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Installing Mandrake 10
problems with installation

New Message Installing Mandrake 10 (modified 0 times) Feeling stupid

Hi there,
I'm feeling extremely stipid as I read everybody raving about how easy Mandrake is to install. I have a Mandrake 10 community DVD which came with an expensive magazine but I can't get it to work. I put the DVD in for it to boot and it seems to be doing something when I hit "enter" to install but then it just stops. The screen is blank except for 2 blue bars, one at the top which reads "Welcome to Mandrake Linux (10.0) Mar 3 2004 14:37:19" and another at the bottom that says: <Alt-F1> for here, <Alt-F3 to see the log, <Alt-F4 for kernel msg.
What am I doing wrong? I've tried the floppy boot thing but it just says boot failed and I don't have a cd burner to burn whatever it is I'm supposed to burn. Am I stuck with WIndows XP?
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I've spent a whole day going round in circles.

06-29-2004 03:28:48

New Message RE:Installing Mandrake 10 (modified 0 times) kevin

Profile

Doesn't sound like your fault, in fact it should have booted straight up to an installer with no input from you.
That said, there could be some avoidable problem, like your video card isn't compatible. But I can't tell without more info:
What does the log tell you? (Press Alt-F3, as it says)
What does the kernel message say? (Press Alt-F4, as it says)
That will help us diagnose the trouble.
-kev

06-29-2004 14:52:12

New Message RE:Installing Mandrake 10 (modified 0 times) Feeling Stupid

I don't get anything on the kernel messages (ie the screen remains as is) but I get a whole screenful of stuff when I press the Alt-F3 buttons.
The last few lines read:
PCI: device 104c 8026 ffff ffff is "", driver is ohci1394
have to insmod ohci1394
needs ieee1394
needs ohci1394
thanks in advance for any help or insights.

06-30-2004 03:40:06

New Message RE:Installing Mandrake 10 (modified 0 times) kevin

Profile

OK, ieee1394 is firewire. Do you have any firewire devices plugged in? If so, unplug them and try the installation again. If not, read on.
I stuck in my MDK 10 installer cd and what should happen next is the switch to graphics mode (ie, XFree should come up).
This could mean that your video card isn't detected properly. Or it could be that the system is hung after loading the firewire drivers, or trying to load some other driver. I can't tell you which at this stage, I'll need more info.
Try going to ALT-F7. What do you see?
Next look at ALT-F2. That should be a shell prompt (From the ALT-F7 screen you may need CTRL-ALT-F2 to get to ALT-F2). From the ALT-F2 screen, try typing 'dmesg' and press Enter. What do you see?
What kind of video card do you own? Is it listed on the mandrake 10 hardware compatibility list?
-kev

06-30-2004 11:39:54

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