Hola everyone,

I must first say that this is an awsome forum with tons of info (if you just take the time to search for it), however i am really getting my a$$ kicked with this install. I have heard nothing but godd things about the Mandrake install and how easy it is. To tell you the truth i had an easier time in Marine Corps Boot Camp (3 months) then getting this distro to install.

First off i downloaded the ISOs from www.linuxiso.org, which downloading that took a good minute. Then after i burned teh ISOs to disc (with no problem), i tried the install. Changed the boot sequence and off we went to a happier, windows free world; so i though. Well all goes well until i try to install the selected packages, and all i got was error after error; it would install a few and then stop and tell me that it cant read the disk, do you want to continue, so i say "yes" and off again but i still get the same error later with a different package. So i search around and find someone with the same problem and he had to replace the CD-ROM drive that he was using. I did so with a LiteON from circuit city. Well the first cd installed no problem but when i put the second in, it just did the same damn thing. I checked all the md5sums and they are good, discs are good as well. Kinda at my witts end with this, but i will prevail! If anyone can offer any help it would be greatly appericated.

ps i am running an AMD 1700XP with Windows XP on one HDD 60GB and i have another 60GB HDD to put Mandrake on. I have 256 DDR, and of course a few other odds and ends in the machine, which i am sure i iwll have problems with later .

thanks everyone

mmmm i installed mandrake the other day and it went cool.....

there is a documented problem with cd-roms though that trashes the drive.

Isn't it true, it is not possible to load ur Linux on the second drive? I thought it had to be within a certain boundaries- that seems to change with newer versions? I don't deal with dual boots. Other words, booting has to occur before gig or something. I know experts will come-in and tell u how to do it, just hang-in there.

maybe burn the CDs again at a very slow speed (like 2x) to really make sure no errors creep in - I've had cd-r's labelled as 52x but that won't really support anything faster than 6x for writng...

Also, you can install with just the first CD. The rest can be installed later from the CDs or downloading if you have the bandwidth. At the start of, press F1 for more options and then type
expert
Don't worry, all that happens is that you have to answer more questions along the way and one of them is which CDs you have. When it asks you, tell it that you only have CD1.

Edit: The restriction on where the boot partition is is obsolete. I think you need some really old hardware to have to worry about that.

I agree. Try to reburn the CDs at a lower speed. I did mine at 4x just to be safe. 2x would be safer. My installs have always gone fine. And installing onto the second hard drive is cool, Mandrake handles that like a dream.

I reburned the CDs and with the new CDROM i bought everything is going good so far... thanks everyone