Changing the subject like that is normally a very good way to make sure I
won't spot your reply...
Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:51:59 -0500
From: Johnathan Hegge <johnathan.hegge(a)bluecoat.com>
Subject: Re: Dell OptiPlex 745 reboot problem -- BIOS update went poorly
To: fedora-list(a)redhat.com
Message-ID: <1220651519.3856.9.camel(a)ios.internal.cacheflow.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> Got tons of Dell Optiplex 7XX, had that exact problem. Solution is
> two-step:
> 1. Flash up the bios. The ones they're shipped with suck bigtime.
> 2. Add the kernel parameter "reboot=bios" to all kernel lines in
> /boot/grub/menu.lst
>
> Solved it for us.
>
> -BT
Ugh, I was having the same problem with my 745. So, I drug out a USB
floppy and applied the latest BIOS -- going from 2.3.1 to 2.6.2 from
Dell. Whoops.
Starting up looks fine, all services showed OK. Gets to local, X starts
and the box freezes at the spinning dots with a frozen mouse. Can't
break with Ctrl-Alt-Del or Ctrl-Backspace.
Hard power, restart, interactive init. Allow all, but skip local. X
starts fine.
rc.local contains:
<NOTHING>
1. Did you apply the reboot=bios setting as well?
2. Did you try more than once, with the new bios?
What you're describing sounds more like a fluke, or at least a problem
unrelated to the bios update. There's nothing in your rc.local, thus
nothing there which should make a difference. Reapply the most recent bios,
set the kernel boot parameter, and give it a few more tries to check.
-BT
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