I am really new to Linux (and computers in general), and I am having trouble installing Fedora Core 1. I am trying to install Fedora on a Dell Dimension 8300. I have Red Hat 9 installed along with Windows XP on my machine already, and I had no problems with Red Hat. I am installing via CD and when I try either regular install or text mode, I can get to the media check screen. It passes the CD's that I have and runs anaconda. Once it is done checking for hardware, my screen goes black then flickers back to life to show a white screen with a mouse arrow pointer. For a couple of seconds, I can move the mouse and it responds, then it just freezes. I eventually have to restart my machine.

I received advice to type "linux ide=nodma" in an attempt to solve the problem. Everything went about the same, but when i tried to continue after media check screen, this is what comes up:

Running anaconda, the Fedora Core system installer - please wait...
exec of anaconda failed: Accessing a corrupted shared libraryinstall exited abnormally
Sending termination signals... done
Sending kill signals... done
disabling swap...
unmounting file systems...
/mnt/runtime done
disabling /dev/loop0
/proc/bus/usb done
/proc done
/dev/pts done
/tmp/ramfs done
/mnt/source done
you may safely reboot your system

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here... but something similar happened to me and the fault was a scatchy CD! You cannot get the mediacheck to see if the CD is all right, try eyeballing it to see if it is scratchy.

Otherwise, you have a bad copy on a good disk ?! Which is surprising since you'd think the first thing a supplier would do is mediacheck the distro before sending. (Or did you download the disk images ... <shudder>)
Simon

I downloaded the image by myself first and tried that set. I was thinking that it was a problem with the cd's, so I got another set from a friend. So it's screwed up with both sets of cds. I checked 'em again after your post just to make sure, and they're fine.

OK: something like this turned up in Bugzilla, only in their case they *could* do a media check. It is listed as bug 1095662 a duplicate of 109462

They suggest booting with 'linux allowcddma'

dma is direct memory access - nodma just stopped the dma from your onboard memory - this command seems to allow direct access to the cdrom memory. (?)

Apart from that - nobody seems to have a clue.

Could your freind install from the disc he supplied you?
Simon

Yeah, my friend is actually my Computer Engineering and Technology teacher. We recently had a dual boot project in school where we had to make a machine with both Windows XP and Fedora Core. The cd he gave me was from the same cd's that were used in the project in our computer lab.

I just tried the 'linux allowcddma'. It just did the same thing as before and froze. I had control of the mouse for a few seconds when the cursor was like an 'x', then it changed to a pointer with a white screen in the background and froze.
Any more suggestions to try would be great.

OK: so your teacher is using different hardware? (I am assumin he's starting from the same place - i.e. with a dual boot XP-RH9 system and adding Fedora?)

If the hardware is the only difference - try using another cdrom drive (say an old one from somewhere?) or ask Dell about compatability with Fedora Core?

Try reading the bugzilla reports I showed you and posting this fault in bugzilla with everything in the initial post. If it is anaconda - it may be having trouble with your hardware+existing installations and starting by removing all your existing installs may work.

Meantime, I'll keep an eye out.
Simon

Are you using the 2.6 kernel?
I have heard that Fedora Core 1 does not install via anaconda for the 2.6 kernel.

anyway - google away, there are many approaches out there.

see: http://toast.debian.net/~may/umlproject/install.html

for example.

And I REALY mean it about bugzilla - there's a lot of folk with the same hardware as you having trouble with anaconda, each with solutions. GIve it a go.
Simon

Thanks alot for all your help. I will do what you've said and keep looking for a solution. Your advice has been really helpful, so now at least I can try to make it work.

And, actually, my teacher was doing a fresh installation of XP and Fedora on different hardware machines. So my installation would be different from his, most definitely.

I am unsure about what kernel is on the disks that I have. The set that I made were from fedora.redhat.com, and I don't know about the disks I got from school. How could I found out?
I have two drives on my machine, one is dvd, the other is a cd burner. could i use the burner to install? Whenever I go into bios settings to set up boot from cd, i only see the dvd drive, along with the hard drive and floppy drive. Apart from that, I don't have any other cd-rom drives.
I will contact Dell about compatibility with Fedora and try that. What exactly is Bugzilla and how do you use it? I went to the website and I don't understand if you have to download it or what. Sorry for being so uninformed.

Hi all.

I already made several attempts : graphical, text mode.
My /boot partition has 250Mb and only 19Mb is used.
I am obtaining 2 errors on the install process :

1)After trying to "image transferring" : the program is saying that there is not more space in disk. I think that is regarding the boot partition !? In this point this error is shown and the possibility of continuing is offered.

2)Therefore after, a great error (similar a bug) is shown and the installation is canceled.

Any clue ?

TIA,

MNobre

haggard: Bugzilla is for bug reporting - you search for bug reports and solutions there.

mnobre: not a clue - I've found your message really confusing, what exactly are the error messages? Like - verbatim?

Simon

OK, I have just reinstalled windows and tried to install Fedora again. This is how it was done at my school, and it still did not work, of course the hardware is different, but I thought I'd try it just to see.

Update: Because of what I read on other forums or some other post on this website, I tried to install Fedora Core in text mode without the mouse plugged in. Using this method, I was able to complete the installation, but now whenever I try to boot into Fedora, and after all of the boot information and Fedora is trying to start up, I cannot get in. I cannot move the mouse at all now, and it will go back to the boot information before it can finish loading. I do not have a clue of what to do, but at least I got Fedora installed, even though I can't use it.

HAG i think its your install alread of RH and XP cause when I installed xp and fedora on my dell it was fine. no real problems except for those I created my self by acedent, lol.