help::: cannot add software to fedora8 installation
 

Okay, I managed to get past my previous install problem by not selecting
very many packages during the original install process. Unfortunately, now
I cannot add software OR accept the offer to update [something like] 84
packages on my system. Why? Because during either of these processes,
the first thing I am asked is to insert CD #1 (then click the okay button on
the dialog). But that doesn't work - the dialog vanishes for an instant, then
reappears with the same request. But wait - what is CD #1? The installation
was from DVD. In fact, I didn't even see any option to download a set of CDs.
What gives? Anyone have this problem [and solve it]? Does anyone understand
what is happening here?

Dude, just insert the Fedora 8 DVD and click on Applications->Add/Remove software. You can select anything and do whatever you want to.

even so
 

Yes, I did that. The error messages I mentioned appear even when I have the DVD in the DVD drive. They appear even when I re-insert the DVD into the DVD drive and click "okay" on the dialog. The problem I have happen whether I insert the DVD before or after I select "Applications->Add/RemoveSoftware". That's why I'm stuck. Any other ideas? Do I need to perform some kind of manual "mount" command on the DVD or something? Or... ???

Yep, had the exact problem, ejected the DVD and found it was a genealogy CD I'd mixed up with the Fedora8 DVD. swapped it for the F8 DVD and it worked fine..

So have you got any other DVDs to try in the drive??? In other words, does the drive work OK???
If it does it may have something in common with your install problems, may be a crook DVD????
Did you do the self test at the start of the installation???

If you have an internet connection, you can use yumex or yum to install from the net, they don't ask for the DVD.

yup
 

Well, I installed the 64-bit version about 5 times from this DVD drive last week, and I installed this 32-bit version about 10 times in the past two days. The first 4 times (and the ~8th time) I let it run the "verify DVD" test and it never failed. Also, when I boot off the hard drive with the 64-bit version, I have inserted and read several DVDs without problems. So the drive must be good. To double check, I burned another copy of 32-bit fedora8 onto another DVD --- no improvement.

Whats all with the 32-bit and 64-bit versions? You installed both on one architecture? Anyway, how is that related to your problem?

1st as root
2nd check if /etc/yum.repos.d/Fedora-install-media.repo still has a correct entry.
3rd try again. ADD/Remove software

embedded system
 

I am creating embedded systems/devices based upon a MIPS64i SoC/CPU, and my development system expects me to do remote debugging on a Linux system. When I tried to run the installation on fedora 8 x86_64, the installation script told me, in essence, "sorry, charlie, this only works on 32-bit Linux - try again". So I stuck a (literally) new hard drive into the system and [tried to] install fedora 8 x86_32. That's why. The CPU chip in my system is an Athlon 64 x2 4400+ (not that that matters). I kept the 64-bit hard drive "just in case", since I generally prefer to program on 64-bit systems (and like to write 64-bit assembly, and especially SIMD/SSE2+ code).

what i found
 

I am not sure what you mean by "a correct entry". Here is what was in that file:

name=Fedora 8
mediaid=1194015397.199387
metadata_expire=-1
gpgcheck=0
cost=500

What all this means is beyond me.

However, after I typed this in for you, when I tried again to add/remove software, I had the same problem. It asked me to put in the DVD (which was in), and I clicked "okay" many times without success.

ok so then you can't install packages from DVD/CDs. i thought Fedora Team will sort out this problem in FC6. They didn't.
Solution : For installing Packages from DVD (workaround)
Put '#' sign before first baseurl line in three files fedora-core.repo, fedora-extras.repo and fedora-updates.repo in folder /etc/yum.repos.d

#baseurl=http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/$releasever/$basearch/os/
add new line below it.

create a folder 'disk' in /media
e.g.
insert Fedora DVD and mount it
e.g.
clean 'yum' cache.
click on Add/Remove Softwares and install packages from DVD. for installing from internet again, put '#' sign before disk's 'baseurl' line and remove '#' before original 'baseurl' line.

The files in /etc/yum.repos.d are:

fedora-development.repo
Fedora-install-media.repo
fedora.repo
fedora-updates.repo
fedora-updates-testing.repo

So I'm a bit confused here.
Do you have a net connection you can install from???
Or do you have to install from DVD?

The default fedora8 "add/remove software", does ask for the DVD, (well OK it says "disc1" but this must be left over from the old CD days). But when I've done it it doesn't seem to make much use of it, (and yeah I think the RH boys have fixed it because mine works OK)

Why I asked for you to test the drive, is because I have the impression that the drive can sometimes work for the installation, but then have trouble afterwards with the new OS, (wrong drivers or something??)

For some reason "add/remove software" isn't seeing the DVD.
There's a check box in >system>preferences>hardware>Removable drives and media>Mount removable media when inserted. If that's not ticked, the DVD isn't getting mounted.

If you don't need to use the DVD, using YUM or Yumex will install direct from the net, without asking for the DVD.

connected to internet
 

Yeah, sorry for not being clear.

I downloaded the fedora 8 x86_32 DVD .iso (~3.4GB) from some georgia tech website and burned a couple DVDs from the image. I installed my brand new empty 250GB SATAII hard drive into the computer (as the only hard drive connected), inserted the DVD into the computer, powered up the computer, pressed <enter> when it asked "boot from CD:" and went through what seemed to be a normal install process (specify partitions, select packages to install, etc).

Part of this process is to agree to let it operate the two gigabit ethernet ports on the motherboard, which I did (and configured accordingly in their dialogs).

After I selecting packages I wanted (which takes about 20 minutes), the installer spends several minutes resolving all the bits and pieces it must install to satisfy all my package selections, then starts installing. (((later note: When I tried to select huge numbers of options, which I prefer but takes a very long time, I would almost always stimulate a fatal fault that required immediate reboot - wasting one hour of install effort. So I stopped selecting "most-everything" and settled for a small subset, with the intention to add everything else I wanted later (after installation) in large but not huge groups of packages.)))

IMPORTANT: During the 30~60 minute installation process, I can see the DVD drive access light illuminate once every 5~20 seconds or so, AND I can see port 2 light on my router flashing most of the time. So obviously it is installing some stuff from the DVD, and some stuff from "somewhere" on the internet. My router is connected to a cable modem and my service typically provides about 3~8 Mbps on download, and 0.25~0.75 Mbps on upload.

Therefore, when I am told something like "374 security updates are available" after everything is done and I am running Linux as "root", I suspect the updates must be primarily from "out there on the internet somewhere". Nonetheless, whether I ask for these updates that are automatically offered to me by the window manager, or I try to add/remove software to install more packages from the DVD (presumably), I have the problem I described. Namely, it appears like the DVD is not mounted or something. Maybe this is true, though I find this very strange, since THEIR prompt is telling me to insert installation CD #1 into the CD drive. Why they say this when apparently only DVD images are offered any more, I have no idea - unless they simply don't bother to test their releases AT ALL (which would be very sad for such a [supposedly] mainstream distribution).

I hope this (and the above) help you give me better advice. I very much appreciate your efforts so far, and continue to look forward to trying whatever you suggest. Thanks.

install DVDs not automounting... CDs do automount
 

Here is an update.

The install DVD is not automatically mounting. The dialog displayed by

system->preferences->hardware->removable drives...

say it autoloads media. And IN FACT, when I put the CD that contains
the MIPS64i SoC/CPU development system in it --- well, that IS automatically
mounted and visible/browsable inside the /media folder.

However, perhaps Linux cannot (for some wacko reason) automatically
mount a DVD media. Could that be --- given the fact the distributions
are all released for DVD media, not CD media. Is this possible? If so,
why on earth would I be the only sucker who has this problem?

I tried to find a way to tell Linux to locate and/or mount the inserted DVD
via the menus on the desktop, but found nothing that helps me do that.
Very strange.

I doubt it matters, but the DVD drive is a NEC DVD_RW ND-3550A.
My system is fairly normal, fairly recent but not super recent.
AMD Athlon64 on DFI lan-party motherboard with 2GB DRAM.

What could be stopping my !!!installation!!! DVDs from being automounted
when CDs are being automounted? I would force-mount the DVD, except
the appropriate mount points and mount process seems vastly different
than my last experience with Linux.

Good news I guess you've found the problem, bad news, I've no idea why it auto mounts a CD but not a DVD.
Perhaps you shoud start a new thread with an appropriate title.

But as a work around, as you have a good internet connection, as I've said before you can use "yum" from the terminal,it doesn't ask for the DVD.
# yum install software

or yumex as a gui, but first you need to do
# yum install yumex