Mandrake Linux Installation Help!

SteveA · 08-12-2002, 06:30 AM

You don't mention what size Hard Disc you have or whether you already have another OS installed e.g. windows?

Anyway I had a similar problem and had to get into DOS and did the old FDISK /MBR On the C: drive

Also worth checking is your hard drive set up / detecting correctly in the BIOS - DOS and Windows are not always that fussy but Linux (Various flavours can be) I know my hard drive was set up incorrectly as Non LBM when it should have been LBM resetting this to the correct settings seemed also to help, with any luck your drive should have a lable on it giving you its cylinders / heads etc check these with your Bios settings - don't necessarily let your BIOS just auto detect sometimes this can be flaky!

Failing that either try a different version of Linux and or a different Hard Drive..

Good Luck.

Johnsernickle · 08-12-2002, 01:41 PM

My hard drive is a Maxtor with 13176 cylinders, 16 heads, and 63 sectors. My BIOS thinks it has 6786 MB of space. Heres where the problem comes in... ive tried to FDISK my drive... but my computer stops at "verifying DMA pol data." Im pretty stumpted at this point but i see what your saying. i am in the process of setting up my hard drive correctly, hopefully that will help. do you have any idea why a boot disk wouldnt load? it doesnt make much scence. well, thnaks alot for your help!

~peter

NGraphiX · 08-12-2002, 02:02 PM

I suggest you make a boot diskette on your working box, and try and boot from there (you can get boot images off the net)
you can also try to install through a network if you have another working computer...

jglen490 · 08-12-2002, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Johnsernickle
Hmm, i tried RawRite using "*.img" and i get an error 123. I have tried the CD on another computer and it sucesfuly installed. what could be going wrong with mine? well, on another note, if any of you have used Red Hat linux, i just tried to install 7.2 on the same PC today. when i try to begin a standard install it hangs on the very first insall file - initrd.img - maybe theres something wrong with the reading of my CDROM drive? This is a very strange situation. thanks again for all of your help.

When you use rawrite, tell it to write cdrom.img to your floppy. I believe cdrom.img is in the /images directory for the install CD.

I had problems with a CD drive when I first tried to install a Linux some time back. It was one of those nasty coincidences where the drive was actually dying as I was trying to install Linux. Frustrating as all get out, but as soon as I put a different CD drive into my machine, it went smooth as silk.

Johnsernickle · 08-12-2002, 03:20 PM

This doesnt make any sense - i made the boot disk, but i got the same problem. only 1/4 of the first screen appears. What could be causing this? now we know its not the CDROM Drive. And i have just user defined my hard drives... so its probaly not that, unless i have bad sectors or something. but i still can not get my MSDOS boot disk to work so i can FDISK my hard drives. i just cant see whats wrong... well, thanks again for your help, but looks like that didnt solve it either...

(...

~peter

NGraphiX · 08-13-2002, 10:18 AM

could it be a hardware prob. on your SCREEN??
check the moniter by plugging it in to another
working comp.

Johnsernickle · 08-13-2002, 12:21 PM

No man, it can't be because all the boot process stuff shows up fine.

~petes

SteveA · 08-14-2002, 02:16 AM

OK Fdisk doesn't work you say - get a copy of Partition magic
version 5 point something is available free on cover disk somewhere this month or I have one on CD you can have you should be able to boot straight into PM from boot up
get that to check and set up your HDD you may have to use the help files I haven't used this in ages but it is very good.

If Your DOS FDISK isn't working then I suspect either:
1: you are using the wrong version - do you get any sort of message?
2: Your Hard drive is not set up correctly in the BIOS
3: The Hard Drive is shot have you successfully installed other stuff?
4: any combination of the above.

If you can get to a C:> prompt did you try doing the FDISK /mbr
this should reset the Master Boot Record of the HDD.

Can you beg borrow or whatever a different HDD to try?
(I have a spare 4 gb you could have for a donation (£10?) which has had RH 7.2 on but its how to get it to you?)

does the CD work for installing other (non Linux) stuff?

Later (tonite) I will get my Linux bumph out and check on how to use rawrite COS i JUST CAN'T REMEMBER arrrgghh ...

Fun isn't it?

Johnsernickle · 08-18-2002, 05:42 PM

Alright, I'l try out "Partition Magic." I think i have loacalised my problem. If i cant get an a:\ prompt while booting to a bootdisk, my screen hangs when i try to install linux... there had to be a relation there. And the fact that it Kinda almost works points towards one thing, a bad disk controler. My freinds is gonna let me try out his PCI disk controler, and hopefully that will work. But in the meantime i will try your Partition magic. Thanks for your sugestions.

~petes