I'm trying to install Fedora Core 3 on my P4 1.5 ghz machine (256 RD ram) with two hard drives: hda (40 gig) hdb (30 gigs). When I bought the machine it had only the 30 gig hard drive, with Win98 and RH 7.2 or 7.3. When I upgraded (ha!) to XP I formated the drive and removed all partions (year and a half ago). Now that I have added another 40 gig drive I want to install fedora core 3, i downloaded the four disks and they all checksumed ok, and checked them in the beginning of the fedora setup, everything seems ok. For the install I need only the first three disks, though. Everything works great, I finish with the third disk and get:
"Performing post install cofiguration..."

Then- no! I am informed that:
"An unhandled exeption has occured. This is most likely a bug. Please copy the full text of this exeption or save the crash dump to a floppy then file a detailed bug report against anaconda at bugzilla"

So of course I copy it all to a floppy, but when I registered for bugzilla and tried to submit, I realized that I have no idea HOW to submit this bug. But what I really need help with, is getting Fedora working!

If I get to the post install configuration, then I can assume that Fedora was installed? I cannot boot it, I can't even get to GRUB. I have the floppy with the dump if anyone wants I'll email it to you. But what can I do to ensure that my next install will work? I've tryed this four or five times today with no success.

Some things that may be of interest / importance:
-The new drive shows up as hda and the old drive as hdb
-hdb (the old drive) is the one with WinXP, and boots fine.
-I checksumed the disks and even did the check at the beginning of setup, all was well.
-I really apprecate and help/ advise. Thanks in advance.

Dotan

Maybe some hardware problem ???

Did you disconnect your Windows harddisk and just try with your 40 GB Linux harddisk alone?

If I understand, you've installed the new HD so that it became hda and installed linux on it.
I would think your XP which is on hdb is playing tricks as it sees itself on drive C (hda) perhaps you should swap your
hard drives so that the one holding XP becomes hda and install Linux on the other (hdb). It's a matter of location on the ribbon.

If you want (or expected) to install both on the same drive, you'll have to reduce the partition taken by XP as it takes the whole drive without a second thought for your feelings. If you try to create a partition half the size of the drive under linux and then install XP, it will wipe out everything and repossess the whole drive.

Funny, I had the exact same problem/error when trying to install FC2 on my box. Slackware 10.0 poses no problem, however, which makes me want to rule out a conflict w/ the hardware...

I tried reformating and repartitioning the entire HD twice... (dual-boot w/ Win98)...but to no avail...

I have little patience and prefer Slackware to FC anyway, so I just gave up...

-Wiski

I also thought to try another distro so I tried to install Startcom linux MultiMedia 3.0.3, and then reinstall Fedora over that. So this is what happened:
I could install startcom, but it complained that the X server would not start and therefore we must do a text install. No big deal, installed fine, but when I restart I get.. XP!!!! So I reset and tell bios to load from the 40 gig, and reset and I get... GRUB! Now I have never seen grub before, so I don't know if the is normal, but what I got resembled a dos prompt. I tried the obvious comands boot and help. I might just not know how to do it correctly, but I could not load either startcom or XP, it said something about a kernel but I really don't remember what. I then tried to reinstall Fedora, but the same "An unhandled exeption has occured..." happened during the post install configuration.

Should I try Fedora Core 2? Or slackware (as suggested by wiskic10_4)? Will I start a war if I ask what is a good distro to try instead of Fedora?

I don't want to do the install with the 30 gig drive (XP) uninstalled because I dont know how I'll settle GRUB afterward.

rblampain, I don't think that XP is playing tricks because I just don't get even that far. Can XP really interfere with the install of another OS on a seperate physical drive? When its not running?!?

Acually, I think that the problem is with anaconda, because of the timing of the unhandled exeption (during the post install configuration). So, can I configure some other way? Or maybe use a different installer?

Thanks, guys (gals too). I really do appreciate any advise.

Dotan Cohen

I don't know the details but the "master boot record" plays an important role as soon as you power on. Linux will allow you some flexibility in that regard but XP won't. This MBR as it's called is written at the end of the Linux install. My view is that since you took a hard drive with XP installed on it as drive C and relocated it to drive D (as far as XP is concerned), then installed Linux on the new drive C (hda), when you power on or reboot under XP, it may find a MBR that it considers as corrupted and since it has a copy of it on the hidden partition (I think) it may immediately overwritte this MBR. But then because what you have on disk is not what your system think it is you cant get either to boot.

You may be getting the error message you mentioned at the end of the install because again, the hardware configuration does't match what's expected.

I would reconnect the 2 drives as I explained previously (simply swap them over on the flat ribbon, you may have to swap them over in the cage too) because even if you got your system going somehow, this will always be a potential source of problems. If you can't boot at all after swapping the drives then all you'll have to do is run (Windows) FDISK with the command "fdisk /mbr" from a bootable floppy (from your Windows 98 will do) then reboot and your XP should reappear intact and load properly, then install Linux on drive hdb and everything should be fine.

Acually, I didn't relocate XP to what it would consider drive D:. I installed the new hard drive several months ago, and everything has since been just fine. It was only when I went to install linux that I discovered that C: and D: are on hdb and G:, H:, and I: are on hda. G: (20 gigs, at the beginning of hda) I erased with Disk Druid to make room for /boot (100 megs at the beginning), /swap (1 gig at the end of what was G:), and / (everything else), so now I have:
[/boot - 100 megs] [/ - ~19 gigs] [/swap - 1 gig] [H: - 10 gigs] [I: - 10 gigs]

Thanks so much for the advise, I really do appreciate anybody and everybody who shares thier knowledge.

Dotan

Hey guys, I successfully installed Fedora Core 2, but when I boot I get:
INIT: Id "x" respawning too fast:disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "x" respawning too fast:disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "x" respawning too fast:disabled for 5 minutes
INIT: Id "x" respawning too fast:disabled for 5 minutes

I also installed Startcom Linux 3 and got the same error message!! AGGHH!!

I found some info on google but it looks, well, complicated for me. Has anyone had any experiece with this? I dont mind reinstalling the system again, should I try maybe with a different monitor setting or something?

Thanks.

Dotan

There's absolutely no need to reinstall Doty. The last time I saw that message on my screen, I just logged in again. It worked fine. Hope you too are able to solve it in the same fashion. Can't really call that a solution though .

Regards,
Mufy

when it is giving you that message, hit cntl-alt-backspace OR cntl-alt-F1

that will diable the X server and let you log in in text mode. Now, type

less /var/log/messages

and look for errors nearby those lines and post that chunk of the file here for us to investigate....

Good luck,

Hello,

I did what you're trying to do (install on 2 separate HDD's). The link to the solution is here: <http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=244572>

With regards to the 'x' error, it looks like Fedora can't or doesn't like your screen config. You might need to enter via command line only and change the X11 config file.