Installing Red Hat 7 on secondary HD

[Merlin9876]

Quick question. I have a PIII733 256megs of ram with 2 HDs. I partitioned and formated the 2nd HD for swap space and main Linux but when I boot with the CD or the floppy, it goes through the loops and just ends with "you can now safely reboot your computer" which goes back to either the floppy boot image or the Red Hat CD and it runs again and again. If I remove the floppy boot image and CD, it goes to windows (I'm running a dual boot winMe/win2K system). Any help with that? Is it because Linux doesn't recognize the 2nd HD? btw, this isn't my first Linux install but it is with my work computer. TIA! :confused:

[bdg1983]

There are some tricks to getting Linux to boot from the 2nd HD all depending if your distro uses Lilo or Grub as the bootloader.

The W2K bootloader will also work.

Been seeing quite a few of the same question here the last few days. A search may give you the answer.

Someone else?

[pbharris]

did you install LILO ? if not did you make a boot disk? I used to have the same configuration w/o issue.

[Merlin9876]

LILO would be fine but it doesn't seem to be installed when I do the first startup with the boot image. I don't have time to read all that's being configured though... I'm not getting anything else (no prompts, no questions, no progess bars) than the first few system diagnostic screens.

[Merlin9876]

This may have something to do with how the 2nd HD is partitioned... How should I setup the 2nd HD? Actually I'm having a bit of trouble knowing what to do. I know I need main space for Linux and about 500megs for the swap space but Partition Magic 6 pro doesn't seem to be willing to change the partitions type. I'm trying to convert the main (primary) partition to Linux space and it doesn't seem to cooperate... Any mor help? Thanks!

[Merlin9876]

New info... I reformated the 2nd HD (and set the primary as active! 8P). It got a little further but when I give it the language settings for install and keyboard, it starts and the stops with an "abnormal termination - reveived signal 11" (whas it "signal"? not sure). Does this ring any bell?

[bdg1983]

FYI...

PM at least before version 6 will not let you convert to ext2. Delete the partition and recreate as ext2.

500 megs of swap with 256MB? Wow, what are you planning to use the system for?

Both my work PC's have 256MB and the swap is never touched (128MB) and I run VMWare.

Don't know what a 'Signal 11' is.

[Merlin9876]

eh eh eh... I forgot what the recommended values were for swap so I just shoved 500megs just in case. That damn signal 11 now comes up just when I use the boot disk again(still not getting in the installation part!). It says that right after starting something called "anaconda". Anyone know what that's about? Thanks for the help!

[ 29 March 2001: Message edited by: Merlin9876 ]

[bdg1983]

Try installing in 'Text Mode'. Should work. The graphical install is probably having problems with your video card.

Seen a couple of other posts here on 'signal 11'.

[bdg1983]

Got this through the LNO faq's.

http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11/

[Merlin9876]

Well, text only install gives the same thing. There may be a conflict somewhere but I doubt it since it doesn't even start the "real" install, just goes through some hoops and says I can nom reboot (which, as I said, goes back to first step and never ends...). I'll still keep my eyes opened for any clues. Thanks!

[bdg1983]

Did you get anything from that link? Says it could be a hardware problem. Could be something as simple as the CDROM being on P/S instead of S/M or the reversed. A card not seated properly. A BIOS option.

Some ideas to look for.

The other post I saw during the last couple of days. Come to think of it, perhaps it was solved by using a different processor. It could of been another post that I read it in.

You did do a forum search for 'signal 11' as I suggested? Just somehow rings a bell.