slow installation on powerfull pc

[haragusfilip]

hy

I have a problem installing LINUX on my PC.
I start by booting from the cd and it's going extremly slow. For example, i had to wait 15 minutes until i could select the first installation option from debian and at the detecting hardware option it took him about 1 hour. The same problem with all the distro's - very slow throughout the installation sequence. I wasn't able to install any linux, because i had to wait for to much(after 7 hours from bootig with the installation cd of ubuntu for example)
I checked the bios and it has the right options selected, i benchamrked&tested all components to see if thei're ok - and they were.

The machine:
Chaintech motherboard with NForce 4 ULTRA chipset, AMD 64bit 3000+ 939 processor, MAXTOR 200GB SATA HardDrive, 2 X 512 memory modules from KINGMAX.

I tried until now the folowing distros:
-UBUNTU 64BIT version
-ubuntu 32 BIT version
-debian
-suse 10.0
-fedora core 4
-Knoopix(don't remember what version)

could anybody help me on this? or if there is a problem with the distributions above, could anybody suggest another distribution that might work?
thanx

[jens]

hy

I have a problem installing LINUX on my PC.
I start by booting from the cd and it's going extremly slow. For example, i had to wait 15 minutes until i could select the first installation option from debian and at the detecting hardware option it took him about 1 hour. The same problem with all the distro's - very slow throughout the installation sequence. I wasn't able to install any linux, because i had to wait for to much(after 7 hours from bootig with the installation cd of ubuntu for example)
I checked the bios and it has the right options selected, i benchamrked&tested all components to see if thei're ok - and they were.

The machine:
Chaintech motherboard with NForce 4 ULTRA chipset, AMD 64bit 3000+ 939 processor, MAXTOR 200GB SATA HardDrive, 2 X 512 memory modules from KINGMAX.

I tried until now the folowing distros:
-UBUNTU 64BIT version
-ubuntu 32 BIT version
-debian
-suse 10.0
-fedora core 4
-Knoopix(don't remember what version)

could anybody help me on this? or if there is a problem with the distributions above, could anybody suggest another distribution that might work?
thanx

Did you try all kernel options at boot time?
What's your bios version (I once had a simular problem and had to update the bios to get past it)?

[haragusfilip]

i updated the bios and it has no effect.
i also did as you said by tryng other kernel options, but it still didn't work
any other suggestions?

[jens]

i updated the bios and it has no effect.
i also did as you said by tryng other kernel options, but it still didn't work
any other suggestions?

'k
try one of those very small debian install images:
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
>pick the net install image (burn it at 2X max).

This will only install the base system and use apt for all the rest.
If this doesn't work, you can be sure it's either a hardware or a bios problem(DMA comes in mind).

If this fails you can be very sure their's something wrong with your hardware.
>if apt doesn't work like it should it's probably your hard drive or it's controller.

PS: and this new Spell Check option doesn't work at all for me...

[a12ctic]

debain didnt like my computer (specs below, very simular to yours) ubuntu worked great though

[haragusfilip]

unfortunatelly none of your advices were good in my case. i really would have wished to be able to install debian or ubuntu.

fotunatelyy though .. i tried freebsd last night and it worked ok(the live cd). i hope that the install cd will work as well. if you still have some advices on what to do with my pc in order to get debian working, please don't hesitate to tell it

thanx
filip

[techieMoe]

Something is definitely fishy. Installers shouldn't take that long, even on an ancient machine, which yours clearly isn't. I noticed you have a SATA harddrive. Is it just plugged in regularly (like a PATA) or do you have RAID configured?

[haragusfilip]

the motherrboard does have the option of configuring a RAID, but i disabled it from the BIOS. i plugged the hard drive in the SATA0 port on the motherboard.

[haragusfilip]

finally did it, but still with a problem

I disabled the onobard usb from BIOS and it worked perfectly - not a single problem, except for the fact that when i enable the usb it works extremly slow again.

[haragusfilip]

so ... could anybody help me with a sollution, i'd like to have the my USB devices work under LINUX.

i've already done a BIOS update.
can i somehow boot without the onboard USB disabled and then enable them?

the motherboard is an CHAINTECH Zenith NF4Ultra Value Edition

filip