Debian Kernel Problem - Crashing

[Angelox]

Here's what I'd do;
I would suspect faulty hardware as the first thing, so I'd have to somehow check it.
-A full, all sector scandisk (bootup might have overlooked something a full scan will not).
-Memory since you have 2x ram chips, put one on, then switch to the other, see of problem goes away.
-Video card, try another one (maybe you got an old one laying around?)
if you still haven't found anything, pull out/disable all possible hardware (LAn, Modem, etc. I've seen a faulty modem create problems like this. If problem goes away, add hardware back one at a time, tell you se the problem again.
Usually I snagged the problem by then.
I suspect you might have bad memory either video or ram, but could be any of the cache.
You can run one gig with the 2 gig kernel, it should be ok for testing

[thepoetwarrior]

Figured those would be the steps. Was hoping for a simple reinstall kernel would fix it. My old kernel works, which makes me suspect its not hardware, unless its the RAM since the new kernel uses more than 1 gig ram.

Thanks

[Angelox]

My newest Mandriva came with a memory check utility - pre-install. I guess memory is a big issue with Linux, since it will use all you give it.
You could probably download the Mandriva CD and just use it for memory check; I found numerous problems with wrong or bad memory on mine. (I always by the cheapest memory, and you knwo the rest).

[trevius]

Ya, from reading your first post, I suspected a possible memory issue as well. Power hits on a PC are never a good thing, and on Linux they are even worse lol. Did you remove the kernel properly before you reinstalled it? Is that what the "dpkg -P kernel-image-2.6-k7" command is? I normally just use "apt-get remove kernel-image-2.6-k7" or some very similar command to automatically remove everything.

[thepoetwarrior]

Yup, I tried the apt-get command too to remove it. Then reinstalled, but still problem. I'll work with the memory first and let ya know if I find out what it was.

[thepoetwarrior]

Well, I tried the ram sticks 1 at a time, but same thing happens. So its either not the ram, or they are both bad. I still have to ram test it, maybe find a boot CD to do that, or see if Mandriva will do that.

Linux boots up just fine in the old kernel, with only 1 gig ram. Will try to uninstall the kernel again and reinstall, see if that fixes it. Any way to make sure the kernel is completely uninstalled before reinstalling?

Also I do remember fsck happening and finding some errors. I was going to do that again, from terminal after boot up but warned me of SEVER file system damage could occur.

[thepoetwarrior]

Im still having problems with the linux-image-2.6-k7.

Almost every time before it can even get to the login screen, during the boot up text spam the PC just turns off instantly. Maybe 1 out of 10 attempts I can finally get to the login screen and log in, but within a short time, it just turns off instantly.

I've reinstalled Debian from the install CD, and then did the apt-get install to install that kernel again so I can get over 1 gig of ram, but the PC is still crashing on boot up.

I have 2 rams slots, each with a 2 gig stick. I tried 1 ram stick at a time and 1 slot at a time, but same thing happens. The ram is new, and when booting up with the default kernel that uses only 1 gig of ram it works fine without crashing.

Maybe its a setting in BIOS? I tried setting the BIOS to default values, and it booted up, thought I fixed it, but that just happened to be my 1 out of 10 lucky boot ups, for a short time of course.

Memtest is almost done running now, and so far no errors at all.

The only cards installed is my NIC for the internet. There is no video cards in any slots, just the one built into the mother board. Its a very basic PC that I had put together online.

Im working from a fresh install of Debian, with fresh apt-get kernel, with no other edits to any files. Im out of ideas how to get a kernel working to recognize the dual-core AMD /w 4 gig ram without Crashing.

Maybe try apt-get on another kernel? I dont know what kernels to get for 32bit AMD that recognizes dualcore+ and over 1 gig ram.

Please help. Thanks.