Why some distros install OK, while others malfunction?
 

Hi, newbie here. Just curious: why some Linux distros install without any problems and work perfectly, while others either do not install or malfunction (crash, freeze, missed folders, software manager selections act odd)?

All 64x, integrity of downloads was checked, CD/DVD burning verified, failsafe installation with verification of HDD where available.

All were installed from live CD/DVDs, single OS on HD. On the same computer (separate drives, turnable off) work well: Windows 7 (as checkup if hardware works), Fedora, SalineOS, Puppy.

Mint repeatedly misses some mail folder and notifies me about it.

Kubuntu (Oneiric Ocelot) crashes Muon software center and updater, involving same files.

OpenSUSE fail to restart.

Mandriva hangs during installation, desktop becomes filled with colorful strips and mouse cursor becomes replaced with dotted box.

Chakra looks like bad download, repeatedly, even if Hash Sum is the same and writing on CD was verified.

Makes me wonder why: software, hardware or me?

My functions were limited to downloading, checking file integrity, burning CD with verification, during installations mostly entering user names, passwords, language and timezone, not much I could mess up.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Your bunt Images could be bad, some distros allow you to check for integrity of the cd's before installations make use of that feature.
That's the nature of linux nothing comes on a golden plate. welcome to the world of complexities.

Those all sound like failures I would never expect, especially varying between distributions.

A few years ago, I tried installing many different distributions on many different computers and saw a lot of failures, but they were failure types one would expect to vary by distribution. Most often a display adapter (especially nvidia) worked with far fewer choices of display driver than developers apparently thought. So that display adapter would work or fail depending on which driver the distribution selected or which version of that driver it included.

I also saw a lot of examples of BIOSs that apparently were incompatible at boot time with the code on some installation CDs but not incompatible with the code on other installation CDs.

You seem to be getting a lot further and seeing problems in more subtle and/or specific places. I don't know why that would happen.

A quick check of my records reveals
4 total failures to install
32 with some problems, ranging from the trivial to the serious
24 complete successes
When you consider the great number of programs involved in a distribution, and the fact that they are sharing libraries, I'd say that's reasonable.

I wonder if you have a hardware problem: the Mandriva and Suse problems are odd.

The install problems I have encountered ...
 

Lead me to believe it is short cuts made in writing drivers. I don't think that the developers purposely clear out a register and garbage left from a previous process is reused for the the next process.The MicoCode does not do what they think it does. If you have a Distro that hangs usually if you try to install it after a different successful install it will no longer hang. So it is bugs in low level programming (Op code).

That sounds like total nonsense. So if there is valid info in there, you have not communicated it.

Still the same behavior (crashes, freezes, missing folders or stripes) even after installing after successful installations of other Linusex. Reproducible misbehavior, up to 4 times (I didn't try more).

Again, just curious. I now have perfectly operating full-function Fedora, from the second shot (from bootable DVD, not Live CD) on desktop PC and micro Puppeee on netbook.

Thank you all!
More ideas are very welcome.

Weeeelll (this is speculation)

• that mint problem sounds as if it could be curable by manually creating the appropriate folder, and maybe re-installing the program that makes use of it; don't know why it happens
• Kubuntu problem -networking??? Generally, can only guess,
• OPENsuse - normally, I find openSUSE to be pretty good at coping with variant conditions, but your mileage has obviously varied
• Mandriva sounds like an X problem, and could possibly be fixed with a bit of hacking in the Xorg department. You don't have a 'difficult' video card, do you (nVidia, ATI/AMD or AMD on chip video)?

Generally, problems with hardware used to be a lot more common back when SiS, VIA, etc, were quite common providers of motherboard chipsets. There could be still problems with non-mainstream hardware (if you have a mainstream AMD or Intel chipset, that ought to be well supported, but there is also the possibility that add-on parts such as extra SATA ports, extra USB ports, extra wired LAN chips, wireless LAN chips are not well enough supported to be universally trouble-free - there is almost always a way around this kind of problem, but it may be more fiddling about that you are prepared for).

The other thing is that you don't state which versions; it is always important to try to stick to versions that are more recent than your hardware, otherwise you are asking for trouble.

Sorry, last versions of each, I started download them 2 weeks ago. Hardware is approximately 3 years old. ATI card and AMD chipset, 4 SATA ports on motherboard, no extras.

Thank you for the information, I didn't consider these possibilities. They are above my user level, I'm more user of what installs without problems and appears to be manageable as is :)

Look to left see how many distro's I've used I have and varying problems with distro's. Research is necessary when using a different distro to see if they support your hardware.

I have great success with Nvidia and Intel chipsets. Ati card, amd chipsets have varying problems in unsupported Distro's. Suprized Suse gave issues seeing how they were leading the development in ATI card drivers.

Other problem with your Description. Is if livecd images ever ran with your hardware. I usually find liveCD will work, but the codecs are never loaded when I do a full install. That becomes a problem with Wifi and network adapters to run internet updates and access world wide web.

That is why we call this "Works out of the Box"

Chakra is of no suprise! They are more a nitch of wanting to be a full graphical user interface then a full load on codecs. Mandrivia better known as Manadrake from back in the day has had support for Nvidia from day one. No surprise this didn't work.

I would try Linux Mint 12 with codecs and see what ur results are!

Best option if you can make the Wifi and graphics support work is either Slackware or Arch Linux. With these customizing systems graphics support should work well and Network card update should be rather easy if you have a land line internet connection.

Suprised Linux hasn't gone to a full distro and add a sepaerate ISO for codecs to there systems. To allow for better support of the off base systems. Seeing how users are running away from MicroSoft Windows.

I indeed read about minimum Linux requirements to hardware, my hardware was better than that. But I didn't search for the each component brand compatibility, and not for each distribution, unless they were in plain sight.

Mint Linux installs from live CD only with a couple of failures, creating mail folder and something else, also with files. Beside this and disappearing password field - without any explanations - when one tries to enter long password in software manager, it worked well. If password has to be maximum 8 characters long, they could give at least some warning. Wired connection to internet is OK out of box.

I didn't know about what codecs are, and after reading now looks like I don't need them much, no music and very rarely video on this computer.

Arch Linux is now my dream (no frequent new versions, low fat), highly unlikely to realize - not enough time for learning, there are others, more pressing priorities.

I wouldn't run from Windows, if it didn't crash now and then. On Acer Aspire One netbook I switched to Puppeee, and there were no problems since then. This is why I had high hopes that on desktop PC Linux will be an ultimate solution, and yeah, right out of box (.iso, actually), my wish :)

By the way, the problem with Kubuntu Oneiric Ocelot was not only mine, solution is here (on forums links to other forums are not usually allowed, so web search on "Muon Software Center crashes at launch" and kooldino should work). It should be typed in terminal, and it solves the problem with Muon Software Center and update crashing; but another problem comes later: it doesn't see some programs, and these programs added through another software manager do not appear in applications menu. I gave up. Previous Kubuntu version worked for me better.