Mandrake 9 install problem

[Tiger]

Hi - I am a relative noobie. I used Xenix (little brother of Unix for about 8 years) so fairly comfortable with a lot of the operations. I bought a set of 3 Mandrake 9 disks form e-bay. I have a version of Corel Linux that I have not been able to upgrade but I like the look and feel of it very much.
When I boot the Mandrake cd it comes up with the install options and then loads on initial sequence but the screen just goes blank and seems to hang. Tried the text install and that processes a whole lot and gets to just below accepting the processor and then also stalls. Is this a lengthy process or is there something wrong? Appreciate any help.

 

[zachj]

It shouldn't take any time at all to get through the menus. The only thing that could take some time is partitioning. I would guess there's something wrong. Try disabling everything in BIOS you don't need and unplug every nonessential. Then try again. Then when everything is installed, then you can plug in your peripherals.

Z

 

[Tiger]

I am totally foxed with this. I contacted the person who sold me this set of disks and he sent another set. Did the same thing;
when it gets to the line ESR .... vector .... it just freezes. I thought that perhaps the Corel Linux that I have been using may have been a problem so I fdisk'ed and reformatted the disk and then tried again. I assume this installation just does'nt like my rig and I can forget about Mandrake. Corel installs perfectly but is really out of date and I don't have the knowledge to update the system. The Bios config is really basic and I can see nothing there that could upset any OS.
Anyone with any ideas?

 

[naif]

Your saying it comes till the install options, why dont you read the Mandrake Installation documents and see if you can specify a different kernel to boot from to install Mandrake. Its been long since I have used Mandrake, I have Slackware and it has around 5 or 6 Kernel images which I can use to install Slackware.

 

[Tiger]

This is some kind of hardware issue with the system in my sig and judging by all the problems on the Mandrake forum I am not alone. I just tried the CD in my backup system (MSI K7T Turbo Raid/Duron 800/Nvidia TNT2) and it goes to install straight off. The ESR line I mentioned above I think is something to do with the proc. Have tried the linux=nopentium command with no success along with linux ide=nodma with the same result. I think this has something to do with the Athlon XP or perhaps the new hardware on the KT3. There are other kenrnel options there that I have not tried but I am no expert but I suppose trial and error and I will give it a go.

 

[Titan386]

Try taking out all non-essential hardware. My friend had a similar problem (athough his was with RH 7.3), but taking out some USB device fixed it. If you can pass options to the kernel or use a simpler kernel, that would help too. Basicaly, disable everything you don't need for the install. Good luck

 

[Tiger]

Tried disabling usb in the bios and it made no difference. Have installed the system in my backup and then used DriveImage to create an image which I copied across to this machine. Now I have figure a way of getting at the os. How do I make a boot disk that will allow me to mount that drive and see if it will configure?

 

[SpeeDj]

Just out of curiousity are you able to download 9.0 and burn it to cd ? Or do you not have broadband or a burner ? Just curious as I think it may be the way disc's are being done, I could burn a set of 9.0 if you want it, all you would need to pay is shipping on them. Well keep us informed.

J

 

[Tiger]

I have a set of 3 cds that have been burned from an original set of iso's? I did a full install with them on my back-up system(MSI K7T Turbo R/Duron 800) today and they worked perfectly and the system is up and running with no problem at all. I cannot do the same with the Kt3/AthlonXP1600+. There are a number of threads on the Mandrake forums describing the same thing and the general impression is that the problem involves the Athlon XP. They think that one of the detection sequences is causing the system to detect a hardware failure and the system just freezes and that it may involve apic.
I really appreciate your offer of the disks, its very kind, but as I said I'm sure that's not the problem.