So, here’s where we are:
- Linux machine is having conniptions, see below.
- PC is still awaiting a new motherboard, will be getting it from Fry’s after work today.
- Mac Cube is still refusing to turn on, just to feel included.
- PowerBook is still working just fine. It won’t ever leave me. It won’t!
So, after last night’s entry, I started the process of taking the old hardware from the PC and putting it in the Linux machine. After booting I got a weird error, saying it couldn’t load a Linux module that I didn’t have installed in the first place. Figuring that just running an old install of Linux on new hardware probably wouldn’t have worked anyway, I booted off of the Debian CD and installed a new install onto another hard drive.
Of course that didn’t work. That would have been easy. Instead I get a LILO error (L 02 02 02 02 02 02 … ad infinitum) which is supposed to be a transient “media error” but is hardly transient. I can still boot using the rescue CD, bypassing LILO, but I still get the same “modprobe: modprobe: can’t locate module net-pf-1” over and over, which I finally found a post as to why it repeats (it can’t find the module, so it tries to log the message, but the logging program requires the module, but it can’t find the module, so it tries to log the message… etc.) but I can’t figure out why it’s appearing in the first place.
So I try recompiling the kernel onto a floppy. Unfortunately, as it’s the same version of Linux, it’s using the same module directory, so I get the same stupid error on startup.
So I try recompiling a newer version of the kernel onto a floppy, which of course… doesn’t fit on the floppy. (Thing to try tonight #1: Throw more stuff out of the kernel that I don’t absolutely need to make it fit.)
The unfortunate thing, and the one mistake that I can’t back out of, is that I accidentally messed up the modules for the old kernel, so now not only do I get the message I was getting before, but another unrelated one over and over. Before, I could actually sort of work as the messages were scrolling by, as they only came in spurts. Now, I can’t even see anything, nor do I even know if it’s working in the first place. (Thing to try tonight #2: Buy a new decently-sized but cheap hard drive at Fry’s, physically disconnect the first hard drive, and reinstall a new Linux install onto the new hard drive. Then reconnect drive, see if it works, and copy config files and any other necessary stuff off.)
(Thing to try tonight #3: Get to sleep before 3 a.m.)