i hate linux
Mar. 22nd, 2005 04:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmdactually, i think this has just escalated to "i hate computers".
so, i built this linux box a while ago to hold my cd collection as flac-encoded files, and it was running fine and i was happily ripping things.
then it kept wedging and stalling out. and it started complaining about a hard drive that wasn't actually mounted and i'm not sure existed.
so i pulled out the two oldest hard drives (which were both about 6 years old), just on principle. and started re-installing. and it crapped out in the middle of the reinstall. and so i tried it again, and the same thing happened.
and now it won't get past the POST screen -- in fact, i get the bios splash screen and it doesn't recognize me hitting the tab key and yelling "hey, stupid computer! show me the fucking post screen, damn you!"
so i disconnected all the various IDE devices and the floppy disk and i'm in the same situation.
harrumf.
so, i built this linux box a while ago to hold my cd collection as flac-encoded files, and it was running fine and i was happily ripping things.
then it kept wedging and stalling out. and it started complaining about a hard drive that wasn't actually mounted and i'm not sure existed.
so i pulled out the two oldest hard drives (which were both about 6 years old), just on principle. and started re-installing. and it crapped out in the middle of the reinstall. and so i tried it again, and the same thing happened.
and now it won't get past the POST screen -- in fact, i get the bios splash screen and it doesn't recognize me hitting the tab key and yelling "hey, stupid computer! show me the fucking post screen, damn you!"
so i disconnected all the various IDE devices and the floppy disk and i'm in the same situation.
harrumf.
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-23 02:45 pm (UTC)I'm really paranoid about our MP3 archive and very worried about making sure it's backed up (of course, being worried about it is different from making sure it's done, but we do have backups).
It's really tough backing up a big archive.
I try to make sure that my archive filesystems are journaled (ext3 now; I used to use Reiserfs, had a bad block [on a hardware RAID setup that wasn't supposed to be able to do that], and lost the whole thing, so I don't use Reiserfs anymore), on a RAID array, but presumably a bad motherboard could still defeat me.
I would recommend popping out the CMOS battery - you may need to replace it. Look for a jumper on the motherboard that resets the CMOS. Usually you just need to short the jumper while the machine is plugged in, then set it back to its normal position. My guess is (short of some impossible to correct hardware failure) is that your CMOS has gotten messed up.
(I know, you weren't looking for advice... I just help that hopes... if not, one nice thing with Linux is that usually you can swap an existing drive array onto a new motherboard with little heartache)
no subject
Date: 2005-03-23 04:07 pm (UTC)i'm troubleshooting and trying to narrow it down. it's not the video card, and i don't think it's the memory. i had a loose power connector, but that was probably done while i was mucking around in it the other day.
i think i may have a failing drive, since the IDE controller is listing it with the wrong size. or, you know, maybe it's the IDE controller. :-|
happily, i've only got about 20G worth of music ripped, and it's all sitting on another machine for now, so even if i have a catastrophic data failure on the other machine, i'm not too hosed.
one nice thing with Linux is that usually you can swap an existing drive array onto a new motherboard with little heartache
can you? that's great. it's one of the things i was wondering about -- i wasn't sure if any of the array state lived somewhere besides on the array disks.
thanks!