[MLUG] crc error

[Catherine Ansbro]

Thanks to Padraig's advice I did eventually get registered with Red Hat.  This led me to get onto the rpm so as to start to update the installed packages.  As "instructed" I first downloaded the "up2date" program files, installed them & executed.  (I downloaded 2 files--one that was just the up2date version, and another one that mentioned up2date for gnome.  I wasn't sure which one(s) I needed so I did both.  It took several attempts, so I ended up with a few "extra" copies.  (Couldn't figure out if I needed to create a separate folder or if the download program would create them automatically--general confusion.  Plus I had downloaded them the day before, but hadn't managed to completely install.  The packages looked "open" but I wasn't getting indication of them being installed.)  Finally seemed to have gotten somewhere, but I couldn't tell which of the various multiple copies had been used, and didn't know if I needed to keep them in those file folders or not.  (This may be relevant to what happened next. . .)

Next I was going to download updates for 20 packages.  But when it showed the files to confirm for download, there were only 2:  something like glibc i386 and glibc i686.  I wasn't sure if I was supposed to do them both or not (because my machine is an i386), so I ticked the box for i386 file, and did the download.  (it only took a second or so because it was only 1 Kb.)  Then I couldn't find it.  I delected the "extra" rhn download packages that had the extra up2date files I had previously downloaded.  I still couldn't find the most recent glibc i386 file I'd downloaded.  
 
I may have inadevertently deleted what I'd downloaded as I don't remember ticking the box to show me the file after it had downloaded.  (That is, maybe it was sitting hidden in a folder I deleted in which I only saw the extra copies of up2date.)

Then the screen froze completely.  So I tried to reboot.  At the point when it was starting to Uncompress Linux I got the message: crc error  System halted

Tried again to reboot, got a bit further in the process but then got: Kernel panic CPU context corrupt (just above it: CPU0 Machine Check Exception)

I've no idea what I've done wrong and how to get out of this.  I have no idea how serious or unserious it is.  (I do have the redhat 9 discs I originally installed from.)
 
Whenever I try to reboot I get either the crc error or else the CPU context corrupt message.

I have another computer connected to the 56Kb phone line so I can send this email!  So that is very good news.

I will be grateful for any suggestions about what to do next.  It's the linux server that is affected.  I really didn't think I was doing anything so adventurous that it could lead to a kernel panic!

Catherine