Can't get sager 8887 laptop to boot

[mdhorton]

I can't get knoppix to boot. I have tried numerous boot options but I can only get it to go in failsafe. I type in failsafe screen=1600x1200 and it boots up fine but I would like to get the usb working and I don't think the cdrw is working cause there is no scsi emulation. Would any one have any ideas. Also, this laptop has the intel 3ghz processor with hyperthreading turned on in the bios. Could this be the problem? What are all the options that are turned off when you do failsafe?

[rickenbacherus]

I can't get knoppix to boot. I have tried numerous boot options but I can only get it to go in failsafe. I type in failsafe screen=1600x1200 and it boots up fine but I would like to get the usb working

Did you boot like this:

boot: knoppix screen=1600x1200 noapic noagp noapm nodma nomce nofirewire nopcmcia noscsi noswap nosmp noaudio

quote]and I don't think the cdrw is working cause there is no scsi emulation.[/quote]

Sure there is.

dmesg | less

What does cdrecord -scanbus tell you?

Would any one have any ideas. Also, this laptop has the intel 3ghz processor with hyperthreading turned on in the bios. Could this be the problem?

Maybe but probably Linux and one piece of hardware aren't getting along. Have you disabled PnP in the BIOS? Turned of Auto IRQ assignment? Disabled hyperthreading?

What are all the options that are turned off when you do failsafe?

It does minimal hardware detection. Kind of like the line I posted above but by passing parameters manually you have more control.

[mdhorton]

I tried this and got the same thing.

boot: knoppix screen=1600x1200 noapic noagp noapm nodma nomce nofirewire nopcmcia noscsi noswap nosmp noaudio

This is what happens: I set the boot options then it says loading vmlinuz, then Loading miniroot.gz, then the screen goes black and there is some hd and cdrom activity I let it sit for as long as 10 min. and the machine is locked up.

I have turned off pnp os, hyperthreading, but I couldn't find any setting for auto irq. This is a weird bios. Like none I have ever seen before.

Is there really that much I am missing by setting up in failsafe? I can't get any usb, but I have not really tried too hard. I assume I could get it working even if it isn't detected.

Here is the output from cdrecord, I think it looks right.
Cdrecord 2.01a10 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2003 Jörg Schilling
Linux sg driver version: 3.1.24
Using libscg version 'schily-0.7'
scsibus0:
0,0,0 0) 'TOSHIBA ' 'DVD-ROM SD-R2412' '1015' Removable CD-ROM
0,1,0 1) *
0,2,0 2) *
0,3,0 3) *
0,4,0 4) *
0,5,0 5) *
0,6,0 6) *
0,7,0 7) *
dmesg | less doesn't look that good. There are a lot of references to finding a device at say irq 10 and it needs 11 sharing IRQ 11 with 02:04.1. There is alot of entries like this. I could send you the output from dmesg if you think it might help. If not, then thats ok. I do have a working system and have installed it to the hard drive. I will try to get the usb working, the cdrw appears to be there, but i have not yet tried to burn anything. The built in firewire doesn't work, but I don't have anything firewire. I do have an internal sony memory stick reader, but I don't know if it is working or not and I would like to try and get that going as I do have a sony digital camera.

Thanks for your help
Mike

[rickenbacherus]

Let me get this straight- you got an install completed but some things aren't working because you had to boot w/ failsafe. So if you can get these things working you're good to go? I would definitely reset your BIOS to the way it was. You can chage it later if necessary.

Here is the output from cdrecord, I think it looks right.
Cdrecord 2.01a10 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2003 Jörg Schilling
Linux sg driver version: 3.1.24
Using libscg version 'schily-0.7'
scsibus0:
0,0,0 0) 'TOSHIBA ' 'DVD-ROM SD-R2412' '1015' Removable CD-ROM

Excellent. An IDE device on the SCSI BUS means SCSI emulation is in action. Do this:

ls -al /dev/cdrom

The output should look similar to this:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 May 12 21:24 /dev/cdrom -> sr0

What is that?- A symbolic link to yourcdrom device the actual name of which is sr0. It has been 'renamed' so to speak with the symbolic link '/dev/cdrom'

Do a search here for K3b- an easy tool to configure IF you know how. Do yourself a favor and don't run the K3b setup. Better yet if you really want to learn Linux do this:

man cdrecord

I will try to get the usb working, the cdrw appears to be there, but i have not yet tried to burn anything. The built in firewire doesn't work, but I don't have anything firewire. I do have an internal sony memory stick reader, but I don't know if it is working or not and I would like to try and get that going as I do have a sony digital camera.

Several ways to glean info about your Linux box.

cat /proc/pci
cat /proc/interrupts
cat /proc/bus/usb/devicecs
cat /proc/scsi/scsi
cat /proc/cpuinfo
procinfo -f
free

I don't know the first thing about a built in memory stick reader but it might be a very educational endeavor. I would imagine it will show up on the SCSI BUS if it's inserted. You would need to mount it too. More info please.

Of course most of your troubles may be in IRQ conflicts. The error you post suggests that something has a hard coded IRQ. You're certain that there is nothing in the BIOS that would allow you any measure of coontrol over the IRQ's? It might be worth a trip to the manuf. web site to find out anything you can.

[mdhorton]

So, if I am understanding you correctly, I am not losing any functionality by starting in failsafe, except for some convience of haveing Knoppix detect and setup everything for me.
Everything is working ok, except the devices previously mentioned. I can burn cd's now. Could you tell me the relation of the horizontal and vertical sync rates. What I mean is, when I try to change my monitor, which is not listed, it only has a place to put in horizontal sync and vertical sync. I have not been able to find these #'s but I know the LCD can do 1600x1200.
Also, if I start the apm daemon the machine locks in KDE after a few minutes. It would be nice to know how much battery time is left but not a neccessity.
I thank you alot for your help. This has been a new experience for me. I have 40 Linux servers running SuSE, so I am not a complete novice. But when I build a server, I don't care about video cards, usb ports and so on cause they don't get X installed. And a laptop is different than a desktop. If I can't get a desktop to work right, I just change out hardware until it does.

Again thanks.

Mike

[rickenbacherus]

So, if I am understanding you correctly, I am not losing any functionality by starting in failsafe, except for some convience of haveing Knoppix detect and setup everything for me.

Correct. I'm sure you are familiar with standard troubleshooting procedures- simplify, make it work at its minimal configuration and then add complexity to the issue. You have lost nothing by booting failsafe.

Everything is working ok, except the devices previously mentioned. I can burn cd's now. Could you tell me the relation of the horizontal and vertical sync rates. What I mean is, when I try to change my monitor, which is not listed, it only has a place to put in horizontal sync and vertical sync. I have not been able to find these #'s but I know the LCD can do 1600x1200.

It seems that you are using the KDE control center to make these adjustments. As I understand it you will need to reboot for any changes regarding your monitor made in the KDE control center to take effect. The actual configuration is in

/etc/X11/XFree86Config-4

If your resolution, hsync, vsync & color depth aren't listed you could add them. You may be able to see the format from the way the file is written. IIRC there are a multitude of resolutions, scan rates, color depth combinations available. Knoppix has a "one size fits all" XFree86Config-4 file. It's comparitively HUGE in an attempt to work on as many machines as possible.

Also, if I start the apm daemon the machine locks in KDE after a few minutes. It would be nice to know how much battery time is left but not a neccessity.

I'm afraid I'm not much help on that particualr issue. Of course there is always

/var/log/syslog

That may give you some insight on what's happening. Have you tried it with another desktop- ICEWM for example?