[techtalk] signal 11 - help

[Chris R.]

could it be a hard drive error?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alex Yan" <flare at serv.net>
To: <mysterio at ee.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 12:26 AM
Subject: Re: [techtalk] signal 11 - help


>
> Wow, I've never seen that before.  Well, actually, I have, once, when
> I was trying to install Linux onto a flaky motherboard.
>
> It turns out that Linux (and other Unices) are much more particular
> about hardware than Windows is.  The reason is not because there is
> more support for Windows, but because Unix systems try to take
> advantage of as much as they can, while Windows systems assume
> lower-end hardware and let the applications and application drivers
> handle scaling up to meet the advantages of better hardware.
>
> So... some things to try (many of these will be time-consuming and
> icky):
>
> - try booting the machine and installing with some memory that you got
> from somebody else's computer
> - check your BIOS settings to make sure that the hard drive is set to
> LBA and that it actually recognizes all the RAM that you think
> it should have
> - try using vanilla RedHat instead of Mandrake: the stuff i've found
> on the 'net with this error seems to be rather Mandrake
> specific
>
> The "finding overlapping files" error is strange, but suggestive.  Do
> you know which file is causing the error?  There should be something
> like:
>
> ERROR: bad file XFree86-SVGA-3.3.6-4mdk.i586.rpm
>
> along with the "overlapping files" error.  See:
>
>   http://www.linux-mandrake.com/bugs/db/63/636-b.html
>
> for some details.  It might just be a Mandrake bug.
>
> Finally, if you can boot up to a point where you can get to another
> terminal ("control-alt-f2", for example), usually after the install
> system gets into the "second phase install", go to that other
> terminal, and type "dmesg | more" and look over the results to see if
> there seems to be anything amiss.
>
> "Signal 11" is what is known as a "segmentation fault", which is
> equivalent to the Mac bomb, or the Windows blue screen of death:
>
>   segmentation fault
>       (n.) A condition that occurs when a process has attempted to
>       access an area of memory that is restricted or does not
>       exist. See also bus error.
>
>   [ excerpt from Sun Microsystems' Global Glossary Collection:
>
http://docs.sun.com:80/ab2/coll.417.1/GLOBALGLOSS/@Ab2PageView/16243?DwebQue
ry=segmentation+fault&Ab2Lang=C&Ab2Enc=iso-8859-1 ]
>
> As far as I'm aware, there seems to be no connection between the two
> errors.  The second error sounds more extreme, and the first one might
> be fixed once the second one is fixed.  In fact, come to think of it,
> since the install system is actually in memory at the time (i.e. it's
> sitting in RAM, along with the stuff that it's trying to install), the
> first error might actually be because the "filesystem" the
> installation package is working with is actually in RAM, and is being
> futzed with by the installer.  So it might be the RAM, or it might be
> the installer being poorly programmed.
>
> But again, most of this is guesswork.  Good luck!
>
> --
>
> -Alex Yan
>  flare at serv.net
>