Hello,

I downloaded all three Mandrake 9.1 iso files and burned them to CDs for installation. When I attempt to install Mandrake, however, the installation screen with the options <F1> (for
more options) and <ENTER> (to install) pops up with no problems. After I start the installation, however, the screen turns black and the installation freezes.

I also tried the "text" and "noauto" installations to no avail.

I've already disabled PnP OS in my BIOS, and I md5summed my iso files before burning them, so maybe this some weird hardware incompatibility issue? So far, most of my hardware checks out with the compatible hardware database on Mandrake's site.

Any help on this would be really really appreciated!

(^_^) Lysis (^_^)

HARDWARE:
M5SIB Motherboard with integrated sound/graphics cards
AMD-K6/333 3D Processor
252.0 MB RAM
Linksys LNE 100TX Fast Ethernet Adapter
Sony Multiscan100ES CRT Monitor
Microsoft Intellimouse Trackball

CURRENTLY RUNNING: Windows 98

There are a ton of issues that may be causing this problem. You may want to download some of the info from this link:
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/fdoc.php3.
This may give you some more options. You may also want to hit F1 and type in "expert". That may help too. I do that and it gives you more options.

Hope this helps.

Hey dalek!

I get a "This page does not exist on MandrakeLinux.com" error when I try to go to that info page. This might be a temporary issue and I'll check back later.

Thanks for your suggestion!

(^_^) Lysis (^_^)

There was a period at the end and it picked it up as part of the link too. Try this one:
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/fdoc.php3

I put the little sucker by itself this time. Tongue was for the board, not you.

Hope this one works better. Sorry



I tested it in preview. This one is mucho better.

I wrote this a while back. May help you a bit.

http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showt...hreadid=108583

I put the little sucker by itself again.

Hope this helps.

Have you diasabled auto pci in your bios and set your cdrom as the first boot device?

Check your bios sees your cdrom as Ide and ansi.

I presume you are not getting the loading cdrom blue line?

Have you another machine to test the bootable disc CD1 of Mandrake.

I would suggest if all this fails download the iso's of 9.2 rc2 which I am now using. Much better than 9.1 especially since they have restored the cdrom's and floppy to the desktop. (This was always a niggle as I had to get the ikons up on root and user desktops.)

-barrys

At the installation screen, the little blue loading bar loads, but right before it's supposed to ask you for the preferred language the installation simply turns black and freezes. As for the BIOS, I'm pretty sure all of the settings are correct. I had it set to boot from CD-ROM and disabled auto-PCI.

How stable is the Mandrake 9.2 RC2? I might just install it if I can't get 9.1 to work...

-dalek

Thanks for fixing the URL, but I've already downloaded all the documentation from the first site. But, I'll read your post and see if it helps.

Thanks to both for your help!!!

(^_^) Lysis (^_^)

This may be completely off beam and too simplistic, but if all else fails I'd suggest burning the CDs again - I had an almost identical problem one time, and the cause turned out to be a bad burn.

jd

Hey Jane,

I just tried re-burning my CDs, but it's still blanking out after the first installation screen.

Thanks anyway, though!

(^_^) Lysis (^_^)

When you see the screen to upgrade or install hit F1 and then type in "linux". No quotes. If that don't work, post back and I'll find something else to try.

Hope it works. Post either way.

dalek,

I tried typing in linux and I get two loading messages and then the screen blanks out AGAIN. This happens no matter what type of installation I try to start, whether it be expert, vgalo, etc.

The loading messages are something like "Loading...alt0" and "Loading...alt0/all.rdz..."
Just as sidenotes (I'm not sure if these are helpful):

1) Knoppix works without a hassle (although insanely SLOW) on this same computer.

2) This computer uses the Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG. I realize that this is really really old, but I don't have any alternatives.

Right now, however, I'm trying the text installation and it seems to be going farther than the graphical installations. Strangely, it wasn't working before either. I'll post later and tell you the results...

Is it possible Mandrake had a problem identifying my graphics card??? If so, then why did the installation screen pop up with nary a problem?

Thanks for all your help thus far!

(^_^) Lysis (^_^)

Okay....I *think* I successfully installed Mandrake 9.1 on my computer. However, at the summary page toward the end of the installation, the graphics and sound cards were still not configured.

So...now, when I reboot Mandrake, I boot to a command-line prompt. WHile I'm comfortable using a command prompt, this is still not a happy situation for a linux newbie like myself, as I'm not totally sure how to go about.

Right now, I'm busily reading all of Mandrake's official documentation. Are there any other good documentation sources I ought to check out???

(^_^) Lysis (^_^)


BTW, the suggested CTRL-ALT-F7 command for starting up the graphical user interface just results in a blinking cursor and no more...

When you get to the prompt, login in with a user account and your password. Then type in "startx". You will likely get a error message. It may take a bit to come back if it fails. Post the error message here. I think that the built in video is ATI and may be the problem. May can get it to work but hopefully the error message will help.

When you get ready to boot into windows again. Type in at the prompt "shutdown -r now" to reboot, "shutdown -h now" to shut the system off. You may have to logoff, type in "exit" and then login as root to do the shutdown command. Depends on how Mandrake set that part up. Sometimes it's restricted to root, sometimes not.

We'll keep banging away at it. Maybe somebody will see this and have some more ideas.

Post back what you find.

Okay...here's all the relevant information I can find...

* * * * * * * * * * *

1) During boot-up (when all those OK's pop up on the screen), interface eth0 is the only thing that fails to load.

* * * * * * * * * * *

2) ERROR MESSAGE following startx:

execve failed for /etc/X11/X (errno 2)
giving up
xinit: No such file or directory (errno 2): unable to connect to X server
xinit: No such process (errno 3): Server error.

* * * * * * * * * * *

3) All information my skimpy motherboard manual provides about my graphics card:

SiS 5587/5598 VGA
UMA 2D Video/Graphic Accelerator Built-In Onboard
-Shared system memory area: 0.5 ~ 4 MB
-Monitor detection supported
-Supports Turbo Queue architecture
-Supports tightly coupled host interface to VGA to speed up GUI performance and video playback frame rate
-Enhanced 64-bit BITBLT graphics engine
-Supports super-high resolution graphics mode
-Supports graphics/video overlay function by color-key and chroma-key operations

* * * * * * * * * * *

4) I killed Windows. This operating system was so old that I had no pertinent information I needed to save on it, so I just had Mandrake erase it. I'm starting to regret this as I think I might have been able to import window's graphics driver into Mandrake. Oh well, a tad too late now.


* * * * * * * * * * *

I'm going to go post in bunch of different forums, so maybe someone might think of something. Otherwise, I'll just have to learn how to effectively use the command prompt OR install other distribution.

(^_^) Lysis (^_^)

Just one question out of curiosity...

Why is it that Knoppix 3.2 works perfectly fine on my computer (autodetects all hardware, etc,etc)....and Mandrake 9.1 doesn't?