Re: BDI 2.18 install problem

[John Kasunich <jmkasunich-at-worldnet.att.net>]

OK, it's a new day and I got some advice, let's try again.

Paul wrote:

 > It sounds as if you may have a corrupt disk - This does happen
 > from time to time I'm afraid. I will try to dig out some instructions
 > on how to do an md5 checksum using the one Henkka provides
 > at www.yty.net/cnc.

Possible, but this is one of Ray Henry's disks, not a download.
The CD seems to be OK, no major scratches, no read errors
reported during the install.

Bill wrote:

 > Just for fun, you might want to try doing a text install, I had to
 > do that with an Advantech industrial computer with a touch
 > screen. Worked fine once the install was done.

Since this is  the easiest thing to do, I tried it first.  (Unplugged
the mouse.)  All went well through installation of packages.
After the last package was installed, it crashed, but didn't burn.
Something like "Install terminated abnormally", followed by a
semi-normal shutdown sequence and finally "It is now safe to
  reboot" or words to that effect.  Tried to reboot, "Missing
operating system".  I think that means LILO didn't get
installed in the MBR.

Matt wrote:

> > There is a
> > proprietary ISA card that lets you use the front panel membrane
> > switches along with a conventional keyboard,
>
>If your kbd & mouse ports aren't on that card, try pulling it.

There is a spiderweb of wiring interconnecting this stuff.
Cables from the front panel keyboard and mouse connectors
go to this board.  Cables from the membrane switch panel
go there too.  I think the board combines the signals, and
sends them back to another little board, from there they go
through a couple 3" long PS/2 cables to the normal MB
keyboard and mouse ports.

I _think_ if I connect my keyboard and mouse directly to
the motherboard ports, none of the rest is used, and I can
remove the ISA card.  The membrane switches won't work,
but who cares right now.  Let's try it....

That didn't work - the display backlight didn't come on,
can't see anything. Let's try putting the ISA board back in
and reconnecting all the cables, except for the two PS/2
jumpers.  Keyboard still directly connected to the MB....

OK, at least the display works, and it recognized the KB.
I left the mouse unplugged, sticking with text mode for
now...

While trying to install a package named
"4637,18069,69,2064,519,737,       2,      3664" (yeah, right),
it died.  "install exited abnormally -- recieved signal 11",
followed by shutdown stuff (termination & kill signals,
disable swap, unmounting things), then "ejecting cd-rom"
and "you may safely rebot your system"  Basically the
same messages as last time, but this time it only got
about half-way through installing packages.

> >  The video is an
> > Allen Bradley board, but it uses a CHIPS B65555 chipset.
> > Linux autodetected the chipset as a CT65520.  The first time
> > I corrected it to CT65555, the second time I left it alone.
> > Both times, I was able to test X, and it seemed fine.
>
>Is this on-board, or can you change it?

The video board is in a PCI slot, so I can replace it.
I have several Matrox Millennium boards here.  The
probem is monitors.  I only have one, on the system
I am using to write this email.

Besides, the only advantage of the AB 6180 system
is the flat screen and the membrane keyboard.  If
those  things don't work, why bother?  I'm gonna defer
this until later.  Besides, my last two attempts were in
text mode.

> > AMIBIOS  (C) 1992 American Megatrends, Inc.
> > (C) 1992-1997 Intel Corp.
> > BIOS Version 1.00.08.DB0
>
>This is the BIOS for an Intel Advanced ML motherboard, and it's the final
>version.
>
>One thing I'd try is to remove the CMOS backup battery (or use the provided
>jumper) to clear out the CMOS entirely. Then hook it back up, reboot, go into
>the setup utility and select "Load BIOS defaults". Save, reboot and then
>change only what you need in the setup to make the system work, favoring the
>default values. I've had to do this several times with Intel motherboards.

OK, I'll try it.  First I'm gonna write down all the settings.

> > ISA LFB size - choices are disabled or 1MB, currently disabled
>OK - disabled

Disabled is the default.

> > PnP Config Mode - choices are "Use setup utility" and "Use ICU"
>"Use ICU"
> > When set for ICU, the next parameter is
> > "Boot with PnP OS", choices are None, Other, and Windows 95
>You want "None".

Default was Win95, changed it to None.

> > It's still autodetecting a Chips and Technologies CT65520.
> > The numbers on the chip are B655555.  I'm gonna leave it
> > the way it is.  (I've tried changing it to CT655555, didn't seem
> > to make any difference).  It correctly detected 4M of video
> > memory.
>
>I have an LCD controller that uses a member of this chip family. It worked
>great until XFree version 4 came out, then it would hang the install utility
>as soon as I tried to scroll a window. If you eliminate everything else, this
>could be your culprit. It may be OK with the generic VGA X server.

OK, I've been doing text installs, so I think that should eliminate the
video card as the source of the problem (I hope).  Let's see what happens.

Still doesn't work.  The errors are getting more random all the time.
I'm starting to wonder if this is actually a CD-ROM or hardware problem.
The computer was stored over the winter in the garage.  It stayed dry,
but was exposed to temperature changes that might have hurt it.

I'm gonna dig into the hardware - re-seat the RAMs, CPU and all cards,
test or replace hard disk and CDROM drives, etc.

>At any rate, we can fix it at NAMES...

Yeah, but I was hoping to spend that time hooking it to a machine and
trying to run it, not fighting with the install.  I'll keep working on it...

John Kasunich