Installation of Fedora 9, 10, and ubuntu 8.10 freeze

[lefty103]

hey,
newbie here, just built a computer and wanted to try out some linux.

First off I burned the Fedora 10 x86_64 disk image (using disk utility on my mac at 4x speed then verified it) to a dvd. I start the install. "x startup fails to load, falling back to text mode" comes up. I use the text install then. It gets to the actual installation of the different packages then a black screen shows up with white text that's highlighted red (sometimes it's blue). It then freezes and I reboot. Sometimes it freezes at different points and with different messages, but the description above is what happens most often.

I try writing it at 1x speed and verifying. same thing.
I try the Live CD. It freezes.
Then I tried Fedora 9. same thing.

Next I go to Ubuntu 8.10
I try the regular install, but the orange loading bar freezes.
I try the Live CD-like install. It runs!...
but when i go to install, when it gets to the partitioning part, it freezes and becomes unresponsive.


Each time it froze I let it sit for about 10 minutes, just to make sure it is in fact frozen. I've tried these installs numerous times. Any ideas on what's wrong?

Thanks in advance!

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Boot up from Ubuntu LiveCD, open Terminal and execute this

sudo lspci | grep -i vga
sudo fdisk -l

Post output here.

* Its small L in fdisk -l.

[lefty103]

03.00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G94 [GeForce 9600 GT]


Didk/dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
225 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225288 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8bfb8bfb

Device boot start end blocks ID System
/dev/sda1 1 29614 234259798+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 29615 38401 9936202+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 29615 38401 9936171 82 Linux Swap/ Solaris

[Charles4809]

03.00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G94 [GeForce 9600 GT]


Didk/dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
225 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225288 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8bfb8bfb

Device boot start end blocks ID System
/dev/sda1 1 29614 234259798+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 29615 38401 9936202+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 29615 38401 9936171 82 Linux Swap/ Solaris

Is this a typo?
When not, the partitioning of your drive seems odd

[lefty103]

nope, that's what it says.

[Charles4809]

I'd say you need to repartition your drive before going anywhere. Your current partition table is corrupted.

Boot from the Ubuntu Live CD (don't install) Once it has booted completely go to the menu and find the partition manager. In there choose your 250 GB drive and delete your Swap partition and your extended partition.
Create a new extended partition in the unallocated space. Make sure it's not bigger than the free space indicates. (and that should be about 6 GB at max).
In this extended partition create a logical station with Swap filesystem.
Once you have executed all this, go to terminal and do the following command:

sudo fdisk -l

Post the outcome here, so we can check if it is correct this time.

My guess is that this corruption caused your install problems. Next problem might be the installation of the nvidia driver. Not sure your graphic card works out of the box, but there is a chance.

[lefty103]

alright! it's starting to all make sense.

ok so the first half is the same
and now the bottom half reads:

DeviceBoot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux

^hope it's a lil easier to read this time

just gotta create the other partitions now

[devils casper]

Partitions structure was correct. /dev/sda2 was an Extended partitions and /dev/sda5 was Logical partition inside extended.
Create 10-15 GB, ext3 for / and 512MB for SWAP.

03.00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G94 [GeForce 9600 GT]

You have Nvidia Graphics Card and installers are not configuring it properly. Install Linux distro in Text Mode. Its really easy to install Nvidia Driver after Linux Installation.

[lefty103]

Partitions structure was correct. /dev/sda2 was an Extended partitions and /dev/sda5 was Logical partition inside extended.
Create 10-15 GB, ext3 for / and 512MB for SWAP.

You have Nvidia Graphics Card and installers are not configuring it properly. Install Linux distro in Text Mode. Its really easy to install Nvidia Driver after Linux Installation.

It crashed even in text mode. I was forced into text mode after the x startup failed in fedora 9 and 10.

I'm creating the partitions. what do SWAP and ext3 mean?

[devils casper]

Do you have any other Graphics Card? Let me check if any problem listed with Linux + nVidia Corporation G94 [GeForce 9600 GT]