On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 06:09:18PM -0500, Glenn Meyer wrote:
> Ah, no, I had not. When I try to boot with knoppix 3.8, it also hangs
> on this machine **UNLESS** I boot with the "acpi=force" option (no, I'm
> not smart enough to figure that out on my own - I saw the note in the
> first line of the boot process below.)
>
> ACPI: BIOS age (1999) fails cutoff (2001), acpi=force is required to
> enable ACPI
> audit(1110993293.105:0): initialized
>
> Welcome to the KNOPPIX live Linux-on-CD
>
> Scanning for USB/Firewire devides... Done.
> Accessing KNOPPIX CDROM at /dev/hdb...
> Total memory found: 319868 <<-- This is correct 64 built in + 256
> Creating /ramdisk (dynamic size=246340k) on shared memory... Done.
> Creating unionfs and symlinks on ramdisk...
> >>Read-only CD/DVD system successfully merged with read-write /ramdisk
> Done.
> Starting ini process.
> INIT: version 2.78-knoppix booting
> Running Linux Kernel 2.6.11.
> Processor 0 is Pentium III (Coppermine) 696MHz, 256 KB Cache
>
> (stalls here unless I use the "acpi=force" option at boot)
>
>
> I then went back to my installation and booted. When I got the Grub
> interface, I tried editing the kernel line adding "acpi=force" but it
> hung in the same place.
>
> I'm wondering if this is all due to an old BIOS (I just bought this).
> Current on the machine is 1999, but I see there is a 2002 version on the
> HP/Compaq site. I have downloaded it, but can't install/flash until I
> get a floppy drive (just ordered one on ebay).
>
If age were the problem, it should be the reverse-- a newer BIOS should
give you more trouble than an older one. No guarantees, but generally
newer hardware is less supported than older hardware.
Also, the acpi option, if it worked with Knoppix, would probably only
work with your other Linux distro if it had the same kernel. This sounds
like a kernel-specific bug.
Also, I never ever use framebuffer. It's flakier and slower than
communicating directly with the video hardware, particularly if you're
on the x86 platform. If you're just trying to get the console working
(the first hurdle), nothing is easier to support than the console. When
you're dealing with X Window, you have to specify the video card, but
the console basically doesn't care, because the interface is so
primitive and universal. If it won't boot in the console, it probably
_isn't_ a video problem (assuming the video hardware isn't dead).
And lastly, you're working with the 2.6 kernel series, rather than the
2.4 series. The 2.6 kernel, while it has some cosmic features, is also
more buggy at each version than the 2.4 series. The development process
changed with the 2.6 kernels, and there's more likelihood of showstopper
bugs in the 2.6 kernel series for now. I can't vouch for the patched
kernels put out by the distros, but they're even still messing with the
memory and VM subsystems of the kernel (making some radical changes),
all through the 2.6 series.
Paul
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