SOLVED....Installations...old and new....hanging up...

[lonerider]

Good morning.  Got lost there. Has been a few days from H*ll.

Re:  Booting problem.  Seem to have corrected that by downloading the newest 64 bit kernal listed in the repository and installing it.  Boots up faster than it has for a long time.  But, no data and no additional programs to drag along yet either.

Re:  Memory ?:  Also downloaded a new PCLOS and burned it to cd.  It came with a Memcheck option, which I used, and everything checked out ok after one series of tests.

However, the cd would not boot, and there was no longer a "check media" option listed on the cd menu.  Downloaded Awesum to check both the download and the cd, but am probably dumber than a rock since I could not get Awesum to work.

Re:  Cmos battery.  Bought a new one, pulled the old one, let the computer set for a couple of hours before putting the new one in.  Set up the Bios and booted.  Everything fired the first time out of the chute.

Re:  Time problems.  Still there.  Set the Bios time and it shows correctly in the Bios.  Have set the software time using Configure Your Computer/Control Center/System/Manage Date and Time, also right clicking on clock in tray, checking the option to Enable Network Time Protocol, choosing North American site, and it keeps the correct time and date.....until I shut the machine down at night.  In the morning, it is a day late, and about 8 hours off in time.  Battery is apparently not running when the machine is off??

Bios is Amibios, v 0406, 12/19/07 Build date.  It has listed Asus EZ Flash 2 utility to update Bios.  I have been hesitant to use this option, based on the horror stories from the past of people who tried updating bios and destroyed their machines.  Is the process better these days?   If used, might it kick something into working where the clock is concerned?

On the same line of thought, I Googled "computer time", and read an article that when (loosely interpreted) my computer time is not synced with download source time, the data will be corrupt?  If true, could this explain why the new PCLOS cd will not boot?

I have not yet signed up with a site to send attachments.  If you still want to see the hardware listing from Control Center, I will do that.  By the way, noticed that the Bios lists usable memory as 4096 MB, but then gives the same breakdown as the Control Center does, as listed in my earlier post.  Is it feasible to just pull one stick and boot the machine, then repeat with the other, to "see what happens"?  Or does this memory only work with two sticks installed?  I don't remember anymore. 

Thank you for your time, and again, any thoughts are most welcome.  et

[Bald Brick]

Re:  Time problems.  Still there.  Set the Bios time and it shows correctly in the Bios.  Have set the software time using Configure Your Computer/Control Center/System/Manage Date and Time, also right clicking on clock in tray, checking the option to Enable Network Time Protocol, choosing North American site, and it keeps the correct time and date.....until I shut the machine down at night.  In the morning, it is a day late, and about 8 hours off in time.  Battery is apparently not running when the machine is off??

If you have a fresh battery the bios clock (hardware clock) will keep running when the machine is off, but if the bios clock is set to your local time and not to UTC/GMT, Linux must be made aware of the fact. For this, editing two files as root is faster than using the GUI. The files are /etc/sysconfig/clock, where the first line should read "UTC=false", and /etc/adjtime, where the third line should read "LOCAL".

If the hardware clock is set to local time while the system believes it to be set to UTC (or vice versa) the result is not what you'd want.

Bios is Amibios, v 0406, 12/19/07 Build date.  It has listed Asus EZ Flash 2 utility to update Bios.  I have been hesitant to use this option, based on the horror stories from the past of people who tried updating bios and destroyed their machines.  Is the process better these days?   If used, might it kick something into working where the clock is concerned?

On the same line of thought, I Googled "computer time", and read an article that when (loosely interpreted) my computer time is not synced with download source time, the data will be corrupt?  If true, could this explain why the new PCLOS cd will not boot?

If I understood the question:

1)  At boot your system clock is set to the time of your hardware clock (which has been running on a battery while the machine was off);

2)  At shutdown your hardware clock is by default synchronized with your system clock;

3)  In between you can adjust your system clock by synchronizing it to one or several time servers. (Is this what you mean by "download source time"?) If you aren't picky, you can set this up in PCC and let it pick one of the pool servers. For even better reliability you can pick a few servers yourself. If you need instructions, post back.

4)  In all cases the time can be automatically converted between your local time and UTC, but the system must know when a conversion is necessary.

I have not yet signed up with a site to send attachments.  If you still want to see the hardware listing from Control Center, I will do that.  By the way, noticed that the Bios lists usable memory as 4096 MB, but then gives the same breakdown as the Control Center does, as listed in my earlier post.  Is it feasible to just pull one stick and boot the machine, then repeat with the other, to "see what happens"?  Or does this memory only work with two sticks installed?  I don't remember anymore.  

Thank you for your time, and again, any thoughts are most welcome.  et

[AS]

Good morning.  Got lost there. Has been a few days from H*ll.

Re:  Booting problem.  Seem to have corrected that by downloading the newest 64 bit kernal listed in the repository and installing it.  Boots up faster than it has for a long time.  But, no data and no additional programs to drag along yet either.

EDIT, misunderstood sorry:
Do not forget this is a test release! It's available only to help in finding bugs/issues.

Re:  Memory ?:  Also downloaded a new PCLOS and burned it to cd.  It came with a Memcheck option, which I used, and everything checked out ok after one series of tests.

nice, so you can exclude RAM and CPU from possible issues

However, the cd would not boot, and there was no longer a "check media" option listed on the cd menu.  Downloaded Awesum to check both the download and the cd, but am probably dumber than a rock since I could not get Awesum to work.

Check BIOS or device boot priority, detach any USB devices if any and retry to boot.
Also, which CD ? an official PCLinuxOS remastered ISO ?
More: try to boot your liveDVD on a different machine could help to identify a CD/DVD drive hardware issue.
You have 2 DVD units, try to detach each one once at a time ...

Re:  Cmos battery.  Bought a new one, pulled the old one, let the computer set for a couple of hours before putting the new one in.  Set up the Bios and booted.  Everything fired the first time out of the chute.

Re:  Time problems.  Still there.  Set the Bios time and it shows correctly in the Bios.  Have set the software time using Configure Your Computer/Control Center/System/Manage Date and Time, also right clicking on clock in tray, checking the option to Enable Network Time Protocol, choosing North American site, and it keeps the correct time and date.....until I shut the machine down at night.  In the morning, it is a day late, and about 8 hours off in time.  Battery is apparently not running when the machine is off??

see Bald Brick answer.

Bios is Amibios, v 0406, 12/19/07 Build date.  It has listed Asus EZ Flash 2 utility to update Bios.  I have been hesitant to use this option, based on the horror stories from the past of people who tried updating bios and destroyed their machines.  Is the process better these days?   If used, might it kick something into working where the clock is concerned?

You need to upgrade BIOS when both the following are true:
a) you clearly identify some specific BIOS issue
b) looking at BIOS release notes you find that the your specific BIOS issue has been solved

Updating BIOS is safe as long as you follow the proper procedure, possibly assisted from a UPS, as the horror stories come all from flashing the wrong BIOS and/or interrupting the flashing process in the mid.

Because at some point in the past times your machine was working, I would say that a BIOS upgrade is not strictly required right now.

On the same line of thought, I Googled "computer time", and read an article that when (loosely interpreted) my computer time is not synced with download source time, the data will be corrupt?  If true, could this explain why the new PCLOS cd will not boot?

No.  Eventually could have some (small) issue upon installation, not directly on booting, you can boot a liveCD at "any time"  

I have not yet signed up with a site to send attachments.  

As I wrote before, http://postimage.org doesn't require registration.

If you still want to see the hardware listing from Control Center, I will do that.  By the way, noticed that the Bios lists usable memory as 4096 MB, but then gives the same breakdown as the Control Center does, as listed in my earlier post.  Is it feasible to just pull one stick and boot the machine, then repeat with the other, to "see what happens"?  Or does this memory only work with two sticks installed?  I don't remember anymore.

On a 32 bit machine the maximum addressable memory is 4 Gb, and because of some hardware reservations you will see as available something like 3.2 ~ 3.5 Gb, both using Linux or Windows.

On 32 bit Linux you can overcome this limit using a .pae kernel, I would say leave this as a possible 2nd step, not to worry about right now.

Thank you for your time, and again, any thoughts are most welcome.  et

your main issue right now is booting from CD/DVD... start from here, leave all other issues for later time.

AS

[lonerider]

Good morning.  Bios lists all ide and sata drives.  DVD rom (ide) listed as lst boot, Sata hd as second, floppy as 3rd....mainly because those are the only choices given where I am allowed to set the boot order, even though Sata DVD RW is also connected and ide hard drive may be.  IDE hd is not connected right now.  

Will not boot from ide rom, (as in, it goes straight to the hard drive) but this is being typed using Sata DVD RW disk of PCLOS remaster dated March 12, 2011.  It would only boot from "Safe"....not from "live cd".  Disconnected the ide rom to force Bios to move to the DVD RW in the boot order.

Sata HD boots up ok;  entered the date and time items yesterday as suggested by Bad Brick.  When booting to Sata HD, date is correct this morning, but time is/was exactly 5 hours off; computer had been shut off for approximately 9 hours.

Date and time are showing correctly from this DVD RW of PCLOS.

One strange thing that's been happening for a month +/- is that empty Sata DVD will not open from the "button" on the drive, necessitating the use of a paper clip to get any CD/DVD back.  When shutting down from the live dvd, it will open on its own...not if I have another disk in it and ask it to give it back.  IDE rom continues to work ok.

Have to run.  Hope you can come up with something from my probably disjointed descriptions.  Have a good day.  et

[Bald Brick]

entered the date and time items yesterday as suggested by Bad Brick.  When booting to Sata HD, date is correct this morning, but time is/was exactly 5 hours off; computer had been shut off for approximately 9 hours.

If the difference was exactly five hours, that does indeed indicate that your system still thinks that the bios clock is set to UTC/GMT. CDT (daylight saving time in Oklahoma) is exactly UTC minus 5 hours.

I remember a case from about a year and a half ago, where a user's machine absolutely refused to believe the hardware clock wasn't set to UTC, no matter how many files he edited. Your case seems to be different though, as

Date and time are showing correctly from this DVD RW of PCLOS.

So when you boot from a live CD your system realizes that the hardware clock is set to local time, but when you boot from the hard drive it doesn't. It might be interesting to see precisely what your /etc/sysconfig/clock and /etc/adjtime look like. (The files on your hard drive, not on your live DVD.)


As to your earlier post: if you tick the option to Enable Network Time Protocol in PCC and pick one of the pool servers, the command ntpq -p will tell you whether you really are synchronized with the server. In the output from the command an asterix before the real name of the server means you are synchronized, a plus sign means the server is probably reliable enough for setting your system clock, and a minus sign that it isn't usable at the moment.

One strange thing that's been happening for a month +/- is that empty Sata DVD will not open from the "button" on the drive, necessitating the use of a paper clip to get any CD/DVD back.  When shutting down from the live dvd, it will open on its own...not if I have another disk in it and ask it to give it back.  IDE rom continues to work ok.

Have to run.  Hope you can come up with something from my probably disjointed descriptions.  Have a good day.  et

[lonerider]

An apology is again in order for letting you hang out there in space all this time.  I am sorry; that was rude, and I try not to be rude.

My last post was confusing, even to me after reading it just now.  Will not boot from ide rom  conflicts with IDE rom continues to work ok.  I meant that I could do anything else with the IDE rom EXCEPT boot from it....so it really was not working ok.

But that changed sometime during that day or shortly after.  I'd been trying to boot from  the new ISO download cd of PCLOS (with the classy brushed grey desktop).  Kept going straight to the SATA hard drive installation.  Shut the thing off and got to work.  Completely forgot the cd in the rom.  When next I turned the machine on, left the machine for a minute, and when I came back, the grey desktop was loaded, showing all the boot options.  But it did not load much further.  Tried it twice more, and on the second try, it again went straight to the SATA hard drive.  Fished the disk out, unhooked the rom,  and went about my business.

During my cleaning frenzy in the storm shelter that day, I brought my emergency bag (for tornado season) back into the house, went through it and found a remastered DVD of my system from April 15.  Put it in the SATA DVDRW (using the paper clip yet again to access the tray), and it loaded right up, very quickly.  Ran like a dream all day, whenever I had time to do something with the 'puter. 

Decided to install it on part of the empty partition on the big SATA drive....behind the sometimes "iffy" newer installation I was using.  (Again, did not have to pry the DVDRW tray open to get the disk back....coughed it up right on schedule at the end of the installation.)

The new installation of the April remaster works like a dream....faster than anything has for a few months, and I've had absolutely no problems with it.  The time and date are always spot on, probably thanks to the editing of files following Bald Brick's instructions.  There are things not up to par, ...but I can use it for now;  if it goes downhill, I'll have to rethink that, or dig out some paper and a pencil....after a short trip out in the pasture to throw the thing over the creek bank.

I'm trying to catch up on things that could not be done this summer because of four months of "temperatures from H*ll", and really don't have the time to concentrate on this project properly right now.  When I get all the chickens canned/frozen, coops all cleaned, gardens all compost covered, raspberry fence supports built, etc., then I will again tackle this thing.  For now, I have a USB DVDRW that I can use if I need an extra, and won't need Windows until I start making calendars for Christmas gifts.  So will keep my fingers crossed, not change any settings,  and try very hard to "hold my mouth right" so things keep on keeping on.

Thank you all for your help;  it has all been very much appreciated.  And, when I get my work done, if the other suggestions given in this post have not completely cleared things up, "I shall return".  Have a great week-end.  et

[lonerider]

Good afternoon.  Have had an interesting ... and educational ....time with The Contraption.

Had some extra time between projects, a few days ago, so moved the 'puter to my kitchen counter....which is higher and has more space to work on.... to start with some of the suggestions in earlier posts.  Because I was sitting farther from the monitor, decided to change the resolution to the next setting.  Wow.  All kinds of things "hit the fan", prefaced by all kinds of colors in bars, stripes, plaids, and other patterns.  Ended up unable to access anything anywhere, including changing the resolution back. 

Since other "happenings" had seemed to point toward the graphics card, I ordered a new one, waited for it 3 days, installed it, and Wow!!!  Everything worked like it was all new.  Even the new download that had been burned to CD, but didn't want to boot earlier.  Installed it, and while it's not yet been updated....reason below....it works great.

Barely got things hooked up when WildBlue took a header.  They had a problem with their satellite for two days.  While I couldn't get on the internet, I could check out some of the remaster cds that had been a problem earlier.  Everything worked.  They finally came back online just before lunch today.

Since the DVD rom was still often being bashful about giving back my cds, I ordered a new one of those too, and it's working great.

Time is correct and no longer a problem.

Need to update the new installation, but will wait a day or two to be reasonably sure WildBlue has the gliches that may or may not be present from their recent outage taken care of.  Maybe early Sunday morning.

I don't comprehend why a bad graphics card could cause all the problems I had, but as long as you people do, and are willing to share your knowledge with dummies like me, everything's cool.  Thank you all for your help;  it was very much appreciated.  And a donation is on its way to Texstar in further appreciation.

Have a good fall/winter.  et