AMD K6-2 / Mandrake incompatability work-around:

[UncleMonty]

I finally confirmed my suspicions.
Every time I attempted to install Mandrake 7.2 on my AMD K6-2 500Mhz system, I got a brave new world of bizarre crashes and error messages, different every time!
I tried down-clocking to 200Mhz, I tried using the text installer.. No good.
Red Hat 6.2 loaded and ran without trouble, but the Mandrake installer went barking mad every time.

Here's how I finally got this puppy papertrained, but it's a hardware work-around, so anyone not comfortable poking around inside their computer better get help.

I pulled out the AMD CPU, and put in an old pentium 133, set the board jumpers to match the new configuration. Then I installed Mandrake 7.2 without trouble! After making sure I had a working system, I shut it down, put the AMD K6-2 back in, and set the jumpers back to their original positions.

It works! Not the most elegant solution on the books, but it got the job done.

Best of all, I now enjoy the CUPS printer driver, and my Epson Stylus Color 860 is finally happy. Except when I use Star Office 5.2, of course. Oh well.

I hope this helps someone!

[Shad]

I found that interesting as I have a K6-2 400 and never had any installation problems with the final release (betas had some problems but then they were betas).

By any chance do you have a via chipset? I have an Ali Aladdin V that was specifically chosen for its stability (in comparison).

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Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life

[UncleMonty]

Why, yes! It does have a Via chipset.
This motherboard is an AI5VG+ with 128 Mb RAM. I'm still tinkering with it.

I'm still a bit of a newbie where linux is concerned, so it took me a while to get the "supermount" cdrom operational. The fix on the Mandrake site helped, but didn't go all the way.
I like Mandrake's little "extras", though I'm certain they result in a less secure distro than Red Hat. The way I see it, that level of security isn't needed for a computer connected to the internet by dial-in modem.

Blasphemy, I suppose! http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

[Shad]

The thing to try next time, if you need it or for others that don't have access to other CPU's is to disable either the onboard cache or cpu cache in the bios. This will slow down the computer, but should allow the install to proceed.

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Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life

[UncleMonty]

Thanks, Shad! I wonder why that fix wasn't mentioned in any of the sites I researched though... Would have saved me some headaches.
Sometimes I think there is TOO MUCH documentation for linux available...
Just kidding.

Later addendum:

I disabled the motherboard CPU cache. The computer is not noticably slower, but the stability is much improved. Thanks again, Shad!

[This message has been edited by UncleMonty (edited 11 January 2001).]

[davolfman]

My guess is you just have a mobo that sucks. I have used k6-2's almost exclusively so far in all my experience with linux and have never had a problem. In fact I am currently running Mandrake 7.2 on a k6-2 550. The only problem I ever had was with shutdown through the motherboards ATX functions but a rom update fixed that. On the other hand Epox made that mobo and I have been genrally happy with them.

PS. This is the epox MVP3G-M motherboard running a VIA chipset.

[This message has been edited by davolfman (edited 11 January 2001).]