What does this indicate ?
 

If I make my entire 4G HD available to Mandrake and try to install KDE, Other Desktop Environments(like ICEWM etc.,) and everytime the installation stalls and freezes towards the end (at different points), what does this indicate ?

Vijay

May be you don't have a swap partition and your ram gets overloaded. I don't know much about this but in the mandrake installation make a swap partition about 200 MB.
Hope it helps you

Mandrake is supposed to make a Swap Partition at install. It does everything so smoothly. This doesn't seem to be the issue.

Vijay

Try
 

What you could try is not installing kde or the other desktops during the install but installing them afterwards using the mandrake 9.1 package installer. You are using mandrake 9.1?

Regards, Tom.

Yes, I am using Mandrake 9.1 Is this a common problem what I am experiencing ?

switch to the console with messages on it after it freezes, i think its VT3 in mandrake but i could be wrong, just try all of them and tell us what the error messages are. if you see anything like DriveSeekError then its a buggered cd.

I am already installing in text mode. How can I go to the console ?
Here is a summary of the issues so far:
1) Programs don't install well
2) KDE when it installs, will not load and freezes (poor video and monitor)
3) I tried XFDrake, set all parameters close to my PC, still will not work
4) Install of other desktop environments fails

Do you feel that there is still hope for getting it to work ?

Vijay

i thought you meant it freezes in the install, i mean while installing when it freezes switch to VT3 and tell us what it says.

I will try to do this but it may be a few days. I will share the results here once I try this out. Thanks for this suggestion.

Vijay

After it freezes, I can switch to VT3 by pressing ctrl ALT Bckspc correct ?

Thanks.

Vijay

Ctrl-Alt-F3, Ctrl-Alt-BkSpc kills the X sever. but as i say it might not be VT3 it might be a different one, just check them all 1-6 one of them contains the log messages

What are all the other choices ? I am a newbie in this area and feel lost. Thanks.

Also I was suggested to try var/log/messages, however with the freeze I couldn't get to it.

Vijay

for virtual terminal 1 press Ctrl-Alt-F1
for virtual terminal 2 press Ctrl-Alt-F2
for virtual terminal 3 press Ctrl-Alt-F3
for virtual terminal 4 press Ctrl-Alt-F4
for virtual terminal 5 press Ctrl-Alt-F5
for virtual terminal 6 press Ctrl-Alt-F6
for virtual terminal 7 press Ctrl-Alt-F7
....
....

Cltr Alt F1 gives me some text with a warning about Sylpheed.
Ctrl Alt F7 brings me back to my present terminal.

If I start using more terminals than one, will it strain the processor ? Hey wow !! I had no idea this can be done.

Vijay