GAH!!! Linux is pissing me off...

[Cyphermonk]

OK, I'm in a 2nd semester Linux/Unix class dealing with Unix Administration... I am trying to install Linux onto my old Dell system (XPS B1000r) and I have been fighting with this for about 8 hours now...

I have two versions of Linux (RedHat 7.2 & Slackware 9.0)...

No matter what I do or what I try, I will get to a point in installation, and then the system will just lock-up and when I reboot, nothing is detected, so I have to begin installation all over again...

With RedHat, it will boot/load and begin installation from the CD_ROM, but locks up about shortly after..

With Slackware, the CD will not boot/load, so I am using a bare.i boot disk to try and install install disks 1 & 2, but it locks up when I put disk 2 into the the floppy drive...

Can ANYONE recommend a more fool-proof way to do this???

thanks

JackNimble

 

[JetBlack69]

Could be a hardware problem. Where in the installation is it locking up?

 

[drag]

Could be the advanced power management stuff f***ing up. Lots of motherboards, especially older ones have trouble with this stuff and are very buggy things.

You can pass kernel parameters to turn this sort of thing off.

depends on what OS your using how you pass parameters... but the slackware install should give you the chance to hit F1 or something to show you more.

It would be something like this at boot up, at the lilo prompt.

linux acpi=off apm=off

This turns off power management. Hope it helps.

Sometimes Redhat may have a "safe" boot up mode.. this does it too.

Other things it could be would be something like DMA-type stuff for your harddisks, sometimes some motherboards have buggy IDE controllers.

Best thing to do if you suspect hardware issues is to find out your motherboard chipset, and do a search for that in google with the term linux tacked on. See if anybody else had the same problem and fixed it.

Does it crap out in the same spot everytime? What is happening?

 

[Sunner]

Also, don't overclock, Linux seems to be alot more sensitive to this than Windows.
Once had my P90 OC'ed to 100 MHz, worked fine with DOS but RedHat 4 just barfed during installation

 

[chsh1ca]

Originally posted by: Cyphermonk
No matter what I do or what I try, I will get to a point in installation, and then the system will just lock-up and when I reboot, nothing is detected, so I have to begin installation all over again.

By nothing is detected, do you mean drives are not seen by the BIOS? If so, I'd say you have a bad bios -- either toasted or in need of an update.

With Slackware, the CD will not boot/load, so I am using a bare.i boot disk to try and install install disks 1 & 2, but it locks up when I put disk 2 into the the floppy drive...

How did you create your slack CD? I personally just created an ISO and burned it that way, and if you did something similar, then you probably forgot to toggle the bootable flag. Slack should boot fine off the CD.
At any rate, I personally highly doubt it's the kernel being used, I've seen slack 8.1 boot a 486 SX/33 without issue (haven't tried it with 9 yet, but there are no fundamental changes that should cause something like what you're describing). Combine that with the fact that that's really pretty recent hardware, all things considered (no more than about 2 years old). I'm running it on an older box here now (D/800 on a Gigabyte G7ZE board), so I doubt its kernel age.

Can ANYONE recommend a more fool-proof way to do this???

Evidently not.

 

[mcveigh]

boot from a knoppix cd this will tell you if your hardware is working under linux.....also use a more recent version, how about redhat 9 or mandrkae?

goto linuxiso.org to download them

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Is your hard drive formatted in NTFS?

edit

Found the system specs for the XPS-B1000r (let us know if anything is different):

Pentium III-1000
128MB of RDRAM
256KB L2 cache
Windows 2000 Professional
40GB hard drive
12X DVD-ROM drive
8X/4X/32X CD-RW drive
Dell NVidia GeForce 256 graphics board with 64MB of DDR SGRAM
Dell UltraScan P991 19-inch monitor
Creative Labs Sound Blaster PCI 128 audio
Harman Kardon HK595 speakers
V.90 modem
network card
midsize tower case
Microsoft IntelliMouse

 

[Cyphermonk]

Originally posted by: AnonymouseUser
Is your hard drive formatted in NTFS?

edit

Found the system specs for the XPS-B1000r (let us know if anything is different):

Pentium III-1000
128MB of RDRAM
256KB L2 cache
Windows 2000 Professional
40GB hard drive
12X DVD-ROM drive
8X/4X/32X CD-RW drive
Dell NVidia GeForce 256 graphics board with 64MB of DDR SGRAM
Dell UltraScan P991 19-inch monitor
Creative Labs Sound Blaster PCI 128 audio
Harman Kardon HK595 speakers
V.90 modem
network card
midsize tower case
Microsoft IntelliMouse

I think my system is a little bit older, plus I've pulled a few parts from the Dell for use in my new system... so some of this is different...

Pentium III-1000
Intel i820e Mobo (BIOS version A08)
256MB of RDRAM
WD 40GB hard drive (Primary Master)
Samsung CD/DVD-ROM Drive (Secondary Master)
NVidia GeForce 256 w/ 64MB DDR SGRAM
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Value
US Robotics V.90 56k Uart Modem
3Com 10/100 NIC
Iomega 100MB Zip drive (Primary Slave)
Microsoft IntelliMouse (USB)
Microsoft Keyboard (PS/2)

OK, so here are the specific details of EVERYTHING I have tried...

When attempting to install RedHat 7.2, which came on a pair of CD's with a book I bought for my Unix Class, I get an initial pre-installation screen that allows me to choose how I want to install (graphical mode, text mode, expert mode, no frame buffer, rescue mode, etc...) I have tried every option except the Driver Disk, and every time but once, it locks up at either "RAMDISK: compressed image found at block 0" or "running /sbin/loader". The one time it did not lock up, I got through all of the graphical configuration options and disk formatting/partition/mounting, but then it locked up as soon as it actually began installing RedHat

With Slackware 9.0, which I got as a burned CD from my Unix instructor, the CD is not bootable, so I have tried creating boot/install disks using the bare.i boot image and install.1/install.2 install images. When using these disks, I get as far as inserting install.2, and then it locks up. After trying this a few times, I then created a DOS partition on the HD and copied Loadlin.exe, initrd.img, and bzImage to it.. I then ran loadlin c:bzimage root=/dev/hda rw This actually got the Slackware process up and running, where I formatted/partitioned/mounted the HD, and then got as far as installing package 'f' or 'g' before it locked up...

about the only thing I can think of now is to take EVERYTHING out of my system (Graphics Card, NIC, Modem, Sound Card, Iomege Zip Drive) and try installing everything again... but I'd rather not have to do this if anyone can think of something else...

Thanks!!!

Cyphermonk

 

[civad]

As someone already mentioned, (and assuming you CAN download and burn the Knoppix iso) the first thing you should do is to pop a knoppix cd in and boot through it.
THat might help you to find out whats going on.
Secondly, is it necessary for you to use Slackware/Redhat? (Does the course requirements say that you have to use either of the two distributions? Is your computer connected to broadband (dorm/cable, etc..) if yes, why not try a network install?

just a few thoughts (since you have HALF a weekend left, I think you should try to look for alternatives rather than trying to figure out what the problem is...