Johnsky

I attempted installation of mandrake 10.1 from bootup... no success, instead of going from the prompt screen, to a language select, it just sits at a black screen with blue bars reading alt+<f1> here alt+<f3> view log ... and so on... none of the key combinations on this screen works... and i cant press anything that gets a response out of it.

I also tried text installation, and pretty much all the alternate install options at bootup. No change.

So I figured I'd cave and install from within windows xp.

As soon as I put the CD in, it gives me an error in french:


Now, even though I'm canadian, I cant speak french... but I can guess that it says it cannot open the that specific .jpg file. I checked the directories in the cd... the .jpg is in fact there, and viewable.

I click ok. And I get the language selection, yet it does not permit me to click Install, on any language. The initial selection screen is odd aswell.


I know the first thing to come to mind would be, bad copy of the ISO or bad burning of it. So I redownloaded mandrake 10.1 from a different source, burned a fresh copy... got the exact same problems.

I'm really stumped. It has to have something to do with the language selection area... because that is the thing thats supposed to load after you hit enter when installing from boot right?

Perhaps theres a way to start the install beyond the language seletion prompt.
Any help would be much appreciated.

bigtomrodney

I get that error too, but it's just the file not loading. If it's any comfort (and it won't really be) all it does is reboot your computer and run from the disk - for people who aren't comfortable with disk boots. Unfortunately I'm not sure what the cause of the boot error is.

Can you post your machine details here for us please?

Johnsky

Sure thing.
Its a laptop/tablet convertible.

Vendor : Eurocom Canada
Motherboard : Via (cant remember which one, only name that comes to mind is nemiah)
Ram : 512 M
HDD : One Fujitzu mht2030at 50gig
Display : Via/S3g cle266
Powersupply : unknown
Ethernet : Via Rhine 2
Processor : (reads via nemiah) p4 1Ghz basically

Everything else seems to be onboard the via motherboard. I cant open it up without voiding the warranty.

bigtomrodney

Hmmm, this is where I step back - I know people have mentioned trouble with via chipsets but I can't remember what. I'll try and have a look but maybe one of the other guys/gals here know something off hand.

Can I ask have you ever run any of the live disks like Knoppix? Just so I know if it's Mandrake or something more general.

Johnsky

Well, I've never really tried to install mandrake on this machine before. I installed redhat 9 and suse on another machine before, never had a problem.

I did try to install redhat 9 on this machine, but had a completley different issue. As soon as it tried to boot from the CD the video memory went all distorted... you'd have to see it to understand what I mean.

With mandrake, it seems to have no problem with my video chipset... unless this is related and just not very obvious. It just seems to hang on that black screen that has three options... alt-f1 return here alt-f3 view log alt-f4... cant remember that option. Its a black screen, blue bar at top saying welcome to mandrake 10.1, and a date stamp that is no-where near what my system clock says, and the blue bar at the bottom with the options.

I can only assume its a debug menu for the installation that would normally not be displayed.

I can try another version of linux... or even a newer version of mandrake... thogh that will require alot more download time, and I've already used about 9 cd's. Just hoping to get this one working, I've never used mandrake before.

Johnsky

Alright, I've got some new information.

The chipset is Via Nehemiah, not nemiah.

I aquired Knoppix 3.6 from a freind... and Ubuntu, he said he enjoyed it so I should try it.

Well... from what I can tell when trying to load knoppix, its most likely the Chipset.

The via nehemiah board has onboard pcmcia and ethernet controll... when I tried to run it, it would freeze when it reached the pcmcia detection. I tried knoppix nopcmcia... it made it fine until it tried to load the ethernet... I'm not sure how to bypass the ethernet detection. I tried noapic... but either that's not the ethernet command, or I just dont know how to use the two commands together.

I tried typing :
knoppix nopcmcia noapic
then tried :
knoppix nopcmcia|apic

I think I just dont know how to use both commands together.

Any help? If I can bypass those, I should be able to get a bit further.

Fep

Hello!

I know this will be of little help, but you got the message right.
I know, cos I'm French.

Good luck!