Man9.1 install hanging at the "loading program to memory" phase

[miskatonic]

I'm trying to install Mandrake 9.1 on a SOYO KT400 Dragon Ultra mobo, and it keeps hanging at the same spot: when it gets to the phase where it says "Loading program into memory", the bar gets to about the emd of the sentence and then hangs forever. Checking the kernel messges tells me that hdc (the CDROM I'm installing from) is not ready for a command; error 0x00; IRQ timeout. (I'll post the exact eror msgs in a minnit). Upon the initial startup of the install, I noticed a message that DMA wasn't enabled, but I can't find any way to enable it in the BIOS (been trying for about an hour now) Is there maybe a parameter I can pass to the setup to enable it? This is really frustrating, this install is for a complete Linux n00b home user, and I've been bragging about how cool Linux is.....now I'm lookin' like a tool here. :rolleyes: Thanx for any and all help.

[miskatonic]

OK this is what the kernel message screen tells me:


<4>hdc: irq timeout: status=0xc0 {Busy}
<4>hdc: irq timeout: error=0x00
<4>hdc: status timeout: status=0xc0 {Busy}
<4>hdc: status timeout:error=0x00
<3>hdc: drive not ready for command
<4>hdc: ATAPI reset complete


over and over and over, ad nauseum. (hdc is the CDROM)

Could the lack of DMA be causing this? I've installed this very distro on machines without DMA enables with no problem...

[miskatonic]

I don't know if this is an improvement or not, but I managed to get past the "loading program into memory" stage, but it still hangs at random points during the install.....the first time, right after it asked me for the 2nd CD, and the next time right after I chose the install language. Aside from maybe damaged disks (I'm 99.99999% positive it's not that, I've taken reeeeel good care of my Linux install CD's and I only used them a couple of days ago successfully) I'm out of ideas, and I'm going to bed.

[bosox79]

Originally posted by miskatonic
I don't know if this is an improvement or not, but I managed to get past the "loading program into memory" stage, but it still hangs at random points during the install.....the first time, right after it asked me for the 2nd CD, and the next time right after I chose the install language. Aside from maybe damaged disks (I'm 99.99999% positive it's not that, I've taken reeeeel good care of my Linux install CD's and I only used them a couple of days ago successfully) I'm out of ideas, and I'm going to bed.

if the install quits at random times, I might be inclined to believe you might have a cd with a scratch or finder smudge on it have you tried cleaning and or buffing your CD's?

[miskatonic]

yah, buffed and cleaned several times. I'm gonna try downloading the ISO's again overnight and burning new CD's inna morning.

[bosox79]

Originally posted by miskatonic
yah, buffed and cleaned several times. I'm gonna try downloading the ISO's again overnight and burning new CD's inna morning.

be sure to verify that you have good iso's before you burn em be sure to check the md5sums here is some more info (http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/verifyiso.html)

keep me posted :D

bosox

[mdwatts]

Some of these boot options may help, especially the ones on DMA.

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-8.0-Manual/install-guide/ch-bootopts.html

[CrashTestDummy9]

in addition to MDWatts helpful page try:

linux vga=0 as a boot option especially if you have 1gb or more of ram.

[tuxer]

When installing from cd doesn't work:
just install directly from an FTP-server.
Just download "network.img" from an ftp-server, put it on a floppy and boot from the floppy.
Then you have to give the URL of the ftp-server and it will install mandrake, from that point it is the exact same install as when you install from cdrom.

info:
ftp example to download the "img": ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Mandrake/Mandrake/9.1/i586/images

ftp example to enter in beginning of install:
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Mandrake/Mandrake/9.1/i586
or maybe this:
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Mandrake/Mandrake/9.1/i586/Mandrake/RPMS


bye

[miskatonic]

bosox: the md5's check out, I know the CD's are good, I've used them countless times b4.

tuxer: I just may try that. I've never done an FTP install, I could use the experience I guess.

[bosox79]

Originally posted by miskatonic
bosox: the md5's check out, I know the CD's are good, I've used them countless times b4.

tuxer: I just may try that. I've never done an FTP install, I could use the experience I guess.

did any of the options md or
CrashTestDummy9 work? let us know how the ftp install goes

[miskatonic]

The problem was a bad partitioning job on hdb. All went well in the installation, except now it won't go online. New thread to come...

[bosox79]

Originally posted by miskatonic
The problem was a bad partitioning job on hdb. All went well in the installation, except now it won't go online. New thread to come...

:cool: I am glad you got this problem fixed. no lets see if we ca'nt get you online:D