Greetings

I am having a problem with installing linux mandrake 9.0
I did install 8.1 on this computer with success. and 9.0 on an older computer then this one but 9.0 will not install on this computer.

Here are the errors it gives me.

There was an error installing packages!
X free 86-4.2.1-3mdk.i586
Go on anyway
[yes] [no]

I selected yes this was the only error on disk 1

Disk 2

There was an error installing packages!
Dhcpcd –1.3.22.pl1-3mdk.i586
Go on anyway
[yes] [no]

after the installation when it was initialing the boot portion
this is what it said

an error occurred
mkinitrd failed
it ask me where to put the boot loader
I try all of them but it does not work

Note: I checked the CD it also is newly burnt I used the program to check it after downloading this I did all and more. The CD is clean no smudges no dirt newly burnt

Has anyone successfully installed md9.0 on a system like mine?
Remember I did install the same program with the same CDs on a deferent computer and it worked but it does not work on mine
Note: I also asked the vendors of my mother board they weren’t much help all they said was they had success installed linux (note they did not say which linux or which version)

Fore the most part when it gives the errors I can continue but when it gives

An error occurred
mkinitrd failed

This is where it asks me where to put the boot loader. If any of you know how to do this it may help me I need to get the boot loader running or linux will not run.
This installation was done on a 10 GB & 40 GB blank hard drive
Again the iso was a good and clean download and the burn to the CD was very successful as stated above I installed it on a computer that was older than the one I have.


: I have a FR33 1st mainboard:
: bios in VIA44 I did try 48 it gave more problems
: 700 MHZ Pentium
: 256 of ram
: Graphics card is VIA Tech VT8601 Graphics Controller
: 40 GB hardrive
: Samtron 55E 1024 by 768 80 Hz

Any ideas

Thank you for your time
Fire Wolf

i don't think either of the packages are causing the problem, tho it may be related. try running the install without installing either of the packages - they're not necessary for boot up.

mkinitrd errors are usually lilo or partition related. we tend to see it when a newly recompiled kernel is incorrectly installed. is there already an O/S on the computer you're installing to? can you tell us anything about how you partitioned the hd?


btw - i merged all your threads about the mandrake 9.0 install problem. in the future, please keep your questions about the same problem on one thread. repeating the same thing over and over will generally just cause the regular members here to ignore you. if you've made any progress on the problem, or found anything else which might be causing the problem, ask away, and feel free to bump the thread up, but reposting the same question splits up the info, and, trust me, it won't get answered any faster .

there is no os on it. It is a blank unpartitioned harddrive I let the installer do the partitioning its self (if does partition the hd)
what I need to know is how to setup the boot loader when it ask where to put it when it gives the error.

An error occurred
mkinitrd failed

My feeling is that it's not your hardware. You may try a bios update (website of your motherboard manufacturer), and anyway check the bios settings, turn off (if possible) any plug-n-play and/or virus-protection options.

Because the install works on another computer, it's probably not a media error.

There may be a problem at the partition stage. I've had a few minor problems with Mandrake's graphical partitioner before. Try a console one. Problem is AFAIK Mandy doesn't have cfdisk, and that's a lot easier than fdisk. You could try fdisk, otherwise get a disk that has cfdisk (Debian does). Make your partitions and then restart the Mandrake install, accepting the partitions that exist.

Another thing you could try is do a minimal install. When you have to select which programs/packages to install, turn off all options and choose a minimal install and see if it can do that without problems.

Or try to install another distro. There are so many choices (check www.distrowatch.com ). You could try Vector, that is compact, spares you a huge download. Or Libranet (the 2.0 though slightly older, is free) it has an easy install and then you can upgrade to the newest Debian packages.

Good luck!

<edit> If it is a blank HD you could install the bootloader (lilo probably, or grub) into the mbr. But the option I choose is to install it on the partition that has Linux and have that partition as the active one (which you can set with cfdisk, or fdisk).

Ok it sound like your are on the right track but like I said I am a newbies newbie
First here is the problem that I need help with

[Error in bootloader]

where do you want to install the bootloader?

[First sector of drive (MBR)] or [first sector boot of partition]
I select this one I did try this one a cople of times it looks like the first one
|
Here are the entries on your boot menu
so far you can add some more or change
the existing ones

---------------------------
---------------------------
Add
Done

It is blank so I add here is what it says

Which type of entry do you want to add

[Linux] [other OS (windows…)]

I select linux because I have no other OS on my system

New box comes up with no instructions

Here it is

Label: Linux
Image : it has a drop box [boot/vmlinuz] or [boot/vmlinuz-2.4.19-16mdk]
Root : it has a drop box [dev/hda1] [dev/hda5] [dev/hda6]
Append: this is blank

Defaut () if I click it puts a * in

I do no how to use fdisk but what size should I put the partition I want as much space as I can have to install programs and work in so I need to know what size to partition and how many.

Hi,

I'm a newbee too, and have tried to install A Suse Linux and a Mandrake onto a VMWare GSX Server 2.5 Virtual machine, without success. I get the same type of error when I'm trying to install the Mandrake distribution, in fact I get loads of these "ther was an error installing packages ...". If you press ctrl + the windows start buttion (or the alt option button), Mandrake witches to vartious log views. One of these says "bad package <package name> for every error I get. I haven't resolved it yet, but it seems that there might be something wrong with the iso image (I map my virtual CD drive straight to the iso image), even though the md5 checksum is correct.

In any case, you might be able to find additional info in the logs I mentioned.

Hope this helps