Well after reading all the good things about this distro I thought --I'll give it a go.

Well on my laptop I can't even boot the installation CD -- I get the start up splash screen then NOTHING --total Hang

I'm using a SONY VAIO laptop --not exactly uncommon, and I've removed all PCMCIA / external USB devices whil attempting the initial install.

Mandriva --if this is the BEST you can do then you don't deserve to continue in business much longer.

I had narrowed down the best current distros to SUSE 9.3 or Mandrake(Mandriva).

Well If I can't install it on a fairly common "Bog Standard" laptop it's got to be back to SUSE

Cheers

-K

Maybe try Xandros or Ubuntu or Suse (should work) or FC4 or Mepis or ?, etc. You have to know what you want. I was not happy with Mandriva, and now I'm using Xandros OCE.
http://eedok.voidofmind.com/linux/chooser.html
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php

Well .... if you re-read "Mandrake 2006 beta" you will notice that this is a beta software, meaning that it should only be used for testing by advanced users and is unstable.

You really should use a stable (non-beta) distribution. Why don't you give Mandriva 2005 Limited Edition a try? I find it rock-stable on every desktop I put it.

I was only trying to test it and see what it was like compared to what I have been using for a while.

I've got SUSE 9.3 for my real "Production box" and have been trying SUSE 10 betas 3 and 4 both of which worked fine.

I just thought I'd give Mandriva beta a go -- I realize that Beta's are unstable but they should allow you to INSTALL at least a minimal system --this version wouldn't even boot the install system -- never mind about actually getting the OS to install. I don't even think it got as far as probing for hardware as it hadn n't even started to load the install boot kernel image into the ramdisk.

I know that my downloaded CD's were OK as I had 2 distinct copies downloaded from totally different mirrors -- same result with either set of CD's my computer hung up at the same point.

Cheers

-K

sorry to hear that but sekelsenmat is right, its still in testing.
i have it installed on my compaq presario and i couldnt be happier. detected everything right away and was a breeze setting up my wifi. i do have some problems with installing packages from cd3 but all in all i plan on putting this on my desktop also.
maybe you got a bad cd (md5??) i wouldnt be so quick to give up though it really is a good disto.
i dont agree that "because i cant install it they shouldnt be in business" statement. if thats the case microsoft shouldnt be in business and should just go ahead and close their doors. so should everyone else who has ever had a problem with anything.
as a linux user you should try to identify the problem. maybe try another disk, look at bios, report it to mandriva. just dont pout and trash.

You really should know that this kind of thing happens on Linux.

I once tryed to install Debian Sarge on my Pentium 4. It would say there was no HD and then completely freeze.

Should I say that Debian is terrible??? I've already being to a room full of Debian boxes running here at University of São Paulo, and it ran a heavy 3D game and even on a Virtual Reality Room.

Different distros behave differently on different hardware.

On my PC and on other PCs I installed Mandriva 2005 it was absolutely stable, so I all I can say it that it works here (I'm posting this from my Mandriva 2005) and I really thing that those beta CDs would probably work on my box too.

I even got to do things that are usually problematic without any problems, like removing KDE 3.2 and installing KDE 3.4 without any need to mess with the rest of the installed system

Have pacience with the little penguin

Right well then file a bug report (noting details of your hardware) at qa.mandriva.com. You could also try posting the problem to the development mailing list (cooker - see the 'Developers' section at mandrivalinux.com).

How many times does it have to be said - beta means beta, it may not work, it often will not work, its intended for you to test to actively find problems and bugs and report them back to the dev community. Just because you had luck with a Suse beta and not with the Mandriva one doesn't mean that Mandriva is crap and won't work.

Beta doesn't mean best, it means developmental. If you want a finished product, either wait for 2006 proper to turn up or use a previous version. In the meantime, as has been said above, maybe the developers would be more interested in your comments, so they can fix whatever problem you had, because, you know, it's a testing build. On the other hand, I do hope you checked that you didn't get a corrupt download, which is what the MD5 files are for to check against.

Yeah, cheerio. Hope SUSE works for you.

Betas are not guaranteed to work at all. I tend to find that reporting bugs instead of moaning makes sure that many problems are resolved during the testing period. Bug reporting is a good way to give back to the community and makes sure that developers iron out any problems during the testing phase. If you are not willing to live with the frustration that can be caused by development releases, then it better to stick to official releases.

By any chance at the splash screen hit f1 and at the prompt type in "linux noapic". I still have to on my laptop to get it installed.

I got the 2006 beta 3 up on my laptop(dell inspirion 1000) I didn't have much trouble with it. I was glad to see the funky penguin on the splash go though!

I think the ndiswrapper that came with it didn't work very good but it also came one that was rc1 and it worked with my wireless fine..

Other than that I can't remember any problems with it for me........

I like to install the other distros and play with them to see how good they are. I'm still running Mandriva (currently 2005le) but I think Mephis and Ubuntoo are making great improvements.....

Cheers