<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"> <style>  </style>  </head> <body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> Good Evening Will!<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Thank you for your interest.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> After obtaining the ES40 (from eBay), I installed the RedHat 7.2 Operating System for the purpose of running the application named Mathematica. The commands are all Plot commands inside of Mathematica. The only other thing I have ever run on the machine is the GnuChess program. For most of the first two years of using the machine, I didn’t utilize any of the Plot commands because everything I did was numerical in nature. Recently I did some work that involved plotting elliptical figures. Incidentally, the video card is a Radeon 7900. The initial installation of the operating system was made by following the book Learning RED HAT LINUX, 2nd Edition, which covers Red Hat 7.2 for Intel, Alpha and AMD based machines. The author is Bill McCarty.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Working by reading the book while sitting in front of the keyboard and monitor, resulted in a working system, although as I recall, getting the aboot> feature of the AlphaServer set up was the single most difficult task.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Now, moving forward in time to the last six weeks, on the day when the ES40 would not boot, I returned to the book Learning RED HAT LINUX, 2nd Edition, looking in the index for “troubleshooting” or “boot problems” and anything else that might be helpful. My reading brought to light the concept of an “upgrade installation” and in the heat-of-the moment, that seemed to promise a quick fix. The words about nothing being erased during an upgrade installation seemed seductive to me. I located the original package of RedHat7.2 and performed the “upgrade.” The system will still not boot from the set of SCSI disks containing the original installation with the “upgrade.” The machine progresses to aboot>, where I used to enter 0 (zero) to boot the system and all that happens is “/etc/aboot.conf: file not found” appears on the screen after I enter the 0 and that is followed by another aboot>.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> When the machine first malfunctioned, it did not start the boot, it just sat with a black screen, however, I don’t know if the “upgrade” installation was a good idea or not? Is this situation a step in the right direction or the wrong direction? Was the decision to attempt the “upgrade” install a bad decision?<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Your thoughts greatly appreciated.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Bill<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <div> <div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'> From: axp-list-bounces@redhat.com [mailto:axp-list-bounces@redhat.com] On Behalf Of Will L Givens Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 12:26 AM To: 'Linux on Alpha processors' Subject: RE: RedHat 7.2 on ES40 AlphaServer - Boot Problem - Help Solving<o:p></o:p> </div> </div> <o:p> </o:p> Hate to say it but you gave us PLENTY of general information. What commands did you run? What kind of ‘fancy’ graphix did you try to create and how (aka using what program)? Will L G<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <div style='border:none;border-left:solid blue 1.5pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 4.0pt'> <div> <div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'> From: axp-list-bounces@redhat.com [mailto:axp-list-bounces@redhat.com] On Behalf Of William E Bohrer Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 10:30 To: axp-list@redhat.com Subject: RedHat 7.2 on ES40 AlphaServer - Boot Problem - Help Solving<o:p></o:p> </div> </div> <o:p> </o:p> Hello!<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Then, one day the system simply would not boot.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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. <o:p></o:p> There are paper copies of the work performed to date, however, it would be nice to skip retyping those .nb files if possible.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> 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.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Any and all suggestion gratefully accepted!<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Thanks,<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Bill<o:p></o:p> </div> </div> </body> </html>