Hi all,

I was wondering if someone could help me. I'm trying to install Fedora 8 as a dual-boot running along XP. I partitioned my HD using partition magic giving Fedora 20GB on each of my two hard drives. One of which has XP on the drive. When I run the install it boots into the setup fine. I did a media check to confirm the DVD was ok, and I select the language then the keyboard type and the 'next' button stays pressed. I've left it for some time and nothing happens and hangs.

Now I think that it maybe to do with the partitions because I think that's the next screen in the install, so I ran scan disk's and defrags on them in XP but it made no difference. I also unplugged the IDE cable for one of the HD's so that the setup would only think there is one HD... still the same problem. I also noticed that when I booted from the second HD without XP, GRUB came up... could this be the problem? I used to have Fedora 3 on this drive, but then removed it later.

Also I've tried rescue and text installs but it still hangs. Could anyone suggest anything else to try and get it working? (before you say it... without removing XP!).

I'm currently downloading LiveCD and will try that next but doubt it will bring joy...

Thanks (sorry for the essay! Just trying to give as much detail as possible),

Steve.

LiveCD proved unsuccessful sadly... I got into fedora to have a play around but as soon as i went to install to the hard drive the same problem occurred. It froze on the keyboard selection screen & had to kill it...

Also i forgot to say, i tried installing older versions i had of fedora (5 & 7) & they also wouldnt install...

Any ideas...? Thanks again.

I found this link which had a similar problem, but his hard drives were raided...

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...roblem-614290/

I'm contemplating backing up and wiping one of my drives and installing on it. But if it doesnt work it's going to be a right kick in the teeth...

If you boot the installer CD, then before you choose the keyboard type, does it throw any errors? On other terminals (CTRL+F1 through F5, IIRC)?
Would be odd, but does using text-based install work? What kind of keyboard (wireless? USB?) do you have?

*BTW it's best to edit your original post (OP) and add to that instead of replying to your own OP since that keeps the thread on the zero reply list which attracts more eyeballs.

Thanks for the response! My keyboard is an old PS/2 connector so shouldn't have much trouble finding it. Though my mouse is USB with a PS/2 converter but I don't think that's a problem. There are no errors when starting the install, everything looked normal. Text based install had the same problem (in this case it was just a blue background screen if I recall correctly).

What do you mean by 'On other terminals (CTRL+F1 through F5, IIRC)?' Is this something I can try at the start of the install?

Thanks,

Steve.

You can switch to any other console during any stage of the install with the control +F keys. If I recall correctly (IIRC) the second one gives you a shell, the third one spits out kernel messages and the fourth one installer messages. Shell comes in handy if you want to execute commands and the messages might indicate what it's erroring out on.

Ah ha! I see! I found Warning messages which look like they are to do with RAID which is a similar problem to what the other person had in the link above. But I don't have RAIDed hard disks... which is really wierd. The message is as follows (sort of, had to write it down and type it in):

Stage: Find root parts

Warning: /usr/lib/anaconda/dmraid.py:247: User warning: device node created in /tmp
isys.makeDevInode(d,dp)

Warning: /usr/lib/anaconda/dmraid.py:129: User warning: device node created in /tmp
isys.makeDevInode(d,dp)

I looked in /tmp but nothing obvious for a newbie jumped out at me... Any ideas what I could try to get the install going?

Thanks,

Steve

Success!

For future generations that have the same problem this is how I fixed it:

I did a search for those errors I got and there was a bit of information about it. The method that worked for me was at the start of the install, type <tab> <space> linux nodmraid

Joy!

Now on to fixing my wireless network card... *sigh*

Cool. BTW, please fix your profile as it still reads "Fedora Core 3"...