Mandrake 9.1 problem install - please help.

[Andrew Scott]

Over the weekend I have been trying to install the
Mandrake 9.1 distro CDs on my machine at home, and
unfortunately I have been having terrible problems.

My setup is something like this:

KT series motherboard
don't know what CPU it is but both motherboard and CPU
are about a year old, and CPU is an i586 compatible.
128 Mb RAM
12 Gb Fujitsu HDD of which 7 Gb is available to Linux
[5Gb is win98].
ATI Rage Turbo Pro AGP x 2 graphics card [or at least
that is what win98 reports; Mandrake tells me this is
an ATI Mach Ultra 68 or somesuch, anyway it is an ATI
card and plugs into the AGP slot]
VIA on board sound.
ATAPI-type CD/DVD drive that I have made bootable in
the BIOS.

On the Linux partition was an old RH 5.2 distro using
the ext2 filesystem.

My first attemmpt was a fresh install right over the
top of the RH 5.2 using the existing partitions. It
was seriously barfed. The install did not even
complete, but went as far as the X configuration stage
at the Summary screen and just hung. Mouse OK, CAPS
LOCK OK, HDD syncing still OK, just hung and did
nothing. I therefore did a hard reset and tried an
update on top on the install to try and repair it
which appeared to go well apart from a module
'pcidata' was not found by the X configurator so I
could not configure X. On booting the system I could
not even log in due to a reported error with INIT;
going in as failsafe revealed that: df was dumping,
and there were errors of the form 'dma error - bad
crc' in syslog and messages. I then went in via the
rescue disk and did e2fsck -py which did many repairs
to the filesystem. A run with e2fsck -c reported no
problems. So I rebooted back into linux, logged in as
root, and found vim was dumping but that df was fixed.
Trying startx and inspecting XFree86.log showed that
due to a missing 'pcidata' module [and one other] the
X configurator could not even start. I suspect this
was due to a seriously barfed install of the XFree86
packages.

At this point I had no confidence in a fresh install
which had so many problems, so I decide to reinstall
fresh. This time I did a custom partitioning on the 7
Gb partition and chose an ext3 fs with seperate areas
for /, swap and /home. Unfornately for me the install
hung again [same as above] right after installing all
the packages from disks 1, 2, and 3 that I needed. I
rebooted into CD1 and tried an update as before.
However this skipped the root password and add a user
stages and went straight to 'Preparing boot record'
whereupon it hung as well. Rebooting was horrible.
Investigation with the rescue disk [thank God for
this!] revealed a seriously munged MBR. I tried
writing a Linux MBR but of course /mnt/etc/lilo.conf
did not exist! So I was forced to write a Windows MBR
just to save the day and make sure I could boot
something.

So now I have a completely broken install of Mandrake
that I cannot even boot into. And I am totally
frustrated.

I read somewhere on alt.os.linux.mandrake that someone
reported in the case of dma errors like mine they
tried an expert install with a truly minimal install
set and skipped CD2 when prompted, which apparently
worked for them.

Could you please please suggest or recommend something
I can try to get Mandrake cleanly installed? This was
suppoed to be a really easy to install distro with
reat hardware detects, but I am not finding it to be
so.

Thankyou,

Andrew Scott

[mjt]

Andrew Scott wrote:

> So now I have a completely broken install of Mandrake
> that I cannot even boot into. And I am totally
> frustrated.
>
> I read somewhere on alt.os.linux.mandrake that someone
> reported in the case of dma errors like mine they
> tried an expert install with a truly minimal install
> set and skipped CD2 when prompted, which apparently
> worked for them.

.... this is what i was gonna suggest. it sounds like you have
a media (hard drive) issue. if you're NOT opting to perform
a disk check during partitioning, i'd suggest it. all drives
have errors on them. and it sounds like you need to do the
more extensive check, if available.

install the minimum required to get the system running, sans
the xfree configuration. you can do that once you have a
running system.
..
--
/// Michael J. Tobler: motorcyclist, surfer, skydiver, \\\
\\\ and author: "Inside Linux", "C++ HowTo", "C++ Unleashed" ///
\\\ [url]http://pages.sbcglobal.net/mtobler/mjt_linux_page.html[/url] ///
It is now pitch dark. If you proceed, you will likely fall
into a pit.

[Andrew Scott]

mjt <mjtobler@removethis_consultant.com> wrote in message news:<OME9b.1737$ir2.338491489@newssvr30.news.prod igy.com>...

> ... this is what i was gonna suggest. it sounds like you have
> a media (hard drive) issue. if you're NOT opting to perform
> a disk check during partitioning, i'd suggest it. all drives
> have errors on them. and it sounds like you need to do the
> more extensive check, if available.
>

In standard 'linux' install I do not see an option to check the disk
during partitioning, even for custom partitioning. Is this option
available during 'expert' install?

> install the minimum required to get the system running, sans
> the xfree configuration. you can do that once you have a
> running system.
> .

Presumably XFree can be configured later using XFDrake - correct?

I have the Power Pack edition of 7 CDs, presumably it is possible to
install packages / areas of functionality from these - if so, how?
Sorry, I am new to Mandrake.

Also, I recently saw the following thread on this group
[alt.os.linux.mandrake]:

[url]http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=bk7t5c%244pi%241%40string.physics.ubc.ca &prev=/groups%3Fdq%3D%26num%3D25%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3 DUTF-8%26group%3Dalt.os.linux.mandrake%26start%3D25[/url]

[about dma problems]

I am slowly coming to realise that it may be significant that I have
my HDD with the MBR on it as primary master, and the CD/DVD drive that
I am trying to install from on the same cable as primary slave.

Would it help if I rearranged the CD/DVD as secondary master? If so,
could someone be kind enough please to write a step-by-step guide for
a simpleton on how to do this once I have opened the machine up? I
know how to swap things in and out, but cabling issues are another
thing; it took me a week to install a new motherboard correctly and
even now the LEDs aren't quite correct! ;)

Thankyou!

Andrew Scott

[mjt]

Andrew Scott wrote:

> mjt <mjtobler@removethis_consultant.com> wrote in message
>

> In standard 'linux' install I do not see an option to check the disk
> during partitioning, even for custom partitioning. Is this option
> available during 'expert' install?

.... the expert mode should allow it, but dont hold me do
it as it's been a while since i've installed mandrake.

> Presumably XFree can be configured later using XFDrake - correct?

.... correct :)

> I have the Power Pack edition of 7 CDs, presumably it is possible to
> install packages / areas of functionality from these - if so, how?
> Sorry, I am new to Mandrake.

.... you'll find the software management once installed.

> Also, I recently saw the following thread on this group
> [alt.os.linux.mandrake]:
>

[url]http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=bk7t5c%244pi%241%40string.physics.ubc.ca &prev=/groups%3Fdq%3D%26num%3D25%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3 DUTF-8%26group%3Dalt.os.linux.mandrake%26start%3D25[/url]

>
> [about dma problems]
>
> I am slowly coming to realise that it may be significant that I have
> my HDD with the MBR on it as primary master, and the CD/DVD drive that
> I am trying to install from on the same cable as primary slave.
>
> Would it help if I rearranged the CD/DVD as secondary master?

.... that would be helpful. if you google, i'm sure you'll find
documentation concerning the rearrangement of drives
..
--
/// Michael J. Tobler: motorcyclist, surfer, skydiver, \\\
\\\ and author: "Inside Linux", "C++ HowTo", "C++ Unleashed" ///
\\\ [url]http://pages.sbcglobal.net/mtobler/mjt_linux_page.html[/url] ///
Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.