I am home now: I get as far as partitioning; did not recognize the FAT32 (hda6) as I suspected; But I chose to custom partition and reformated the hda6 from FAT32 to TYPE reiserfs; then chose to put the mount point as / on hda6 (but not hda8, which by default set it). Then it asked me if I wanted to format the drive; I agreed; went to check packages...then wait...

the whole computer switched off!! What Happened? So Irebooted, tried again, then at the boot option F1 or enter to install, it switched off spontaneously!

Am I missing something here???


EDIT: I checked another post here:
tried this option F1
linux noapic nolapic acpi=off

and now it is loading the packages.

Are your Windows and Ubuntu installations working fine? I am not sure what could be causing the reboots, maybe some sort of hardware conflict. Try installing in text mode and see if there are any errors that come up onscreen. To do this, do F1 at the boot prompt and then type "text" and then press enter. The only time something similar happened to me was when I had a bad stick of ram.

I did this EDIT: I checked another post here:
tried this option F1
linux noapic nolapic acpi=off

and now it is loading the packages.


and it seems to be behaving..waiting 4 minutes remaining...I have fingers crossed...I hope I can boot into my WinXP and Ubuntu after this...watch this space...

I am back: It loaded the packages, then went to configure ...then BLACK screen, power turned off..I am now checking if I cn boot into Ubuntu or WinXp...and I can..thank god!

What shoould I do now?

Edit: text install,...It also turns power off spontaneously..while I was typing text. Here is an interesting thing: while rebooting, I have a BIOS password screen (blue), and while I am typing this message on another latop, the computer shuts off? This is starnge behaviour, never happened before; I hope I have not messed up my computer????

Please assist..now frantic...and panic mode alert! Do u think the DVD is corrupt?

Does it boot fine without the Mandriva DVD? All the solutions I have looked at say that you should do "linux noapic nolapic acpi=off" which is what you did above. You could also boot another kernel by entering alt1 or alt2 at the boot propmt. The problem here is that the system seems to reboot when entering text at the boot prompt. I would urge you to try a different DVD if possible. I don't think the attempted install damaged Mandriva, but there could be a hardware problem elsewhere. Anyway try a different DVD first.

Well, it boots fine without the DVD, but if I delay in punching the BIOS password, it shuts down automatically.

I am now trying to install Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.04 F3; it seems to be going ok so far. So it must be the DVD copy??? MD5 SUMS was ok when I checked it? Many corrput when burning with K3B??

Watch this space...

UPDATE: I managed to install Ubuntu, no sweat. I guess it must be the DVD; Man I took the whole day to download that DVD; I guess I will take chance with 3 CD's, or else I will just and buy the Box set?

Take care,

If you are positive that the MD5sums are okay try buring to another disc at a slower speed. If that fails again, try the 3 CD set.

Okay, I followed your suggestion, and burned the DVD on slower speed (2X) using GNOMEbaker. and I started the installation. No unexpected shutdowns this time. BIOS also behaving fine.

I get to the point where I have to install bootloader (LILO), it does not give me the option to choose between LILO (default) and grub. But I chose to put it on the /root directory of the hda6. workded fine. NOTE: did not recognize the other OS on my hdd.

went to end of installation, and gave me a window with summary events where I had to choose to change the settings if I wished. I tried to channge the boot loader to grub here: it asked me about where to put it, and I chose NOT MBR. also,like an idiot, I chose to set my display resolution...big mistake, testing it (I chose ati, 1600x1200) and the whole screen froze, instense white light and then black screen; could not see anything.).

So now I was closed out; decided to pull the plug on it, and reboot. Now here is the thing: at boot bootloader came up (mandrake blue screen, with only option to boot into Mandrake and failsafe. NO XP and NO ubuntu.

I panicked. and decided to reinstall the tried and tested ubuntu on hda6, and load the GRUB on MBR to overwrite LILO. And it worked. Now I have WINXP, Ubuntu, Ubuntu. I really need to get this working. Any suggestions:

1. Bootloader issues: How to get Grub on root partition of hda6 without having to destroy the MBR settings
2. How to set screen resolution (or should I just ignore it? Hardware is a ATI Firegl V5000 with 15.4" widescreen 1900x1200 max rresolution.

What a night!
regards,
Smiley

You shouldn't have panicked because you would have been able to configure Ubuntu to boot from Mandrivas bootloader. You could have then overwrote the Mandriva bootloader when you had logged into Ubuntu. Set your resolution once you have logged into Mandriva using the tools in the Mandriva Control Center.

Red,
Should then install Mandriva bootloader GRUB on MBR and then have it changed via Ubuntu grub; but, how do I get to Ubuntu if there is no option at Mandriva bootloader?

or do the GRUB on first sector of root of hda6?

Edit: I chose to install GRUB at configure boot options. It installed fine. Rebooted,
Saw the mandriva bootloader GRUB: chose Linux (other options (linuxb..) Windows and failsafe)

But then it does the text thingy: and stalls at drivers/usb/input/usbmouse.c:v1.6:USB HID Boot Protocol mouse driver

What should I do now? Nothing happens when I Esc or Enter Hard rive is silent..gee this turning out to be anightmre installtion.

Can u help?

If you install Mandriva and it overwrites your Ubuntu bootloader, simply add Ubuntu to your Mandriva /boot/menu.lst. The procedure is similar to what we discussed in previous posts. It seems like some distros don't play along nicely with USB mice, so try a PS2 mouse instead. If you keeping having problems with Mandriva it may be better to try something like Suse. Unfortunately distros don't always work right on certain hardware configuration.

That's been my expereince with RH based packages. Debian ones are "friendly" with my hardware. I installed MEPIS and the KDE was what I was looking for. MEPIS even recog my ATI card and set the resultion and 3D out of the box. Noww that is what's called service! I can't wait for my homie distro (SA) to release the Ubuntu 6.04 with xorg v7, which also seems to configure ATI screens out of the box..man Linux is coming along very nicely. Go debian!

I have never had any major problems with any Linux distros on all of my systems. The trick is to stay away from problematic hardware e.g. ATI graphics cards. I always check up on hardware compatibility before buying anything, so stuff just works whether I run Mandriva, Slack, Debian, FreeBSD etc. Personally I prefer bleeding edge features and can't be bothered with distros that ship packages that are outdated for desktop use. This means that Debian Stable, Testing and most of its derivatives are no good for me. As for Ubuntu, I think its highly overrated and has nothing much to seperate it from Debian proper apart from newish packages and free discs. Most problems with ATI based cards would be non existant if ATI provided better drivers or released hardware specs so that the opensource community can build better drivers.

I am in agreement with the ATI providers making better drivers and making hardware specs known. This system is kickin' *ss when it comes to graphics, and the resolution is second to non- I should not be put of by that, but then, have to be realsitic about what is possible within Linux at the time (I agree). I also like tasting the bleeding edge, hence my insterest in trying to get to Mandriva and belive it or not I even downlaoded CEntOS and PClinuxOS (mandriva's cousin). PClinuxOS is a live CD, but so some reason, I could not even get to the boot screen, the graphix card just does not yield...scrambbled imaged (like vieweing encoded tv signal)...so I jsut decided to try MEPIS, and it just worked.

Thanks reddazz, most appreciated,
Smiley