Install crash

emalossi · 04-06-2006, 12:21 AM

Hi,

I already posted this over on the Fedora Install forum but still don't have the answer. If anyone here has a suggestion, I'd appreciate the assist.

I'm trying to install FC4 on a Dell laptop. It's certainly not bleeding edge, Inspiron 8100, no cards in it or anything. I have used this same media to install on a generic x86 desktop with no issues, however when I attempt to boot the first disk on the laptop it says,

Error opening /dev/console!!!!:2
...
switch root mount failed /22
Kernel Panic not synching : Attempting to kill INIT

I've searched all over and this seems to be a pretty common error but all the examples I've found are post install. What could be causing this on a first boot from an install CD?

I'm not sure how the drive is partitioned as I just got it, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was a single NTFS partition. Could this be the problem? I'm not sure how I could delete it if I can't boot it to a CD.

I've tried the common suggestion of using the acpi=off directive and it doesn't change the behavior at all. Is there anything else I can try?

Thanks
Eric

emalossi · 04-06-2006, 12:27 AM

I just noticed that there is another slightly earlier errror:

mount: error 6 mounting ext3

Is there a way to halt the install before all of this scrolls offscreen? I tried pause and break, but that didn't help.

Thanks

DaneM · 04-06-2006, 01:46 AM

Hi, Eric.

To pause messages, you can usually use scroll-lock. Can you boot from the CD? If so, try repartitioning the HDD, then rebooting, then reformatting. It sounds to me like the ext3 partition is messed-up or non-existent (or NTFS, etc.).

If you can't boot from the CD, go into BIOS setup and set the CD drive to the first on the boot list, then try again.

If none of that works, try downloading a Knoppix CD and booting from it. You can then use qtparted to delete all partitions, create new ones, then reboot, then use qtparted to format them as ext3. That should be pretty foolproof (I hope). The rebooting can be important, as sometimes (on some hardware or software) the new partitions aren't finalized until the system restarts. (The fdisk and cfdisk manual pages mention this.)

Hope that helps.

--Dane