RedHat 7.2 on ES40 AlphaServer - Boot Problem - Help Solving

[Dialup Jon Norstog]

William,

that sounds odd to me.  The RH 7.2 distro was pretty good - I used to run it.
 Failure to boot can mean a lot of things.  The easiest to fix is if it just
needs a fsck or maybe the aboot.conf file got messed up.  

A lot of time you can take a disk (such as the one with your Matematica
progrAM) that has a program file on it, hook it up to another system, mount
it, and then find the binary.  Invoke the binary, a lot of times it will run
if it can find all its libs, the working directory,  and all the other stuff.

I might dust off my old 7.2 disks and try an install, se what I can remember
about that one.

good luck!

jn



---------- Original Message -----------
From: "William E Bohrer" <bohrer1 at hughes.net>
To: <axp-list at redhat.com>
Sent: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:30:00 -0500
Subject: RedHat 7.2 on ES40 AlphaServer - Boot Problem - Help Solving

> Hello!
> 
> Problem Description:  a previously stable installation of RedHat 7.2 
> on an ES40 AlphaServer supporting the application Mathematica 5.0 
> (which runs under Linux).  This computer has been in routine weekly 
> use by me for the purpose of solving various math problems of 
> interest to me as a hobby and also sometimes to support consulting 
> work performed by me (business has been poor of late).  This system 
> has been operating successfully for at least three years.
> 
> About 6 weeks ago I attempted the generation of some fancy graphics displays
> to the screen, something I had not attempted previously.  Strange 
> things, with minor impact seemed to happen after that, slower 
> booting is one symptom and some commands that worked before did not 
> seem to work as they had in the past, but nothing of a work stopping 
> nature.
> 
> Then, one day the system simply would not boot.
> 
> As a starting point I removed all the disks; installed spare disks 
> and reinstalled RedHat 7.2.  The system runs well with the 
> reinstalled operating system.  By "runs well" I mean that you can 
> play games on it with flawless and quick performance.  I have not 
> attempted to reinstall the Mathematica application yet.  Clearly not 
> a hardware problem.  Somehow, I have damaged the software while 
> attempting the fancy plotting (color plots, lots of curves, etc.) or 
> at least so it appears.
> 
> The problem:  reinstalling Mathematica requires a payment to Wolfram
> Research (not excessive, but I would just as soon avoid it if 
> possible) and I will lose electronic copies of the Notebooks 
> developed on this system.
> 
> There are paper copies of the work performed to date, however, it 
> would be nice to skip retyping those .nb files if possible.
> 
> The question is how to troubleshoot the damaged installation?  Philosophical
> guidance at this point, please.  Please keep in mind that while I had
> sufficient competence to follow directions and successfully install RedHat
> 
> 7.2 on the ES40; that is not particularly a strong point with my computer
> expertise.
> 
> Any and all suggestion gratefully accepted!
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Bill
> 
> -- 
> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> believed to be clean.
------- End of Original Message -------