[H-GEN] System won't boot, motherboard at fault?

Jason Parker-Burlingham jasonp at panix.com
Sun Aug 8 14:46:32 EDT 2004


Brief synopsis:

So I've removed one disk of a Linux software RAID-1 array from a
system to do some maintenance (read:  move to another motherboard).
But the system won't boot.  I've double and triple-checked all the
jumpers and BIOS settings and everything looks fine.  Instead of
booting correctly, GRUB runs, presents a menu and promptly does a soft
reset of the system.  I'm looking for hints on what to check next.

Further details are beneath the form-feed.

The long version:

The OS installed is Red Hat 9.  Originally the drive I'm working from
had no boot loader installed (I think this is a bug in Red Hat 9?) but
I've gotten past that by running

   grub> root (hd0,0)
   grub> setup (hd0)
   grub> reboot

as per instructions.  The kernel is 2.4.20 or so (I'd have to switch
keyboard and display again to check) and boots on the other
motherboard without complaint.  The new board is an ABIT IS-20, the
host drive is a simple 80GB Western Digital with three primary
partitions of type 0xfd:  /boot, /, and /export.  If I add the
"fstest" command to the GRUB command list, I see what looks like a
list of blocks loading, and then "Loading Linux" before the system
resets.

The system in question has no other peripherals attached:  the drive
is set to a master, there's no slave drive present, no devices or
cable on the second channel, or either of the SATA channels.  I've
disabled various extra devices (sound and so forth) in the BIOS to
attempt to rule out some kind of resource conflict to no avail.  I've
removed and reseated the RAM and checked it's within spec (it is).

Otherwise, I'm out of options.  I can cannibalize one of my other
systems for parts if necessary but wouldn't mind some inspiration on
what to check next before I do.

jason
-- 
http://panix.com/~jasonp?BabyPictures




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