need help installing Linux [Archive]

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cline100

01-15-2001, 01:03 AM

I am having trouble installing Linux on my computer, can anyone help me? I tried installing RedHat 7.0, Mandrake 7.2, and Corel Linux. The installation hangs for all three distributions.

It doesn't get very far in the installation process. For Mandrake my screen froze at "Initializing CDROM... in second stage install." For RedHat it froze at "running install... running /sbin/loader." I'm not sure what the problem is. I thought maybe it was not recognizing my UltraDMA hard drive, but I at the boot prompt I entered: "linux ide2=0x01F0,0x03F8 ide3=0x0170,0x0378" according to the documentation for UltraDMA use with Linux, but this didn't work.

Some of my computer specs are: AMD Duron 750MHz, 64MB RAM, 30 GB UltraDMA hard drive, 40x CDROM, 8 MB Nvidia TNT2 Vanta LT Graphics Card. It currently has Windows ME installed, and I want to dual boot it with Linux. I partitioned my hard drive using FIPS, and set aside about 10 GB for Linux.

Thanks for any help.

[This message has been edited by cline100 (edited 15 January 2001).]

fow99

01-15-2001, 10:45 AM

I have kinda same spec with you and I am running Corel.

Does your ext2 partition reside within the 1024 cylinder restriction?

ColdPack

01-15-2001, 11:24 AM

It could be the UDMA that's giving you grief. Perhaps try unplugging your harddrive from the UDMA controller then plugging it into the motherboard directly. See if you get further in the install. If so, you can install it then put it back on the UDMA controller.
Of course, this is all just a guess.
Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

------------------
What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I
definitely overpaid for my carpet.
-- Woody Allen, "Without Feathers"

cline100

01-21-2001, 10:05 PM

I just found out that the problem was a specific USB controller on my system. It is a common problem with many Compaq Presario systems. Just in case anyone else is having this problem, at the boot prompt during installation I typed >> linux nousb

You also need to add nousb as an extra parameter when you do the LILO config.