I have been unable to load Linux on my new computer. This computer has:
Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz
Intel D915GAV motherboard, 800 MHz system bus, 400 MHz memory bus
On board Intel video.
Seagate 160 GB SATA hard drive with 3 partitions. Win XP on large center
part. I want to install Linux boot on small low part, and rest of Linux on
high part.
Plextor PX-716SA DVD RW / CD RW

When I install Fedora (2 or 3) in default mode, expert mode, or failsafe mde, it
eventually asks me to select a driver for the load device or load a driver. None of the selections work, and I have no driver. The load process has been reading the load device up to this point. This happens with the Plexor drive and with a generic IDE CDROM drive. I can not get past this page.

Knoppix also fails. In default, expert, or other modes, it posts the message:
"Can't find Knoppix filesystem, sorry. Dropping you to a (very limited) shell. ..."

I loaded Win XP Home on the center partition with no problem.

How can I install Linux on this system? Any hardware changes?

Are you verifying the iso's against the md5 before you burn the discs? It may possible that the iso's are getting corrupted during the download. It's also possible that the burner is messing up the discs during the burn process. I would clean the dvd burner and try a slower write speed. Linux should work just fine with the hardware you mentioned. If none of this helps you could try running memtest86, I have seen Windows install fine and work great for weeks with bad RAM when Linux wouldn't even install with it. Also, when Knoppix drops you to the shell, you could run dmesg and see if it mentions any errors.

Thomas

The CDs came from BudgetLinuxCDs, and I have used them to load Linux on other systems with no problem. The failures on the new system came with 2 different CD readers. I don't think the CDs are the problem.

Memtest86 reports some errors, but at high addresses that I suspect are not used during the load. Win XP has no apparent problem. I have 1GB RAM installed.

If memtest is reporting any errors then you need to resolve that. When you load Knoppix, the entire OS is being loaded to memory, so this is probably the problem. Do you have 2 512MB sticks? If so remove one then run memtest, if you still get errors, swap it out with the other stick. When memtest reports no errors, try the install again.

Thomas

Just today I read that someone succeeded by changing a BIOS setting from IDE to RAID mode. Don't ask me why, but this was also a S-ATA controller.

I tested both memory sticks, one at a time. Memtest86 reported errors in one after a few minutes, but the other ran for 2 hours (16 passes) with no errors. I am now running with the one good stick; 512 MB. But no change when I try to load Linux: same errors. Most messages fly by too fast to read, but I saw a warning before it failed: "EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended", followed by "VFS: mounted root (ext2 filesystem)" . I assume that Linux install uses a file system in RAM; is this right?

I do not see any BIOS RAID option. This may appear only if the BIOS finds at least 2 disks.

Any other suggestions?

Have you tried booting with Knoppix? If it works with Knoppix then there must be a way to get it to work. Knoppix is a good way to get the config files and module listings.

Knoppix boot also fails. In default, expert, or other modes, it posts the message:
"Can't find Knoppix filesystem, sorry. Dropping you to a (very limited) shell. ..." Very few commands available in this shell.

I saw this answer in another linux help forum and it works for me. I'm not entirely sure why it works. Maybe someone else could elucidate. Maybe the dma detection ends up fargging the IDE config?

When you get to the boot prompt type "knoppix nodma" and it boots up just fine.

In googling around I'm amazed at how many people have suggested the ISO image is bad. The aggregate world-wide time wasted on this must be huge...

A.

I have that Plextor drive -- can't mount it. Probably part of your problem lies there. See the thread http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=281321