Can't boot new SuSE installation.

[WaltDizzy]

I have an ASUS K7N266C motherboard with 500 MB of memory. I am attempting to make a dual boot system with Win2K, but I get the same error with installing SuSE to a disk with nothing else on it. The install process seems to go fine. But right after the initial boot screen this error message pops up:


kernel (hd 0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 hdc=ide-scsi vga 791 3

[Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1400, size=0x10aab8]

Error 28: Selected item cannot fit into memory.

Grub version 0.92 (512K lower/523184K upper memory)


My understanding is that Linux uses a memory system that is not limited by low/high memory. Otherwise the kernel really is too big. But no different in size than on my other successful install. The SuSE disk set is OK, I tried it successfully on another computer.

I've booting from a floppy boot disk and a rescue disk. Those don't give me the error message, just fail to a blank screen.

I've reinstalled several times with and without modem, NIC, RAID, and sound. I've tried with and without APIC. I've installed using the manual option to leave out as many drivers as I thought I could get away with. The error message is always the same, leading me to believe I'm not on the right track at all.

Walt

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by WaltDizzy

Error 28: Selected item cannot fit into memory.



I've seen the exact same error message posted here at LNO on a few occasions though I cannot remember if and what the solution is.

It could be bios settings, HD partition setup etc.

Try a forum search for the error and hopefully you will find the solution.

[JohnT]

Try at the boot prompt, in passing extra parameters to the kernel, type "mem=nopentium" (assuming you have an Athlon processor). This line might need to be added to your bootmanager if you have problems after install.

[WaltDizzy]

Ahh, thanks mdwatts. The search engine does match on long phrases!

It seems that several people using Grub (like me) have had this problem, and solved it by changing to lilo.

Thank you JohnT, I will try your suggestion first, I do have Thunderbird. The administrator manual for SuSE makes the switch to lilo sound a bit hazardous. I want to Ghost my Win partition again before I try.

If I am successful, I will let you know.

[JohnT]

This may or may not help with your dual-boot and Lilo. Good for 2K also.

http://www.linuxnewbie.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75693&highlight=dual+boot

[WaltDizzy]

Thanks, JohnT. I printed off a copy of that thread and am reading it. I'm still a way down the slope of the old learning curve, but it gets easier every day.

I did not have a chance to try anything much in the previous 16 hours*. The one thing I did try was successful. My computer will boot from the emergency system on my SuSE install disk. This is a step foreward, because I was previously unsuccessful in booting from the tested boot and emergency floppies I have. Now I can access the system logs as soon as I figure out how to mount my hard disk.

*My wife dropped a hint for the third time she wanted help addressing Christmas cards (wiped out last evening), and my son was up at 3AM with breathing trouble-just a bad cold. Sometimes I find having a life gets in the way of my computer stuff!

Walt

[mdwatts]

This is what I've found on the Error 28... message.


Either upgrade to the latest bios version, disable/enable power management in the bios or upgrade Grub to version 0.93.

I too had that same problem with APM but I resolved it by going to the Intel BIOS settings and enabling APM... Previously it was disabled and so Linux hanged up..

For other having this same problem just download this latest GRUB v0.93 and install it...

grub-0.93-0.20021001.i386.rpm

You have to install it by issuing the following command :-

code:
rpm -U grub-0.93-0.20021001.i386.rpm


Update the old images in your /boot partition with this command (I have used /dev/hda1 ) :-

code:
grub-install /dev/hda1

Then execute /sbin/grub and then in the GRUB shell type the following :-

code:
grub> root (hd0,0)
Filesystem is ext3fs ........
grub> install /grub/stage1 d (hd0) /grub/stage2 p /grub/grub.conf
or
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

[WaltDizzy]

Thanks, mdwatts for the info on Grub. This looks easier to implement than changing over to Lilo. The SuSE installer allows a user-supplied boot loader, but I have not yet figured out how to feed Lilo to it. Those GUI tools on SuSE are a somewhat like a broken crutch: it's OK when all works well, but I am lost when they don't work!

I did find a little time to work on the Linux system yesterday.

The "mem=nopentium" code added to Grub did not make the system boot unfortunately. It must have other uses, but does not appear to fix my boot problem.

I was unable to back up my Win2K partition because Ghost does not play nicely with my Escalade RAID controller. I found a spare hard disk to contain the backup, but just ran out of energy to finish the task.

Walt

[snodog]

Hi WaltDizzy,
I am having the same problem. Did you ever get past the error 28: problem? If so, which of the fixes actually worked? I have a similar set up as yours, and have tried all to no avail.
snodog

[WaltDizzy]

Hi snodog,

Nothing I tried but Grub 0.93 fixed the problem. For some reason I forget, the rpm update didn't work, I ended up downloading from the grub website, and installing from the .tar.gz file instead. Don't know what your level of experience is, but there are better descriptions laid out on the forums than I could give you off the top of my head.

ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/

or

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/#download

Walt

[WaltDizzy]

Installing from the .rpm file is perfectly OK if it works, otherwise
here is a snip from another post about installing from .tar.gz

tar -zxvf ssomprogramfile-0.1.tar.gz

that will put it in a file by itself usually.......then from there you can go about installing it but first i highly recommend that you read the README and INSTALL files that are usually included in the tarball file

if you are just installing the program and don't want to or don't need to do any type of special options then it goes like this

from the command line in the directory of the untarred/unzipped file

./configure
make
su
<type your root password>
make install

Hope that's clear!

Walt

[snodog]

Thank you Walt, I'll give it a try and let you know how it turns out.
Snodog