I had loaded Fedora with no problems a few weeks ago. For some reason I decided I should go back and give SuSe 9.1 a try last night after not being able to get JAVA installed on my Fedora system.

So, I just booted with my start up disk and ran fdisk and deleted all parititions and then recreated a basic DOS C: then dropped in my Fedora disk.

I get to the point where it asks for language selection and then must run a hdd check cause the next thing that pops up is

assertion (heads<256) @disk_dos.C:486 in function probe_partition_for_geom() failed

I did a search for this error and I see I'm not the only lone goose out here getting this.

But I'll be darned if I can find a fix for it. I just see all the reports for the error but no real fix.

I'm runninga seagate 120 gb drive..

thinking about going to seagates website and getting the setup utility for the drive and resetting the geom.???

What do you guys think?

Ran into same symptom and error message.

On new PC, installed FC3-64. Needed to go back and add windows, so created C: parttion after wiping out Linux partitions. Get same error msg when trying to re-install FC3-64. No luck yet, hoping someone has a clue.

I just read a page where a guy went into rescue mode and did the fdisk /dev/hda and deleted all the partitions.

Well I hope I deleted all the partitions.

This is the shits cause it was actually runing good till I had to go and think.. maybe I should suse again.. ^%$#@((

The only thing I didn't really care for in Fedora was trying to install java which I never was able to do.


Hmmmmm, well my other computer just booted back up... install.... HMMmm. %$@&* Still the same thing.

I wonder if I should re-install windows, then suse.... then.... do a fresh install of fedora and see what that does.

I just did an install of XP again and made sure I formatted with NTFS. When I got to the point of where you can register XP I said No.

I then inserted my FEDORA cd and rebooted and selected my packages and it's installing now.

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla....cgi?id=138419

See "additonal comment 2" - ignore the naysayer at comment 5, who obviously had an actual hardware issue.

synopsis:

Can you try the update image at
http://people.redhat.com/~katzj/fc3-part-upd.img and see if that helps?

(Instructions for using an update disk are available at
http://rhlinux.redhat.com/anaconda/updatedisks.html)

It wasn't that difficult - and I got the install done flawlessly.

I got exactly the same error message as well as 3 other types of assertion errors .

I was running a duel boot system with Win 98 SE and FC2 on a 40 Gb Seagate HDD partitioned into 2 x 20 Gb partitions and I upgraded the FC2 -> FC3.

The way I got around this bug is by using the Tab and Enter keys to get rid of the error messages by selecting Ignore.

Using the mouse to click on ignore button doesn't work.

After these messages disappeared , the rest of the installation was fine , and so far , I haven't had any other problems with FC3 and it works good.

Got XP-pro to install after trying many suggestions from several sites. What worked was (1) getting a copy of MBRTOOL (2) using it to wipe all partitions - zero everything (3) ALSO using it to wipe LILO and anything else it could find. (4) install XP with new drivers for HD on floppy during install. Doing (2) without (3) did NOT work, though it looks like everthing is wiped, something is left over someplace.

FWIW, things that did not work for me: Any window boots or tools, MS FAQs and Instructions, FDISK, FIXMBR, Bart's PE (but it almost did), Tom's Root Boot, and MS-DOS tools, and DOS clone tools Except MBRTOOL.

Next I'll see if FC3-64 will install without messing everything (after I make a Ghost of course)

Also FWIW, I could EASILY install/reinstall UBUNTU - 64 repeatedly diring this process no matter how I messed up the hard dirve, including having a pure MS-DOS 6.22 (did not know I still had that!) If you want a easy to install Linux, look at that one. (free)

Seriously - see my post 5 (above).

It's much, much easier to just download the actual FIX from RedHat/Fedora than trying to gyrate around it. The guy in post 6 - I note - didn't actually have to change his partition scheme - so he "could" get around it.

I am having the same problem but more. I get the message but cancel/ingnore get me by. Its when its ready to install that it craps out with a lot of messages that I can save to disk.
I used the "Fix" and ....
Can't use windows to copy it file too big
rawrite says "attempt to DMA across 64k boundary"
Windows now says disk needs to be formated so I "think" it worked
I type "linux updates" and it ask for drive
I select "df0"
IT says "Can't mount drive"
so I still can't do anything. No "work around," works and no fix, fixes.
Anyone have an answer to this puzzle?

Hi
when I used keyboard to get rid of the error message it worked fine
i used disk druid and again it got the same error message
then i used keyboard to cancel and at the last it just said that a bug has been found and cannot continue with the installation

what should I do ?
plz help me
regards
sabari

Creating the floppy is the hard part. From Windows you need rawrite to create the disk.

Read the rawrite3.doc, and download rawrite3.com...

http://www.tux.org/pub/dos/rawrite/

That should help you create the floppy.

Once you have the floppy, you have to boot the FC3 CD and type "linux updates" at the prompt, so that it will prompt you for the floppy.

---

If you have problems with rawrite3 (I didn't), you might try rawrite2.exe. MAKE SURE YOU USE A GOOD FLOPPY.

A while back, I posted in simple language for newcomers how to overcome the installer problem. Look here http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=314612 for post #4.

Also, the RHEL4 Installation Guide (see http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/) talks about using the Anaconda update image and other non-floppy ways to use it, such as hard disk installations and network installations.

WhatsHisName

I don't see where in that second link: http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/ it talks about scenarios where users do not have a floppy drive. I understand that FC3 and enterprise are probably interchangable for this point but the links on that page do not apply to my archetecture nor distro/version. If you have this knowledge can you please share it. It's been a problem in the community for a lot of folks with no floppies and I just know there is a solution out there. Thanks in advance...

For installation purposes, the instructions for RHEL4 are essentially the same for FC2/3. The manual titles are a little strange, but this one ( http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/e...install-guide/ ) covers i386 architecture, which is probably what you are looking for. A printed version of the PDF-format installation manual is a little easier to follow than the online version.

When a floppy drive is not available, you can transfer the CD iso images and the Anaconda update image renamed as updates.img to the hard disk of the system you are going to install FC/RHEL on. See the manual section “2.6. Preparing for a Hard Drive Installation” ( http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/e...d-install.html ) for setting up the hard disk. Start the installation with the first CD, enter “linux askmethod” at the first prompt and select the Hard Disk/Drive option. The installation will proceed using the Anaconda update and the iso images on the hard drive.

If you have a second linux system on your LAN, an easier way to do the installation using the Anaconda update is to copy the CD iso images and updates.img to the same folder on the second system and to make the folder available as a NFS share. Start the installation with the first CD, enter “linux askmethod” at the first prompt and select the NFS option. The installation will proceed using the Anaconda update and the iso images in the NFS share. This is how I usually do FC installations.

I was struck by the same problem while performing same task as you.

You have corrupted your MBR. Don't worry, make a low level format of your hard disk and it will solve the problem. A tips from my previous experience, your SuSe OS may recognize your HDD more than the size of your BIOS recognize it. Never go with the SuSe's option and do not use the higher limits which your BIOS cannot recognize.

also the second tips, first install SuSe then Fedora.

anindyanuri