[cobalt-users] CD restore does not work

["Harald Kubota (Forefront Technologies)" <kubota@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I managed to restore a Raq2 without any problems using the Cobalt Restore OS
CD some time ago.
It went like a charm.

Now I wanted to do the same with a Raq3 and it does not work at all.
All I get is a "Loading kernel..." for at least 30 minutes. No network
traffic,
just 5 packets going from the Raq3 to the host machine (a Compaq 2000
with several NICs, one at a time of course) and back. The Raq gets its IP
address,
so the physical network is working.

What's wrong?

I tried several NICs as the restore CD seems to be picky about it according
to
the small pamphlet which accompanied the CD. I tried Compaq N3123 (i82559),
an noname i21143 chip network card (driver could not decipher the SRM, so
that did not work at all), a VIA Rhine chip card did not work at all since
there was
no driver module for this, a cheap MX98715AEC card, which worked as well
as the Compaq card did and a 3COM905B embedded on a mainboard.
None of them got pass the "Loading kernel...". Some of them were not
recognized like the VIA chip and the i21143 so I can understand the restore
procedure does not work with these cards. But the other ones did not
work aswell.

I don't know where I can get one of the recommended and tested cards.
Network chips change as fast as CPUs do. One year later you cannot get
an original card with an old chipset anymore...

Any ideas? Maybe there's a newer restore CD available? With a newer
Linux?

Harald Kubota