem? Any way to get debug output easily to serial port or to screen?

-Jani
Z98
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Post by Z98 »

Ironically, I've encountered the same problem. While the installation has certainly gone smoother, even shutting down at the end, the boot still fails. I'm leaning towards a possible problem with the graphics driver.
jorl17
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Post by jorl17 »

Jepael wrote: Is there a way of debugging what goes on with the computer when it does this? Some debug output to COM ports or screen? I think it has something to do with initialising drivers or HDD or something, as the HDD made some reading noises before the red-lined text became normal with the welcome screen. Will it hang if the HDD has some perverted information like NTFS partitions or something? Or just some driver does not initiaise properly?
Where did you wirtte the the booter, was it MBR or Diskette.
Anyway, you should get something like a live cd and acess the file frldr.ini that is in that boots reactOS(or in the hd or in diskette) and edit it, setting the timeout to, like 30, and the DEBUGPORT in ReactOS_Debug, I think you should have it SCREEN not COM1, but that's your choice.
Jepael
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Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2006 9:19 pm
Location: Tampere, Finland

Post by Jepael »

jorl17 wrote: Where did you wirtte the the booter, was it MBR or Diskette.
Anyway, you should get something like a live cd and acess the file frldr.ini that is in that boots reactOS(or in the hd or in diskette) and edit it, setting the timeout to, like 30, and the DEBUGPORT in ReactOS_Debug, I think you should have it SCREEN not COM1, but that's your choice.
I could not write a bootloader or install anything, as booting from the install ISO froze after loading of some drivers and redrawing the screen, and before anything else than "Reactos 0.3.0 install" (with brown underline) on blue background was on screen.

Oh, and I haven't tried debugging yet. And I think I won't right now, at least not for a few months :)

- Jani
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Jaix
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Graphics adapter

Post by Jaix »

The first thing that comes into my mind is to change graphics adapter between the computers that works and the one that doesnt (if they are compatible).
Z98
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Post by Z98 »

I would, but it's an integrated graphics card. And I don't have any spare cards lying around. In fact, I don't think that machine even has a slot for an addon graphics card.
Jepael
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Post by Jepael »

Z98 wrote:I would, but it's an integrated graphics card. And I don't have any spare cards lying around. In fact, I don't think that machine even has a slot for an addon graphics card.
I tried several graphics cards too with normal motherboards, but one had an integrated Matrox. I'd blame my motherboards are too similar, similar chipsets and CPUs.

- Jani
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