Linux

[Koll]

Linux, first off I love it. Secondly, I can't install it. I'm using, or attempting to use Linux Mandrake 8.1 (Yes, its the real one not a rip). I installed it and it seamed all fine. I went to reboot and it brought me to the to the Choose which OS screen cause I'm using a Dual Boot of Windows ME. I select Linux and it starts to load. It gets to a certain point and it hangs up. I have tried to reinstall it numerous times. My friend says that it could be the motherboard. Although I made my computer its a gateway motherboard with an AMD processor. Any ideas? Thanks.

[Conf1rm3d_K1ll]

I assume you're using LILO has your boot manager.....Will it boot off the boot disk you made during the install?

[rcgreen]

Did it give you an error message?

It could be any thing from bad memory to a mis-configured hard drive.

[Koll]

Nope, no error, just hangs up.

[Conf1rm3d_K1ll]

Will it boot off the boot disk!?

[str34m3r]

I had the same problem before when I tried an install of 8.2. Perhaps I did something stupid, but for some reason, it looked like it defaulted to LILO instead of grub. And when I rebooted the first time after the install, I got the LI and then it hung there. Once I went back and used GRUB as the boot loader, it worked just fine. I'm not certain if GRUB was available in 8.1, but I seem to remember that it was. You might give GRUB a chance to see if your problem goes away.

[Koll]

Nope, wont boot off the disk either. Grub eh? how do I set it up so that GRUB is the boot loader, if it is in 8.1?

[chaoswraith]

To setup GRUB, you should have the choice when you install. All you should have to do is go through the upgrade procedure and choose GRUB instead of LILO.

The other thing you should do is make sure that all the hardware you are using is supported by Linux. Check out http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/genpage2.cgi. This is a compatibility list which will tell you what hardware Linux supports, and what it doesn't.

I've had basically the same problem as you are having, and it turns out my video card wasn't supported. Give it a go, maybe it'll help.

[sharkyt2t]

I went to reboot and it brought me to the to the Choose which
OS screen cause I'm using a Dual Boot of Windows ME. I select Linux and
it starts to load. It gets to a certain point and it hangs up

Hi,

Just want to mention this in case you weren't aware:

The default kernel for Mandrake 8.1 is really flakey it had a tendency to freeze
problems existed with supermount (it was disabled) also the kernel it has
denial of service vunerabuilities you should get the latest one off rpmfind
which solves the zlib problem and more recent security issues.

Visit www.mandrake.com look in the security bulletins to find out what's the
latest Kernel version is if you don't how to update a kernel don't worry
the bulletin will explain how to proceed. Once you download the kernel off
rpmfind do rpm -- checksig 2.4 xxx in whatever directory you saved it in
before installing as per instructions to make sure the Kernel is
safe to use.

Good Luck!

Sharky

[souleman]

It gets to a certain point and it hangs up.

At what point does it hang? That is VERY important information. I thought I had this problem once, but it was simply a lack of patience. There is a nework card in my machine, but I wasn't on a network at the time. The machine appeard to hang when it got to the point of initalizing eth0. It would do absoutely nothing for approximately 3 minutes. Then it would just say [failed] and continue on it way.

I believe that mandrake gives you the option to "Press I for interactive startup" durring its boot sequence. Try pressing i. Then just hit yes for the things you know work. Then, skip whatever it is that keeps hanging on you. Then just press c for continue and it should do the rest of the bootup on its own...