I installed alpha 1 on my old computer (1.4 Ghz p3, 80gb hard drive) and I’m pretty sure I installed it properly but when I attempt to boot it I get a screen that says Fatal: Error Loading OS
oh and another thing when I boot haiku off a CD, My monitor gives an error as well during the splash screen (it doesn’t interfere with the boot process though), It tells me that It is out of sinc and I am unable to to anything until the desktop appears and the monitor error disappears, it is a CRT monitor
Try to boot in vesa mode…
hit space on booting and choose safe video mode…
should help…
I tried that, The exact same thing happened
Fuddyman, could you please be more specific – were you able to get into the safe mode options by tapping on the space bar? Or did you get the error message before you could get so far?
Have you read the installation guide?
http://www.haiku-os.org/get-haiku/installation-guide
You may try to follow the tip there (towards the end) about booting from the CD and tap on the space bar and try to select the Haiku HD partition as the boot volume.
Also, do you have any other OS or important data on the hard drive in this laptop?
Your error message sounds like the Haiku partition is not even found during the boot process, but let’s make sure before giving further advice.
Fuddyman, could you please be more specific – were you able to get into the safe mode options by tapping on the space bar? Or did you get the error message before you could get so far?
-actually, I am unable to tell because the hardware error that the monitor displays prevents me from seeing anything on screen, do you just have to tap the space bar? because that’s all I did.
Have you read the installation guide?
-Yes, but I was unsure about the Write boot sector option which isn’t used in the guide, but I used it anyway, I mean why Is it there, doesn’t the installer create a boot sector?
Also, do you have any other OS or important data on the hard drive in this laptop?
-No, And It’s actually a somewhat old desktop, not a laptop
Your error message sounds like the Haiku partition is not even found during the boot process, but let’s make sure before giving further advice.
-I thought That was the reason but How can I check?
Fuddyman, could you please be more specific – were you able to get into the safe mode options by tapping on the space bar? Or did you get the error message before you could get so far?
-actually, I am unable to tell because the hardware error that the monitor displays prevents me from seeing anything on screen, do you just have to tap the space bar? because that’s all I did.
Have you read the installation guide?
-Yes, but I was unsure about the Write boot sector option which isn’t used in the guide, but I used it anyway, I mean why Is it there, doesn’t the installer create a boot sector?
Also, do you have any other OS or important data on the hard drive in this laptop?
-No, And It’s actually a somewhat old desktop, not a laptop
Your error message sounds like the Haiku partition is not even found during the boot process, but let’s make sure before giving further advice.
-I thought That was the reason but How can I Make sure?
Ok, the monitor issue complicates things here.
I will guide you through how to start up your Haiku installation on the hard drive by using the CD, without seeing what is on the screen. I recommend that you also refer to the installation guide, specifically the section called ‘Boot using the CD’, as this will show what you hopefully are doing.
Put the CD into your computer. Reboot.
As the usual BIOS info or startup text disappears be quick to start tapping the space bar. The window of opportunity is less than a second I believe. Strictly speaking you only need to tap it once, but tapping it several times will do no harm, so you can keep on tapping it for 10 seconds just to be sure. If you can’t even see the BIOS screen then you would have to press space a lot of times, as the BIOS startup can take anywhere from 3-20 seconds depending on the computer. You should now hopefully be at the first screen in the section of the guide that I mentioned.
Press Enter. (This will bring you to the second screen in that section.)
Press Arrow Down once. Press Enter. (This will select the HDD install, not the CD, as the boot volume, and bring you to the third screen in the section)
Press Enter. (Now you’re done. The boot loader will try to boot from the HDD. As your monitor doesn’t work at this point, this will be a good time to fold your hands, wait, and hope for success.)
This should boot your Haiku system from the HDD. If you get this far let us know and we will try to guide you through getting it to boot automatically.
The ‘Write boot sector’ in the installation program can be confusing, I was unsure about that one myself when I tested the installer for the first time. You do not have to press it, the boot sector is written automatically when the installation is done. But don’t worry, no harm has been done even if you pressed it. The button is redundant for most people, but can fix a Haiku partition that has lost its boot info. I think it should be hidden away under some sort of advanced options interface.
Hey it worked and when i hit the space bar the monitor issues fixed itself (although the monitor reset for some reason though)
I got It to boot off the hdd and see what i was doing (=
now I need to know how to make it boot properly
oh yeah thanks alot
You make it boot by itself by installing a boot manager to the start of your hard drive, to the part of your hard drive called the MBR (master boot record).
When you have booted Haiku you start the Terminal application. Then type bootman and hit enter. Click through this wizard and the Haiku boot manager should be installed on your drive, allowing you to boot without the CD. You should see a menu upon reboot where you can select Haiku (or other systems you have installed).
I’ll try That
Thanks That worked haiku boots properly now
But now I’m Having a new issue, Graphic anomalies, These red and Blue Lines appear all over the screen and everything becomes quite blurry after a bit which makes t impossible to to read anyhting including what im typing now I installed the haiku Nviia driver (because I have A Nvidia Geforce2 MX/400)
do you know how I can solve this
Great, I’m glad to hear that it worked out for you!
About the graphic issue I don’t know, really. Could it be the old monitor itself that’s causing it? Or do you suspect it is the driver? You could try with another OS to find out if it’s hardware related.
I’m not an expert on Nvidia cards & drivers so perhaps someone else can help better with this. I don’t think you should have to install any Nvidia driver by yourself, I think it comes with the Haiku system by default.
One thing to try though is to open the Screen application from the Preferences menu, and configure the resolution, colour depth and refresh rate to something safe that you know your monitor is able to support.
It is also possible to try using the Vesa driver (it’s a driver that can be used when there is no good driver available for your video card) to see if that helps. Note that it will only give you 60 Hz refresh, and that can be tiresome with a CRT monitor. You tap the space bar as you start the system like you did earlier and go in and choose Failsafe video mode or whatever it is called in the options and if you wish you can also specify the resolution that you want.
I think it’s probably the monitor, I’ve never seen any os cause a hardware monitor error like haiku, plus it restarts during the boot and the screen area keep growing and shrinking by itself oddly.