just starting !!!
 

I have just finished downloading the three CD's from the NET

i already have Win XP installed, i've created a 5 gig partition for Linux.

does it matter if this is a Primary or Logical ???????

i started to install using CD1 and immediately came up with a error of unable to create "ramdisk2", i am now downloading it again shall try again tommorrow.

rumour has it that when i install CD1 it will sniff out that i already have WinXP installed on my C drive and it will give me the option of installing LINUX on my 5 gig partition

have i got that right ????????????

Tim :newbie:

Welcome to LQ.

There is no need to make partitions for linxu in advance this can be done during install. You will be able to remove the one you created and add the relevant partitions when you g etto that stage.

Once you have downloaded the ISOs it is a good idea to verify them before you burn:
http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/verifyiso.html

bloomin heck that was a quick reply .

so you think that error maybe due to an error on the CD ?.

do i really have to remove my partition ?.
and does NTFS or FAT make any difference

tim

It could be either an error on hte CD or an error with the download. If you verify hte MD5 sum you can see if the download was good. Then after inserting the first CD you should be able to do a media check. This will then tell you if the burn was successful.

You should really remove your partition (you can do it as part of the install). Unlike windows whihc uses a fiel for swap - linux uses a partition. There are other advantages to multiple partitions too. If you have a seperate "/home" partition then it is much easier to upgrade/change distros. You can just format all partition except the home partition which should leave all your data in tact.

no luck yet
 

I still cant get started !

i downloaded and burnt another copy of CD1, i did a checksum check on both copies, all ok.

i then tried to install again and it came up with the same error again, but this time i wrote it all down LOL.


Could not compress second stage ramdisk. this is probably an hardware error while reading the data (this maybe caused by a hardware failure or a linux kernel bug)

clicked OK and got this message

error in exec stage 2 trying to execute 'usr/bin/runinstall2' from the installation volume.
the following fatal error occured
FATAL ERROR IN STAGE1 exec format error

i cant recover from this
you may reboot system


does this help, can i stil get linux after this ?????

tim

ps. i am trying to use linux mandrake v9.1

This seems to be a known bug:
https://qa.mandrakesoft.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1611

The fix seems to be:
https://qa.mandrakesoft.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1611#c9

Appart from that I can only suggest trying a different CD ROM drive or a different distro.

thanks david for going to so much trouble on my behalf

" I then tried to boot the pc with the
error with the command "linux ide1=nodma" and it work perfectly. it should work
for you aslong as your cdrom is on secondary ide channel."

ok thanks for the links, but how do i implement that command, just type it in ?.


tim

Yes just when it gets to the boot prompt.

LOL ...... thanks david, i thought i had cracked it when i tried that, after i found out how to get the boot prompt ........

it didnt make any difference though, the trouble i think could be is that i have a laptop and it only has one IDE channel (primary) so if that fix is for the secondary channel this is probably why it doesnt work !!!!!!!!

tim

Then try it with ide0 not ide1