Mandrake 8.1 n00b Installation Question...

[MistaTastyCakes]

Hi.. I'm trying to learn the feeling of a Linux OS, wanna move to a dual-boot system with XP and Mandrake 8.1. My problem is, when I boot from the Mandrake cd, I can get past the first screen fine, hitting enter, going to the next one.. where Mandrake tries to read my cd-rom. I have a pretty good feeling my burn worked, everything checked out and I could access it from XP. It tells me my prob is in the fact that it can't read my CD-ROM. My CD-ROM is a Philips 8x4x32 CDRW, the CDRW800 series, and is set to Primary Slave via jumper..

I've tried doing a bootable floppy with no luck either. Also, are there compatibility issues with Logitech USB products under Mandrake? I have to disconnect my Internet Navigator USB keyboard and pop in a generic PS2 to get responses from the setup.. well as far is I've gotten in the setup..

Anyways, any help's appreciated.. I wanna learn the OS, I'm just hoping I don't need new hardware to do so. :frown:

All my system specs are in the link in my sig, btw...thanks

 

[n0cmonkey]

The md5 sum checked out fine huh? Try another distro. See if that helps.

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

Could it be an incompatibility?

And what other distros would ya recommend?

 

[marat]

<< Could it be an incompatibility?

And what other distros would ya recommend? >>



Honestly - i cann't spot a problem, but here are a few things to try:

1. Connect ps/2 mouse.
2. Check the installation CD. Any scratches? If you downloaded it, check md5sum as n0cmonkey suggested. Here is a link where can download md5sum for windows and view instructions http://etree.org/md5com.html
3. Try to isolate the problem - take of everything you don't need.
4. Try SUSE 7.3.

 

[n0cmonkey]

SuSE 7.3 and RedHat 7.2 are two good distros. Not quite the same as Mandrake, but you'll get the hang of it.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

yeah i had major problemos with mandrake too, it didnt detect my mouse right away and the keyboard navigation was real buggy at one point, then one time i finally got past that, and it just locked up on me at a later point. after the 20th try or so, it finally got installed. then it locked up all the time. so i said screw it and installed redhat and had no such probs