Installing Linux to Bochs

[me(who else?)]

hi. I just found a program called Bochs which allows you to edit a virtual pc. I am currently installing Linux onto virtual drive, but it constantly says that there is an I/O error. Other than that, the installation seems to go fine, but then I am forced to quit the install. I hope to install Linux, please help.

 

[Nodsu]

What flavour of Linux? What says IO error - Bochs or the Linux. When exactly does it say that?

 

[me(who else?)]

RedHat 9 is the type of Linux, and it seems to say it whenever it has to access dev\hda0 (which is the boot record). It doesn't seem to have any problems getting to the swap partitions and the root directory. I changed a few settings and am trying it again, I'll post again when it's done.

 

[me(who else?)]

I just finished the new install. It turns out that the boot record isn't the problem, it's the swap partition. When it goes to read the disk, Red Hat says "Input/Output error during read on dev/hda". I usually tell it to ignore this error.

Then after I pick my install and all my packages and it gives a message about writing a log file, it says"Error enabling swap device hda3: invalid argument
This most likely means the swap partition has not been initialized."

Then I have to quit Bochs. I don't think that Bochs is causing the problem, as Anaconda is giving the error. I really have no clue as to why it doesn't work, I'm just glad I'm not installing to my real HD.

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

It's probably either just that, ie. no swap partition, or not enough RAM. The default in Bochs is 32 MB, it might not be enough for RH9. I had no problems installing it when I made a 200 MB swap partition onto a 2 GB image, with 64 MB of RAM (using Bochs 2.1.1).

 

[me(who else?)]

I have the RAM set to 256 and it still causes the problem. Could it have something to do with the fact that I'm starting with a completely blank HD without a MBR or anything?

 

[me(who else?)]

Never mind, I fixed it.

 

[me(who else?)]

No, I didn't ! I just got the same error again. I have 256mb RAM enabled, a 512mb swap partition on a 4gig disk image. This is getting irritating! Pls help!

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Well, one thing you could try is to go to console #2 in Red Hat's setup (hit alt+F2 if in textmode), and use mount, fdisk, mkswap and swapon commands to check, create and enable swap partition(s).

However, if you get I/O errors, I suspect swap alone won't help much then. Maybe IPS is set too high / low?

 

[me(who else?)]

What would the IPS need to be? I set it 5 million and it doesn't work still. Any specific number?

edit: Come to think of it, does anybody else here use Bochs with Linux? If so could you PLEASE post your bochsrc file for me to look at.

 

[me(who else?)]

I got rid of this error..and a new one comes along. Now the RH9 installer tells me it occured a "bug" which prevents me from completeing the installation. I'll post back with the error a bit later.

Later: The error says that some kind of exception occured. It was a really, really long error. It said that I should make a dump, but when I tried it didn't work. This is most definitely because I don't have a disk image(for a floppy) or real floppy drive . It also gave an option to debug, but I couldn't once I chose save.

edit: For future reference, I used mkswap and fdisk to create a swap partition, then I activated it. For some reason, the swap partition had to be hda1 (the first partition).

 

[me(who else?)]

Does anybody use Bochs to run Linux? I'm beginning to think that it would be easier to buy a new comp then go through the hassle. Anybody out there who can help... ?

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

I don't use it for any "real" work because it's too slow. I'd just install Linux to a real machine.

Anyway, here's my .bochsrc (renamed to be able to attach).

 

[me(who else?)]

Thanks Mict. I think I'll probably just get a new machine to install Linux to, as Bochs is trying my patience.