Mandriva LE 2005 hangs on boot up
 

Hi,

I've just installed Mandriva LE 2005 in my laptop - an HP Omnibook XE3.

I've never had problems with Mandrake since i own this laptop.

Now, Mandriva starts, but it hangs just after a few (a dozen or so) boot line messages.

No error, no nothing. I can't give you any aditional info :(
Just hangs.

Has anyone around here had this problem (whatever the machine) ?

Any help would be apreciated.

Warm Regards,
Mário Gamito

I'm having the same problem. I hangs right after "activating swap partitions" here. On my box the digital TV card (Twinhan VisionDTV) is causing the problem. When I take this card out, Mandriva boots just fine. This probably won't apply to you but I've read bits an pieces about hotplug detecting my card wrongly thus hanging the system. Other Linux distros with the 2.6.11 kernel, like Knoppix don't work either though.

If this is the cause then you can boot in to failsafe mode, which skips most hardware detection, and select not to start hotpluging in the mcc (system tab services icon I think).

Re: Mandriva LE 2005 hangs on boot up
 

Which is the last bootline message?

I'm having what sounds like the same problem: I've upgraded from Mandrake 10.1 to Mandriva LE2005 (although the boot message says Mandrake 10.2 :-) and although the installation went without a hitch, during bootup it hangs after reporting that ALSA 1.0.6 has been successfully started. That's it.

Booting into failsafe and looking at /var/log/messages just shows the success of ALSA starting up and nothing more.

I can boot with the previous kernel (2.6.3); it seems to be the default 2.6.8 kernel (2.6.8.1-12mdk?) that's grinding to a halt. But I get odd problems using the 2.6.3 kernel (JPEG previews in Nautilus don't work for example).

I've got to rebuild the kernel to try to get it working with Bluetooth anyway, so I'll see what happens....

Okay, now I'm confused. Although after the installation the 2.6.8 kernel was the default, there's a 2.6.11 kernel lurking there too! So I tried that, and it got as far as the login screen, before hanging after I'd entered my password.

After a bit of fiddling around in tty1 I discovered that /dev/null was permissioned "rw-rw----" ! I fixed that and now I can log in, but there are several odd things going on:

1. No terminals work :-( They all give an error something like "couldn't start child process"
2. I can't use the Mandrake control centre because after asking for the root password it says it can't find su - but this is only in KDE; it works in Gnome
3. I can run zsh inside XEmacs, but can't su because "stdin is not attached to a tty". $PATH looks fine.

I think that my next step is a full installation instead of just an upgrade. Here's where I find out whether or not my backups are any good...

yeah the 2.6.8 kernel will halt at alsa it happend to me because i used the 10.1 mini-install to intall 2005, the solution is to go failsafe, and urpmi kernel 2.6.11 its the only way, or other use drakxservices and check off alsa. after don't forget to edit your /etc/lilo.conf and then change the linux= to the 2.6.11 image and initrd or else you will just have 2.6.8 again. After making the changes make sure you type in lilo -t and lilo -t to make it official.

Thanks webterractive.

At about the time you were posting that, I was doing a full installation ;-)

I was using grub up until this upgrade, for reasons I can't fully remember but probably because I'm using hdc3 as the root partition due to an existing Windows installation. The installation process set up LILO and it's working. I need to clean up my partitioning....

Mandriva LE2005 is at least booting correctly now. I haven't had a chance to check everything, but once Samba is set up and I've recompiled my WinModem driver I'll be all set.

I think that the konsole and gnome-terminal problems related to having installed the neep-alt font set for 10.1, and it going missing during LE2005 installation.

I have the same problem. Installed my VisionPlus DTV TV Tuner today, and sure enough Mandrake hangs after activating swap partitions. Even in failsafe boot.

Is there a fix? I'm unable to remove the card, but can one change settings immediately after the install?

WTF is the deal with Mandrake above 9.2 and the boot issue? I tried 2 sets of discs on 2 different drives and 10.1 hung on boot. I just ordered a Mandriva LE2005 hoping to escape this problem. I used 9.2 for 2 years and it always booted flawlessly. If Mandriva 2005 hangs I'm gonna just..........well, you know!

same problem here.

just download LE2005 3 iso images. md5sums are all ok.

but booting hangs up. it just show the boot splash screen and nothing then.
could you please teach me what to do? i'm a newbie here.

tks n advance.

I think that we should merge those discussions :

Not booting with TV card (LE 2005)
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=314192

Hang after enabling swap space
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=186192

WTF
 

I don't get what you guys are posting about. I have installed Mandriva LE2005 from a 10.1 Mini-install CD, and I have had no boot problems. Why don't you guys post what the hell the message says, and then your setup. Ie. kernel, hardware, and running services. Heres something to keep in mind: FOR MANDRIVA MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE USING THE 2.6.10+ KERNEL. IF YOU USE THE 2.6.8 ONE IT WILL HANG ON ALSA. IF THAT HAPPENS MAKE SURE YOU ENTER THE INTERACTIVE MODE AND DON'T LOAD ALSA OR USE THE FAILSAFE AND USE URPMI TO INSTALL THE NEWER KERNEL. I INSTALLED MANDRIVA 2005 ON A PII 350MHZ MACHINE, AND I HAD NO PROBLEMS WITH BOOTING EXECPT FOR THAT TIME AFTER I FORGOT TO UPDATE THE KERNEL BEFORE REBOOTIING. OTHER THEN THAT IT WAS SLOW, BUT WHAT YOU DO YOU EXPECT FROM A 350MHZ PII? THOUGH THE DESKTOP WAS VERY GOOD.

Because you didn't got any problems this doesn't mean other had some.

I got mandriva working at the first instal on a laptop.
but not lucky enough to make boot at all a pc with a pinnacle pctv sat card in it

Re: WTF
 

Why don't you look at the people actually posting the cry's for help. Most of us are newbies. I have no idea how to tell you what running services I have.

I know for myself the kernel 2.6.10 or 2.6.11 or what ever the standard is with 2005 LE has a bug up it's arse about some DTV Tuner Cards. Failsafe startup for me doesn't even work, still locks up at the same place (after activating swap partitions).