I have a friend whose computer we are trying to upgrade from the status of 'paperweight'. It won't boot the XP it had installed on it anymore; it cycles through the boot-up page over and over again. We decided to try Linux -- I've gone through install CDs, LIVE CDs, bootable USB images (Sugar On A Stick, anyone?)

However, the computer always hangs at the same place --

[] kernel_thread_helper+0x7/0x10

...help? Is the computer too damaged to install Linux? Is there a way to work around the damage?

The OS versions that we were looking at (other than the blueberry version of Sugar On A Stick)
-ubuntu (just because I figured, this one might have the most support)
-puppy linux
-knoppix
-DSL (*censored* small linux)
Hello,

Quote from: duckyreads on December 28, 2009, 05:00:52 PM

... status of 'paperweight'. It won't boot ...

It's a Dell Latitude D810; it has a different hard drive than it did originally (I think... 80gigs? Because the original one did a header, and died spectacularly).

That's generally the error it gets stuck with -- kernel_thread_helper+0x7/0x10. (Be it Ubuntu based or Fedora based, CD boot based or USB based).

It doesn't like to boot from CDs very much (it's really... ornery?) but when it does, regardless of the system, that seems to be the problem.

When it's trying to boot windows, it gave off errors that apparently indicate that an installed memory module could be faulty/improperly seated. Is there a way to work around that? This could be a stupid question, it's just -- sometimes programs like ZBrush expand into the actual harddisk space for fake 'RAM', so I thought maybe I could get Linux system to section off part of the harddrive to work as RAM. (This is probably a stupid assumption, but I don't actually know). This could be related to the error, or not -- it's just that I pretty consistently get that error.

a copy of what the screen says the last time I tried to boot the blueberry version of Sugar on a Stick (sorry if I make any stupid typos):

Code: [Select][<c0767010>] oops_end+0x99/0xa1
[<c0420083>] no_context+0x10d/0x117
[<c04201ac>] __bad_area_nosemaphore+0x11f/0x127
[<c0563141>] ? avc_has_perm+0x41/0x4b
[<c0594778>] ? idr_get_empty_slot+0x13c/0x1e7
[<c0564721>] ? inode_has_perm+0x69/0x84
[<c0764f88>] ? _cond_resched+0x8/0x2b
[<c0767ead>] ? do_page_fault+0x0/0x298
[<c04201c6>] bad_area_nosemaphore+0x12/0x15
[<c0767fe1>] do_page_fault+0x134/0x298
[<c0767ead>] ? do_page_fault+0x0/0x298
[<c0766663>] error_code+0x73/0x78
[<c04b00d8>] ? end_swap_bio_read+0x5a/0x62
[<c04ba94d>] ? kmem_cache_create+0xf4/0x23e
[<c09a4f29>] ? eventpoll_init+0x0/0xc1
[<c09a4fb3>] eventpoll_init+0x8a/0xc1
[<c055dc28>] ? security_sb_kern_mount+0x12/0x15
[<c0498646>] ? free_pages+0x8/0x24
[<c09a4619>] ? init_pipe_fs+0x0/0x3d
[<c09a4639>] ? init_pipe_fs+0x20/0x3d
[<c0401143>] do_one_initcall+0x51/0x13f
[<c0989372>] kernel_init+0x19c/0x1ed
[<c0989id6>] ? kernel_init+0x0/0x1ed
[<c04041a7>] kernel_thread_helper+0x7/0x10

Not entirely sure what the other boards have to do with it; I cover more ground by asking in more than one place. Different people go to different sites. Yeah, I copy paste ... myself? When I don't want to type out a problem twice. Is this a personal pet peeve of yours? Not really sure what the problem is. If I was opening a billion threads in one forum, I'd understand the irritation, but otherwise, I'm not really sure what your issue is.