Hi guys, first time posting here, hope this is the right place, as it seemed there were several subforums i could post this under.

Anyways i recently bought my first laptop,
Mac OS X 10.6.6,
Processor 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

I run Parallels Desktop 6
I successfully run Windows 7 in a virtual machine, sharing a bootcamp partition.
I've had an interest in linux since 5 years ago but never took the interest further since i didn't have a computer of my own, now i do i decided to give her ago, after some overwhelming research i finally decided with Mandriva. I downloaded themandriva-linux-free-2010.2-i586 ISO. When i attempt to run it through the virtual machine, it starts up, giving me a few options, i attempt to install it, and it stops in the process, giving me the following message.

VFS" Cannot open root device "(null)" or unknown-block(3,69)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option: here are the avaailable partitions:
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,69)
Pid: 1, comm: swapper Not tainted 2.6.33.5-desktop586-2mnb #1
Call Trace:


I would really like to give Mandriva a go, but don't know how to get started. What should i do guys.

Did you just download and save iso?

Will that run 3 Os'es and when os'es are installed they're actually setup on physical partitions?
If so does it change the 4 primary partition limit. I ask because wouldn't mac takeup 3 primaries leaving 1 for windows?

Did i just download the iso? Yes i did. To my understanding, this is bootable in parallels desktop, either way i have also made a dvd from it and i get the same message either booting from the image or the dvd.
Parallels desktop is a programme that runs virtual machines. I currently have one virtual machine, which boots up a partition i made of Windows 7. The partition is separate, you don't need to have a partition to boot a virtual machine. If i didn't have a windows partition, i could just as easily run windows purely through the virtual machine on parallels desktop.
(I'm sorry if you knew this already, i may have got the wrong vibes, don't think i'm trying to sound like an arrogant cocky know it all.)
p.s.
I wasn't sure if this question was relevant to, Linux Newbies, Laptops and Notebooks, Mandriva distribution, or virtualisation. lol

The reason I asked is that you can just install iso directly to the VM after downloading and saving it.
Maybe you should download another image and try again.

Aw the image was 3.8 gb and it took about 12 hours to download. I would really like to think redownloading as a last alternative. Their's three other items that came with the download, the virtual machine only asked for the (.iso), and the dvd i made, i only used the (iso). You don't think i need these other three items. (.idx), (.md5), (.sha1).

Try a distro that has 645MB iso and see if it works.

mind if i ask what difference that would make?
(began downloading ubuntu now, it's 693mb. a little bigger will that matter?

I was thinking in terms of this statement, if it was an issue and you wanted to download another os for testing.

PS. i just got me a powermac g4 yesterday to play with, it's missing 1 of the little plastic clips to hold the memory in.

The .md5 file is a text file containing the md5 sum for the .iso image file you downloaded. If you are using Windows, google for md5sum, and you should get search results that include this site. Run md5sum with the full path to the .iso image file, and you should get a long string of numbers and other characters. This character string should match the string in the .md5 file, if not, your .iso image is corrupted.

HTH,

Ok guys, i downloaded ubuntu, and it worked first time, (-: finally something goes right. I heard from most people that mandriva seems to be prefired over ubuntu, so i would eventually like to give mandriva a go still. I downloaded that programme you mentioned ernie, and i will give it a run in my windows virtual machine tomorrow and then i'll post the results. Thanks for all your help by the way guys.

Now you know that you can put just about anyother os on it also.
Congrats!

Just leting you guys know i gave up with the mandriva iso. I'm going to redownload it in two days time from a different mirror. i did try what you said ernie, but i wasn't succesful and all the tutorials on the subject were outdated and didn't apply for windows 7. Or they were touched other similar topics that confused me on what commands to use.

When you ran ubuntu did it actually work in VM?

Mac Paralels runs from Mac Os, so wouldn't you install from your VM in Mac os, since windows is basically a VM it should not have anything to do with wins7 at all. I think you should be getting instructions for loading thru mac.

Yes, i'm running Ubuntu in a virtual machine through parallels desktop on mac os. I also have Windows 7 installed, so i copied the mandriva content onto my windows side of the partition specifically to test the md5 sum through dos cmd, the way that Ernie told me to do it. I was unsuccessful. If their's a way to test it in mac os i'd be open to the suggestion.