I have Antix 13.2 stable and I was away from my PC (desk top) for over 2 months. Had`nt used the desk top in all that time. When I returned my PC would not boot up right away. Now, for the past week it will not load or boot.

message goes down to:

boot
early console in decompress - kernel

Decompressing Linux...Parsing ELF...done.
Booting the kernel.


And that is where it is stuck. Will not load or boot. Folks, any suggestions?

Perhaps you could describe what your sreen look like precisely. And a photo might help even more. An idea to test: Try booting from a live USB.

I would start by resetting my connections in the box. Ram, hdd, cards, etc... most of the time I have had weird problems after sitting it has been this. if it still does not go, start removing parts till it works with one of the pieces missing. If it does not seem like anything is bad because you have removed everything and it still does not function; the next step would be to try to switch the ram with some other sticks (or even try one stick at a time if there are multiples in the computer) and possibly the power supply (or rearrange the power supply outputs to see if it looses a bank).

Trying a live cd should prove if it is a hardware issue or if something was corrupted on the install from sitting. Very rarely have I seen data get corrupted from not being used for a while on an hdd. Unless the hdd was abused or seized / became sticky

If you are booting more than one OS check the boot loader script; I've found antiX and especially MX-14 to be a bit touchy in this regard. It's probably Grub2. The script will actually be in /boot/grub of the last OS loaded, which is usually the first choice on the menu. Sometimes Grub makes unpredictable alterations because each OS successively changes the MBR. In any event, the governing script must correctly point to where your kernel is in your antiX partition. If you're not multi-booting ... well, that's not it.

Hi,

I get occasional trouble booting 13.2 luddite on an ancient P3 very short of ram and HD room, but mine stops with 'Kernel panic', then 'Not Syncing' followed by a few lines of diagnostic text. There is no way forward, just switch off and it very often goes away next try. I keep Bill Gates on this box for my wife and if I boot XP following the 13.2 hangup it always boots so I don't suspect hardware trouble [yet].

I would like to get to the bottom as it is becoming more frequent.

Best wishes, Roland

Sounds like hardware to me. Does it boot Live?

Use a pencil eraser and clean off the contacts on the memory cards. Do the same with your video card if you use one. One big problem we have in Louisiana is humidity which will cause minor corrosion on those contacts. Although the gold contacts don't corrode, the contacts n the motherboard usually will start to build corrosion. Also wipe them down with a lint-free paper towel or cotton cloth and alcohol

This is one of the normal maintenance task I have to do yearly on my computers, even though I use them daily. Monthly I vacuum the computers out of lint and dust-bunnies. (I have three dogs that shed who like to sit and watch me on the computer, waiting for a DOG VIDEO on YouTube.)

Hi again,

I agree it does sound like hardware, and I'll take your tip and clean things up internally especially the edge connectors, would a wipe over these with WD40 be in order? Incidentally whan it hangs during bootup it is always clock cold as I don't leave my PCs running, and I've not seen this problem when rebooting a warmed-up session. This box is a 17 years old NEC with Gigabyte mainboard, and was built for Win98 so it may be filthy inside by now. But AntiX Luddite makes it a perfectly usable box for web, email and general text work, and even for graphics with mtPaint editor. Antix is a revelation ! __{{emoticon}}__

Best wishes

Roland

would a wipe over these with WD40 be in order?

NO! That will destroy it.

suggested reading

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Never WD40. Only ALCOHOL! The alcohol will dissolve and evaporate after a few minutes leaving a clean surface. WD40 will stay for a few days and short out anything electrical.

Hello again,
The Kernel panic / not syncing problem looks like hardware as you suggest, memtest shows up errors at 3 or 4 addresses above 256m but not if I limit the test from 0 to 256m. So one mem board at least is faulty, it's many years old! I cleaned the edge connectors with an eraser but to no avail. I'll swap the memory for some more if I can locate any tomorrow in Almeria. Many thanks for your input. Best wishes, Roland

Problem fixed with another 256mb of ram out of my junk box. Thanks to all contributors. Best wishes, Roland