Hi there everyone!

Well yes I am sorry to say that I'm a noob to Linux...but this is indeed a troubleshooting problem so I'd have to turn to you all you smart people anyway.

Mandrake is the only linux distrib package that runs half-way correctly for me. Fedora Core took many, many tries to install, and once it was installed it took a full EIGHTEEN MINUTS to boot! [and then ran slow].

Mandrake installed like a charm, however, when it hits the "initializing usb controller (ehci_hcd)" line, it stops there and never goes any further. I tried to enter the interactive "I" mode, but that didn't do anything. I've tried the various boot-ups 'fal-safe', etc, but nothing seems to be working. I'm really quite eager to get this guy running [as I need to use shake on the system]...so any help is greatly appreciated!
Thank you again! Woot Mandrake -- "almost" runs!

Mobo: Asus P4C800-D [I've read there's some problems with linux and asus, but not to this extent though]
p4 3.0 h/t
3gig pc3200
mirror array on asus promise controller card [winxp]
stripe array on high point technologies raid card [winxp ntfs scratch disk]
80gig dive with mandrakelinux 10.1 [linux drive, obviously]
ATI 9600 pro 128

Some description of what hardware your trying to install it on might help....

laptop, PC, toaster? ;-)

LOL hahahh, oh man soooo sorry...I've been up so much lately that I totally forgot the routine hardware specs hehehehe!

Mobo: Asus P4C800-D [I've read there's some problems with linux and asus, but not to this extent though]
p4 3.0 h/t
3gig pc3200
mirror array on asus promise controller card [winxp]
stripe array on high point technologies raid card [winxp ntfs scratch disk]
80gig dive with mandrakelinux 10.1 [linux drive, obviously]
ATI 9600 pro 128

ok I think that's all the essentials...lol!

John

I had this problem too, I got it to work by swapping around the devices plugged into USB so they were in diffrent USB ports (I had joystick, mouse and webcam)

Give that a try.

I run 3 different ASUS mobos' (2xP4P800E, 1xP4P800S-SE), with a truckload of different distros. No problems with any of them - although I don't use the "mickey-mouse" onboard RAID anywhere.

Don't use much USB either - certainly nothing required at boot-time. So I'm not a lot of help, but I reckon the board shouldn't (in and of itself) be an issue.

Now, that Video card - you might have a bit of fun getting acceleration going with that.
But that's for a later time ....

Thanks a bunch. I'll try that out in just a bit and see if that was in fact the issue. Would certainly be nice if that's all it is.

Hmm well I unplugged all my usb devices and, while it took FOREVER, the system booted [took like 15 minuts, no joke]. From that alone it's obvious that something's the matter; my buddy said that the startup shouldn't take more than around 20-30 seconds [though he's not around the area to help -- doh!].
Once I was in the OS, things continued to be extremely slow. I tried to run the update untility [for mandrake 10], and it was so slow that it couldn't even get around to updating the system, though I don't know if that would have made a difference anway.
I ran some programs to see what the typical cpu strain was, and it was very odd. Just running the system monitoring utility took up to 60 something percent of cpu, which shouldn't even be 1 or 2 percent. Trying to load a web page and play a music file at the same time made the system choke on the music file [made it studder].
I know it doesn't help that I'm a noob to Linux, but I really need to get shake running on linux, as I don't have a mac...so if you guys have any suggestions, I would be more than appreciative. Is there a way to generate a work-load report that you all could possibly take a look at, and maybe by doing so figure out what's crippling my system so much?
Thanks!

John

PS - Since I'm trying to learn linux...is there any good resources that goes over basic command-line syntax well [I LOVED the glory days of DOS, so I'd like to get familiar with linux]. the "help" menu on commands didn't help my understanding as to what they do all that well. lol, other than cd and cd.. , I know nary a command. I can't even figure out how to switch drives [and the whole mounting drives thing has me scratching my head]. Yes I know, I know...sounds hopeless...just maybe point me towards a source where I can start learning, and in the meantime please help me figure out why linux runs so bad.

Thanks again!

Go get a Knoppix liveCD - this is a fantastic distro that runs off the CD. Don't worry - it doesn't need installing, and doesn't update anything on your system.
Has always had the best hardware detection there is.

Boot that and see how it performs.

As for the Linux commands, hit Google - there are plenty of sites out there; depends what you are looking for.
Also have a look at the Linux documentation project - has lots of good info, although I didn't see a command reference.

hmm well I downloaded and booted up the distro you suggested. It still took a good while to boot up [I'd say 8 or 9 minutes?], but is that expected, as it's booting off of a cd? Once I was in the program, even from the boot menu, it was in a different language [german I think], and while their was a little flag selector in the system once it booted up [of which I selected US/english], most of the menu items/programs were in the same foreign language. Did I download a wrong language version? Anyway, since of the language barrier, I wasn't able to really dig in and boot up the system monitor utility, etc, to see if that particular distro ran better than the others I have tried. Any suggestions on that?
If this does end up working well, do I just keep booting off of the cd, or is there a hdd install option?

Thank you for your help!

John

Knoppix should take around 1 minute to boot, also sounds like you downloaded the german version!

You can put it into english by typing knoppix lang=us at the knoppix boot prompt, note that the `=` sign may be mapped to the `)` key.

How much ram do you have in your computer?

hehe, yes it does indeed seem I downloaded the german version then.

hmmm, 1 minute eh? It's definitely taking too long then. Strange -- all the linux OS's take a very, very, very long time to boot up on my machine.

To answer your hardware questions, I have 3 gigs of ram and am on a 3.0 ghz p4.

This is so odd!

Any command-lines I should be passing to it that would maybe make it not lag so horribly? I can't think of what could be giving it such a hard time?

O.k., as a test I just booted Knoppix on my Dell Inspiron 1100 (pretty average) laptop.
Took 1 min 17 to get to the X splash, 2 minutes to get to Konquerer and be usable.
Runs pretty good from the CD - slower than normal, but acceptable. So your issue seems to be elsewhere.

I have seen several threads where memory has been an issue - Windows runs o.k., but not Linux.
Running with a kernel with high memory enabled seems to rectify it - don't know if any of the major distros (or even knoppix) offer it though.
If you are happy playing with the hardware, try reducing the RAM to a Gig, and see how that goes. Have seen this mentioned as a fix until a kernel can be rebuilt.

Have you thought about going into the bios and disabling some services you dont need if you haven't already

floppy

I had a very odd experience in my trying to get things running properly last night:
A friend down in southern california had me change some bios settings -- specifically turn off the 'plug and play os' setting and put the linux hdd 'pio mode' to it's lowest setting [0]. I was as surprised as could be, but that did -- at least for the moment -- fix the problem; linux ran so fast that it seemed as if it was running from the legions of hell!
But then, being the idiot I am, wanted to try a few different distros to find which one I liked...and so I installed fedora core [as I would be able to get the most help from semi-local friends in it].
Wouldn't you know, it ran as slow as ever.
Then I tried CentOS -- same result.
Then I decided to forget everything and go back to what worked, Mandrakelinux 10:
but upon reinstalling it...it too now runs like a snail again
I have gone back, just to be thorough, and flipped those bios settings off and on to see if they would make a difference being cycled again...no luck.
I am getting ready to open up my machine and take out some RAM, to see if the nice person a couple posts up recommended I try. I will also try disabling the floppy, as another splendid helper just recommended. I have no clue why it would 'work' so well, and then stop just because I did some re-installing ... if the hardware is the exact same, and the bios settings seemed working...then I would have thought it would be the same now.

Good grief, Charlie Brown!

Ok I am off to operate on my computer...hope the poor old lady doesn't die on me!
If you think up anymore ideas, do let me know...and I'll get back to you on my findings.

John

ps - icons are so fun to use.

Ok, well kudos to the man who said it was the memory ... as it certainly was. The problem is due to one of two things: Either linux is not liking 3 gigs of memory, or, more likely, it was not liking the fact that the first gig of ram was corsair and the other two gigs were kingston memory. I have heard for ages that mixing ram may result in problems, but I have never in 'all my years' had a case where it actually did. It is not likely that either the 1g or 2g is defective, as if I swapped out one set or the other, the single matched-pair ran perfectly on their own.
While I'm disappointed to be down 1gig of ram now, I'm very, very pleased to have linux actually running now.

Thank you so much for your help and patience everyone!

So...our lesson for today -- DON'T MIX THAT RAM!