Trouble installing Linux (Mandrake & SuSe)
 

I've had trouble installing both SuSe and Mandrake (and also Fedora, but I won't go into that)

SuSe Problem

After installation of SuSe 9.1 Personal x86 and before configuration of the root password, etc. I recieved the following error when booting up from the hard drive:
INIT: Id "1" respawning too fast, disabled for 5 minutes
The Id continues to "6" at which point it says:
INIT: No more processes left in this runlevel

I've read a number of solutions through Google, but none really helped that much. I do believe it may be my graphics card, but I don't know how to fix the problem. I have an ATI Radeon 9200 PCI which I use, I ALSO have an integrated Intel Accelerated Graphics Controller. When I changed the BIOS to use the integrated graphics card, it was able to run the GUI, however at a very low resolution. I would also recieve a Warning message when using the integrated graphics card before the system would bootup. If the graphics card is the problem, how can I fix it?

Mandrake Problem

After installation and configuration of Mandrake 10.1 for x86 I recieve the following message when booting up after the numerous "OK's":
Call Trace:
<--Numerous Lines-->
Code: f8 8b 75 fc 89...
The first time I tried to bootup it gave me a "panic" message after this point, however I haven't gotten that now.
The system simply stops loading and idles after this message is shown.
Could this be another graphics card problem?

Specs

Dell Dimension 2350
768MB RAM
ATI Radeon 9200 PCI -- 128 MB
P4 2 GHz
~50GB hard drive (30GB NTFS w/ XP, 20GB Linux)

Update!

I have just restarted my computer, and I was able to get the error when booting up Mandrake 10.1.

<0> Kernel panic: Fatal exception in interrupt
In interrupt handler - not syncing

I hope this helps diagnose the problem.

Thanks for any help.

baaadbart; read somewhere 3d mode in atis & accelarator mode may cause problems. but from what ur post it may not be ur videocard , but initrd & kernel.
newbie too but read alot but just basics.
not confident to venture into changing kernel, needs recompling. no trust i that yet.

Which distro are you refering to that may not be the videocard?

I've reinstalled SuSe like mad with no change in the result, but I may try to reinstall Mandrake.
Also, something that puzzled me about mandrake is that it asked for a 4th CD when I can only find ISO's for 3 CD's. Could this 4th CD solve my problem?

I'll repost after installing Mandrake to see if that fixed anything.

Alright, just got done reinstalling Mandrake and it didn't help at all. Still got the same error after rebooting. Please, I really would like to get Linux on my computer...I've been trying this out for 3 days with no luck, any suggestions would be helpful. Keep in mind that I'm a noob. :)

*bump*

Any problems I've had with Mandrake installations have usually been circumvented by using the noapic flag at boot. At the point when you normally hit <return> at the very start of the installation, type 'linux noapic' then hit <return>. Might work, might not ...

Baaadbart,

the fourth Mandrake CD to which you refer just contains some extra libraries / software, available for download to mandrake club members. you don't need it for a good, basic installation.

as regards your problem, i'm not sure. sticking my neck out, given that it appears to be an interrupt problem, you might try disabling any non-essential motherboard hardware - eg, sound, etc and trying again.

also, for what it's worth, i've given mandrake 10.1 community edition and 10.1 official a spin on two machines, and i've found it to be far less satisfactory than 10.0 official (which is available, complete i think, for download to non-mandrakeclub members)... that said, and given that problems are evident with suse too, i'd hesitate to suggest trying another distribution - i think it's going to be a case of bottoming this one out with what you've already got...

sorry if i haven't been much help - sounds like a tricky one, so do keep us posted of any progress.

PS - it'll be worth it in the end


:D

Maybe a silly question, but you'd be surprised how much havoc it can wreak: did you verify the MD5 hashes of the ISO files before installing?

Yeah, I made sure the MD5 was the same as the one on the site. I won't be able to test anything out for atleast another week because I won't be in town.

I have tried another distro of Linux (can't remember the name off the top of my head), but it wouldn't load the GUI interface either. I do believe it's probably my graphics card that's preventing linux from running KDE correctly, but I wouldn't know how to fix it. I believe ATI released another driver recently so maybe I could try and install that. Would this help any? Thanks for help! :D