Linux installs keep freezing before they start. (debian, linuxmint, ubuntu)
 

I have been trying to install linux on my HP pavillion 511w for several days. The first I tried to install was debian, it didn't freeze but it kept saying unable to mount cdrom drive. (This may have been from an incorrect jumper setting that I later changed.) I haven't tried debian since changing the jumper.

I next tried ubuntu 10.04 beta 2, all it did was go to a ubuntu flash screen that never stopped cycling these small round "lights".

I then tried the "stable" ubuntu 9.10. This went to a screen with several options for installing ubuntu, checking the disk etc. No matter what I selected it would just freeze. Since this is my first install I wasn't sure if this was normal or not so I waited several hours and still nothing, after enough time I concluded it must have been frozen. But before I continue wasting time waiting for hours can someone tell me... when installing these linux versions is there a sign that it is loading, booting, or installing the OS? I figure it must have a status bar or something, but want to make sure.

I next tried linux mint 8. It did the same thing, went to a sceen with several options and when I select something it says "loading" at the bottom with a blinking cursor, but of course it never loads anything, just sits there. This one throws me off a bit because it says its loading and the cursor blinks but it just doesn't seem like it is actually doing anything.

I have also downloaded ubuntu 8 which I plan to try next. I've tried changing the boot/install options by pushing F6 or whatever it was.

The computer is an older system that I never use because its so slow running XP. I thought linux would run faster and I could get some use out of it while learning/experimenting with linux. I always have to have projects to keep my mind working, but constantly failing at the starting line is not much fun.

How much ram do you have? Are you sure the cd drive and its cabling are sound? Does the cd drive show up in your bios setup? Exactly what did you do as far as jumpering the cd drive? Was the cd drive working OK in winxp before the jumper change?

When I first started, one of my mistakes was that I assumed that a LiveCD would just "auto-run" like in Windows when you pop it in. That's not how it works, though...

Maybe you didn't do that, and if so just ignore this. But maybe you just did the only thing a Windows user knows to do with a CD like I did at first.

It's a bootable CD, so you have to boot into it. Pop in the CD and close the tray. Then re-boot your machine. During the initial bootup, your computer's manufacturer's logo appears for a few seconds and there are Options and Help menus and such. On my Dell it's F-12 for boot options. From there I can select which device I want my computer to boot from. CD-ROM drive should be on that list. Choose it and hit Enter.

In a few more seconds your computer will boot into your way cool Linux desktop!

Enjoy the ride,
Robin

Yes cd-rom is working fine and works in windows. When I was first trying to get debian to mount the cd-rom I tried 2 different cd-roms and the second rom was set on slave. Then when I started trying the other OS's versions I realized it and switched it to master with the jumper.

I'm booting from the cd correctly. I changed the boot method in the bios to make the cdrom first. I've also tried multiple disks from cd-r to cd-rw's. And it goes to the various install screens just fine but freezes when I try to select anything. Even selecting check drive for errors makes it freeze. I have 256mb of ram. I also just tried installing ubuntu 8.04.4

Have you checked the integrity of the iso file with md5sum before burning and/or burn iso at slower speed? If you burned all the cd's using the same cd burner drive could be something wrong with the drive. Try burning cd's from a different computer and see if that helps.

I haven't tried checking with md5sum. Not even sure what that is though I have seen it mentioned on a few forums. I burned the files at 2x. The drive is pretty new and it burns everything else just fine so I doubt that's the issue. The only other drive I have to burn from is the computer I'm trying to add linux to and it's so slow at doing anything in XP that I HATE using it.

I actually downloaded puppy linux and got it installed and running. It's so much faster then XP and actually makes the computer usable. I wanted to try the fuller versions of linux such as linux mint and such, but at least I have something that is usable now.

It sounds like your machine may have an issue with debian. ubuntu is derived from debian, and mint derived from ubuntu. You might try mandriva as a full, newbie-friendly distro. It's kind of sluggish compared to other distros, but I really liked it's look and feel (which kind of means I really like KDE) when I first started playing with linux. I've since moved on due to the sluggishness and a desire to learn more of a hands on approach to gnu/linux. Puppy and it's derivatives are definitely going to be faster than just about anything else out of the box though.

Salix is also a distro I'm liking more and more on my laptop. It's fairly new so you won't hear a lot about it, but it's based on Slackware which is older than any other distro. It has the nice advantage of using one program per task thus saving disk space, as well as being quick and has some newb-friendly (by Slackware standards) features. It is quick and since it's installer is ncurses based (graphical, yet still console) there's less chance of the installer failing.

Have fun and welcome to the community! :)

Thanks. Appreciate the feedback. I've actually tried linux on 3 of my machines now, all today. I'm not convinced it's the machine not likeing those linux version. Not really sure what it is though. None of the ubuntu or linux mint image files burned on cd work on any of my 3 machines. (they all freeze in the same spot) Puppy linux does work when burned to the disks though.

BUT..... I was able to burn ubuntu 9.10 onto a flash drive using unetbootin, and my 2 newer computers will load fine from that. My older computer won't boot from USB otherwise I would just use that method. Somehow the unetbootin loader or whatever you call it works while whatever loader is being used in the burned image disks is not working. Not on any of the machines.

I'm using imgburn to burn the iso files and have tried multiple OS's and multiple types of disks, and just now tried another burner. I tried to use unetbootin to write the files to a cd-rw but it only appears to work with usb and hard drives.

I'm not sure what is going on, but something is just not right with the cdrom img's for the ubuntu OS's. (odd that puppy linux worked fine)And ubuntu worked fine on USB

Puppy is substantially smaller. Maybe something going on with the burn process? I know on my previous machine (windows has never been installed on the new one:) ) I ALWAYS had trouble burning anything to capacity. It wasn't uncommon to try 4 times to get a successful burn. I always assumed it was something to do with the burner itself, but since I didn't burn much, I left it in. When I switched to linux, k3b burned everything everytime without me really doing anything. Go figure.

Burning probably isn't the issue then. It could well be a corrupt download. That's where md5sum comes in.

On the site you downloaded your iso from, in the same directory there should be a file that matches your <filename>.iso that called <filename>.iso.md5sum or a line that reads 'md5sum <string of characters'. In the first case download the file and open with a text editor. In the second, copy the string of characters.

Next you need to generate a checksum for the iso you downloaded. Open a terminal, will output another string of characters. Compare the output to the string you downloaded or copied, if they match, your download was not corrupted.

Update I got mint linux to boot from a cd on the old computer, but it seems really slow. Also it showed the main OS with a green screen a logo and at the bottom it had some very minimal navigation. One said "show desktop" and then there was an icon for an internet connection and the last said checking for updates. Then those few things kind of disappeared and I was left with the pretty green background and LM logo. I could move my mouse around and such but it was pretty pointless and I was impatient. Not sure what it was doing but I exited.

Also I should mention the ISO files are the same files I used for the USB as well as the cdrom. I also have about 5 different ISO's of varying Linux OS versions. I wouldn't think all but the puppy was corrupt.

You did burn it as an image file and not as a data file (as done with MP3s and pictures).

Yes all the iso files were burned the same way as an image file using imgburn. Imgburn is pretty straight forward and im familiar with burning them for dvd ripping. Right now I'm using linux mint on my newer computer. I like the interface alot. Very nice. I can't find the desktop switcher though which I liked in the other versions. I didn't like all the brown/orange themes in ubuntu, but it seemed a bit faster then linux mint. For my old computer I think puppy linux is best suited due to the speed. It really livens it up.

256MB of ram is not enough to run KDE4 well which is the default desktop environment in Mandriva. I think it's also pushing it for the gnome dekstop environment in ubuntu and mint. You do need a lighter desktop environment. Puppy is very good because it runs entirely in ram and has been slimmed down to run in as little as 128MB of ram. That's why puppy is so responsive. Another you could try is Vector Linux:

http://vectorlinux.com/downloads

Get the VL 6.0 Standard Edition Gold. Vector is based on Slackware which is known for it's speed and responsiveness even on older hardware. The standard edition uses a lighter desktop environment, XFCE, and is designed to run on computers with as little as 128MB of ram.

You can also take a look at Zenwalk Standard which is also slack based and uses XFCE:

http://www.zenwalk.org/

Both Zenwalk and Vector are much more full featured than Puppy but are light enough to run well on your hardware.

As to your problems with debian based mint and ubuntu, as noted by others, it could be a debian thing, in particular, a kernel issue with the acpi version on your motherboard. There may be boot parameters you can pass to work around that(noapic, nolapic, acpi=off) but I really wouldn't bother since you really don't have the horses to run either very well. You can also check your bios setup and make sure you disable plug-and-play if you have that option as this can occasionally cause problems with linux.

Your booting problems might also be caused by issues with the cd drive, its cabling or problems with cd-r(w) media you are using. However, if only the debian based cds give you trouble and puppy and the slack based vector and zenwalk don't, it's most likely a debian issue.

Finally, some have suggested a problem with corrupted downloads. I don't think that's very likely unless you have a very flaky internet connection. Corrupted downloads are rare in my experience and it is unlikely that you would get a series of them. Problems with burning the iso are also a possibility but you seem to have controlled for that. You may try burning on a slower speed just to eliminate this as an issue.

plpbt will allow you to boot from usb, however if it's usb 1.0 will be extremely slow. Might want to also try slitaz or absolute (based on slackware)for older hardware. To get debian based distros to work maybe try one or more of the following boot options: nousb noacpia nopcmcia ide=generic nodma vga=normal noscsi. Debian with alternate lxde or xfce desktop should run okay, stay away from gnome or kde desktops