Newbie – Mandriva installation
 

Hi,

I'm newbie in Linux and in open-source operating systems.
After years of hearing about this great OS I have decided to install it on my computer side by side with Windows.

I have downloaded the "Mandriva-Linux-Free-2006-DVD.i586.iso" and I have checked it using the MD5, nothing wrong.

After burning it on a DVD, I have rebooted the computer, and then a Mandriva welcome screen appears to me, I pressed the "Enter" key. After that every thing disappears.

Black screen with no activity in the DVD reader or the hard disk and even nothing written on the screen.

Any way, I have a - SATA I - hard disk from western digital, and Intel dual processor.

I believe that the "Mandriva-Linux-Free-2006-DVD.i586.iso" Kernel updated to recognize SATA hard disk.
Pleas if you can help me then tell me.

I don't know but mandriva has a forum too, you should probably ask your question there too.

http://forum.mandrivaclub.com/index.php?op=En

If your DVD checks out you may have a hardware issue. You could always try booting your install DVD on another computer then you'll rule out problems with your boot media. I would go to the Mandriva website and check to see if all of your computer hardware is Mandriva compliant.

Thank you guys, ill check Mandriva website and forum.
hitest, my DVD media are working fine, I don't think its the reason of hanging the installation process.

After rethinking maybe I should go back to my old OS Win.
Linux is a very complex OS and all of the above of it just complex GUI interfaces.

It was pretty daunting when I first fired it up sat looking at a black screen with a flashing dash wondering what to do now.

Didn't know anything but I gradually worked out from books magazines etc how to get my email working and how to access the web . Then I could investigate what I needed to do .

I reinstalled Linux over and over as I stuffed it up but I refused to give up and let that bloody write home to mum ,rule your life Windows win.

About 4 years along and of course I could never go back. Can't even remember how to get into the Windows system any more. Everything on Linux is free and I have done probably 30 full installs on my own machine over the time and little worries me now.

But I can understand how you might be frightened off. Remember most of the hardware problems in Linux are created by Microsoft manipulating the manufacturers to produce hardware that only runs on Windows.

After all that's what Microsoft want you to do.

tytower is so right....

And if you give us a chance on the other side of the world to view your post and consider any options we can think of you may get an answer that fixes your problem and you can be joining us spreading the real "word", Linux.

Now i'm not too sure what has happend to your set-up and install, but I'd hazard a chance that it's probably something to do with your motherboard. One of the most complex peices of electronics around!

Try turning off the acpi and apm module for the kernel(, not in BIOS).

I think it's "noacpi" with out the quotes.

By the way have you tried a live cd distro? If so what kernel parameters were in use for that?

Don't give up yet.

And if you remember the first time you used windows, or a computer for that matter, you'll remember how weird it was.

Don't give up man! When I started with Linux I had a lot of difficulty. I agree with the previous gentlemen, try a live CD. You can also do a net install of Mandriva 2006, I've done it, the CD is free of course:-) At the Mandriva website in the free directories there should be a boot iso about 26 MB in size in the image directory I think. Burn that to CD and boot from that. You'll do a net install which will take several hours.
It took me many attempts to get Slackware right, I still have not mastered it yet. I learn the most about Linux when I fail. I would also try the Ubuntu live CD it has excellent hardware detection.

Look when I first installed Linux I was completely lost and didn't understand much, I still dont understand like 95% but I can do many many things that windows simple can't do. Plus I have the peace of mind that no virus is behind my back nothing is hidden and microsoft is watching me, no security updates cause what I paid for is market rush crap.... Linux is many times superior to Windows, but you need to give it some time and break the frame windows draw in your mind. So what I did I have both, linux to learn and windows to cover my ass while I learn the other one. Try to don't give up, you will understand what I mean with time. Look my apache server it's been up 90 days!! can you say something like that in a windows unit? not me.

feel for ya, but don't bother with mandriva club forums
 

I put a post up as a member a couple of days ago, and not one answer yet, of any kind. I'm trying to install the mandriva club version, and I'm getting nowhere...I did get one install working from the free version, but then it collapsed...right now I'm trying to learn how to copy and bust the iso from my dvd to recompile it to add the missing checksum

I would go to mandriva's forum, there you can probably find more guys that know about mandriva.

I have tried to install Red Hat 9 many times and then I figured that it's old to support the SATA Hard disk.
Any way, I have searched the internet looking for Linux OS that support SATA, and I found Mandriva. After downloading the DVD all I have is black screen.

After that I found this forum talking about Mandriva and about Linux.
I found some one that is talking about writing "linux noacpi" command after pressing F1. Even I don’t know what it means, I have tried it and nothing new else than the black screen.

I have tried to change the BIOS hard disk configuration to legacy. And nothing happened.


After all of that I have decided to start a new thread trying to solve my problem.

About the "Mandriva live CD" it’s a new concept to have a live OS running from a CD. I think it's better for a newbie like me to begin with a soled OS on the hard disk and start to learn.

I appreciate Linux over Windows, because I know how much it's powerful and more secure.

About "isuck@linux "
This thread belongs to
Linux Questions > Forums > Linux > Linux - Distributions > Mandriva
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And i think there is some one here is good at Mandriva.

try your post at: http://mandrivausers.org/

Firstly, you are in the right place, And time is required for ppl to find your post.

Secondly, change you bios back to the way it worked before. (and get a live cd, for diagnostics.)slax is a good one but be careful because you can do damage with this distro. Meaning it is not a Nice and Safe distro like Knoppix, and mandriva one, which will not write to the HD with out some serious effort from you.

The thing with a live distro is that you can try things out, without risking your pc operation.

When you need a fully working pc, just boot without the cdrom. This way you will see how things work with out risk.

When the cd boots, it will give you a very good indication of what works and what does not, on your pc hardware.

Then we could ask you more specific questions and you will be able to answer them.

Linux is not a miracle os, that just works, although most of the time it does, on every new piece of hardware available.

Now, You haven't told us much about what happends before you get to the prompt.

Can we start there, please?

Some times you need to wait for the cd to continue the boot process. I haven't used the dvd version, but I don't think it would be too different a process, just not having to swap cd's.

How long have you let it sit, and waited for it?

I have a feeling it is trying to find your harddrive.

You say the dvd works on other computers, did it (the iso) pass the md5 check summ before you burned it to dvd?

This will check that the iso is complete before you burn. the check sum is usually available from where you got the iso from. Check that out if you haven't done so yet.