I am trying to install Centos 4.3 on my pc. I boot with the cd in. and before i can even get to the graphics portion of the installation i get this error ( Import Error: /user /lib /libpopt.co.0: cannot read file data) does any one know what i should do?

Did you download the CD off the internet and burn it yourself? If so, did you check the checksums after you downloaded the CD? If not, you may want to check them against the .iso if you still have it on your hard drive. It sounds like maybe part of the iso is corrupt.

Please also provide some more information about your situation like hardware information. This will help us troubleshoot your problem.

Oh, and welcome to LQ.

~Justin

Some one gave me the CD's but has used them to install it on another computer already. I have an athlon 2500+, a 180 gig and a 60 gig hard drive, and a gig of RAM. I am running the Beta version of Windows Vista which i am suspicious of being the problem.

If your computer is booting off the CD, then Windows Vista couldn't possibly have anything to do with the problem. At the point when the CD is booted, your HD has not even been touched. Your computers BIOS, which isn't effected by any OS you install, is the only thing activated before your computer boots off CD (assuming the BIOS tries to boot off a CD first).

I'm not familiar with the Centos installer (which may mean I shouldn't have posted in this thread), but if you haven't had the opportunity to choose how the CD boots (such as "safe graphics mode", etc.), the you have one of two problems:
1. The CD iso is corrupt (which is what you hope for since you can always re-download the CD), or
2. There is a fundamental hardware incompatability between Centos and your box

I had the second problem when trying to install FreeBSD on my laptop; it just didn't support my hardware, thus I could not install it using the default CD. If this is the case with your problem, there is no way you will be able to install Centos without breaking down the iso and changing some hardware stuff, then repackaging the iso (not something you want to try to do). So, if there is some other option like a failsafe option (or anything else with "safe" in the name) that you can choose, then try that. Next I would try downloading the iso again (you can download it from LQ here). If that doesn't work, then you may just have to choose a different distribution.

Looking at your computer specs you gave, I don't see any serious hardware incompatabilities that would Centos from running correctly. So, this may not be the problem. What kind of motherboard do you have?

Good Luck,
~Justin

I have a Asus A7N8X Deluxe, and i have a Radeon graphix card. I am goign to try and redownload it. thanks

Yeah, I don't see that you should have any problems with your hardware compatability. Redownloading the iso is probably your best bet right now. Make sure you post the results after trying the new CD.

Good Luck,
~Justin

Idownloaded the first CD again and booted it up and it worked perfect. I am running Linux right now. yay! Thanks for your help. I have another question though. i am trying to install my ATI display driver. when i run the install file openoffice.org comes up and the load bar goes across the bottom and then it jsut sits there and does jack. being that i am new to Linux is there i diffrent way that i am suppost to be running this type of file?

I'm glad that there was just a problem with the CD iso. Sometimes after a CD has been in the sun a while or around a magnetic field, it messes up the CD's contents.

I'm not sure what kind of install file you are using. What is the extension on the file (like .sh .c, etc). You probably won't want to just "double-click" it from the graphical environment. You will probably need to install it from the command line.

~Justin