Fedora 10 installation help

[sprint459]

Hello All,

Iam trying to install "Fedora 10" using "Fedora 10 i386" CDs. My laptop is pentium 4 -32 bit system. which has already windows xp onit.

I have put the first CD and boot up the system and a main menu comes with 4-5 options. when I choose install , its asking for media checks and after that it says starting installation..there starts the problem.. I see different solid colors flashing on my screen.. i waited for 10 - 15 minutes..but no luck.. I pressed different keys ..no use..flashing of colors continue.. so what could be the problem..?

I tried for 3-4 times , its happened all the time..

once I tried to go into rescue mode, and it found that no versions loaded..

I did fdisk -l

here is the output..
*fdisk -l*
Disk /dev/sda : 80G
Device Boot Start End Blocks ID System
/dev/sda1 * ---1 7649 61G 7 HDFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 - 9476 9729 2G f Win95 Extd (LBA)

please help me out..
with lots of hopes..
Thanks

[saivin]

when I choose install , its asking for media checks and after that it says starting installation..there starts the problem.. I see different solid colors flashing on my screen.. i waited for 10 - 15 minutes..but no luck.. I pressed different keys ..no use..flashing of colors continue.. so what could be the problem..?

I tried for 3-4 times , its happened all the time..

Never heard before. Do you have any other liveCD by chance? Like Ubuntu? Try with others and see if the same thing repeats. Atleast we will know if it is problem with your fedora disc.

[jayd512]

Possibly an issue with your video card or drivers. What video card do you have?
You might want to go through the text based installation, then we can help you sort out the video issue.

[Charles4809]

I advise you to format the disk manually before installing.
Be sure not to "touch" the beginning of your NTFS partition with your windows on it, just make it smaller. (I presume you want a dual boot [XP & Linux] on this computer)
You have to enlarge your extended partition first (use all of the remaining space on your disk) 2 GB of is really low for a full install.
Then create a new logical partition of about 500 MB inside the extended box and have it formatted as Swap. Then another logical partition formatted as EXT3 and name that / (that means linux root partition) This might help.

PS. defrag your C: drive before repartitionning.

[sprint459]

Thank you all for the replies..
saivin : I do not have any other discs with me..

jayd512 : My video card is "XGI Volari-XP5 v2.116.DELL_C"..regarding the text based installtion, I am not seeing that option in the main menu.. am seeing only the following 4 options (1)Install or upgrade (2)Rescue (3)Boot from Local Disk(4)Memory test...If there is other way to install in text mode ,let me know

Charles4809: How to format the disk with out disturbing the xp using Fedora CD..where can i see that option..
Yes I do want a dual boot [XP & Linux] on this machine..
I think i have enough file space ...Total =80G, windows 60G and rest =~20G should be there for other OS and memory is 2G

Let me know if am missing some things..

[Charles4809]

This 80 GB is in vendor arithmetic: 80 x1000x1000x1000 bytes.
Your computer calculates with units of 1024 bytes. As a result you have only about 75 GB to be used.
As your fdisk showed you have a NTFS-partition, used by Windows of about 61 GB. This is a primary partition and that is good. You don't have to make changes there.
fdisk showed a second partition of 2 GB at the end of the disk. This one is an extended partition, but has no logical stations in it. So it is inaccessible. Then there is an unused part of the disk between this two partitions.
Run Fedora as a live CD (not installing) and you will find Gparted somewhere in the system tools. That is a partitioner with a GUI and will make things visible for you. I suggest you enlarge the extended partition (sda4) to the maximum of the available space, without touching the first partition (sda1).
This extended partition is only an empty container without a filesystem. To make it usable you have to create so called logical stations in it. Gparted can do that easily for you. As suggested in my earlier post, create a small SWAP (this is to cache some data out of your RAM when your computer runs heavy programs) and a second one with filesystem ext3. That will be the root partition for Fedora.

Since your problem starts in the beginning of the installation proces I suspect Fedora's partitioner to have a problem with the size of the existing extended partition.

I'am not using Fedora myself, so with the text install i can't help you.

[jayd512]

I'm also seeing to free space in your output of fdisk, in between sda1 & sda4. use that to extend your extended partition.
On a side note, I can't seem to locate my Fedora installation disk, so let me get back to you on the other installation methods.

[sprint459]

Thanks for the posts..I was learning about Gparted.. downloaded and partitioned..but no use.. I am still seeing the colors flashing on my screen..

*fdisk -l*
Disk /dev/sda : 80G
Device Boot Start End Blocks ID System
/dev/sda1 * ---1 7649 61G 7 HDFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 - 7650 7662 105M 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 - 7663 9475 15G 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 - 9476 9729 2G f Win95 Extd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 - 9476 9729 2G 82 Linux swap

One day I waited for 4 hours, thinking of some thing is happening in back ground..

but no use..

Now am doubting the installation CD..

if am missing any thing here, please suggest me.

Thanks

[devils casper]

There is an option at startup to install Fedora in Text Mode. You should use Text or Failsafe mode for installation.

[Fantaman]

Try to install it in Text mode