I have a problem booting my MV Free 2007. It's been getting steadily worse and more frequent. Now (tonight) I've had to come upstairs and boot up my spare PC (also running MV07) to post this.

I choose Linux nonfb mode and the PC just hangs after the 'setting hostname localhost' line. The PC has actually performed this task as there's an OK message at the end of the line. Underneath, there is simply the flashing cursor, with zero keyboard response.

Choosing failsafe mode to boot produces identical results and I gave up on the graphical mode ages ago as it hangs at the start.

Up until tonight, a couple of reboot attempts would get it up and running, but tonight, I've re-booted 8 times. Now I'm upstairs on the old machine posting this and I'm pretty peeved as I've spent hours and hours configuring MV to the point where I'm a whisker away from ditching windows for good. To that end, the thought of a re-install makes me ill.
The PC in question is a 3.4Ghz/IGbRam/256card/200Gb windowsHD/ and brand new 40Gb Seagate Caviar HD running MVFree07.

Please help?

Thanks as ever

Pauly

There could be a problem with the service that runs after the hostname has been set. When the boot process starts, enter "i" on your keyboard to access interactive start up and make sure you note which service is started after the hostname has been set. Make sure you choose not to start this service and post back and tell us its name.

Instead of re-installing, throw in the MDV2007 CD/DVD, and instead of selecting the "Install" option, select the "Upgrade" option.

That might fix the problem, it may not.
It's the only thing I can think to suggest.

Also, what I've taken to: If I'm tinkering around with Mandriva, and I make a change to a system file that renders my PC unable to boot, I always keep a copy of DSL (Damn Small Linux) around. It's bootable from the CD, and has been a life-line for me for a long time now.

It will automatically detect all your hardware settings and HD partitions. Use it to poke around in the files on your MDV install, and see it you can find anything that could provide an explanation to the problem.



reddazz:

I've heard on several occasions, also first-hand experience, Mandriva 2007 seems to disable that "Interactive boot" option, and it also doesn't grant you shell access if it stumbles upon a fatal boot error...you press Control-D like it says, and it just reboots on you.

It's a pretty shady bit of business.

Thanks guys. The problem, it would appear, is not exclusive to me:

http://forum.club.mandriva.com/viewt...t+problem+2007

Pretty poor that MV let this one slip through the net, tbh.