I need help getting linux installed

[DerbySteve]

OK here's the problem. I'm currently trying to get a distribution of Linux installed on my pc but I'm having immense difficulties actually getting one to install and I would be most gratefull if anyone can offer any advice as to what's going wrong and what I need to do to get something working. I'll add as much detail as I can below to help identify what's happening...

The System:-

Asus M2N4-SLI Motherboard
2Gig DDR2 Ram
AMD x2 4000+ processor
2*MSI8500GT PCI-E graphics card in SLi mode
IDE drives:-
Primary Master - 80GB formatted NTFS with Windows XP pro installed
Primary Slave - 80GB unformatted ready and waiting for Linux
Secondary Master - DVDRW
Secondary Slave - DVD
SATA 2*250GB setup as striped raid drive using on board raid device formatted as NTFS

The installs:-

So far I've tried both 32 and 64 bit ubuntu, 32 bit openSUSE and Fedora 7 installs

Unbuntu - initially fails to boot and recommends using noapic option, added the recommended option and install just hangs
OpenSUSE - Boots from CD1 then hangs
Fedora 7 - Thought I was on to a winner here, managed to get the live CD to boot, it formatted my drive, installed the image, installed GRUB and wanted to reboot. Rebooted my PC and all I got was the word GRUB in the top left of my screen and the PC hung. Also tried running a network install and this time instead of only getting the word GRUB upon booting I got several screenfulls of "GRUB " then the PC hung.

I really don't want to have to give up on this as I would like to learn more about Linux myself, however I am begining to lose the will to live!

Thanks in advance.

Steve

EDIT: I don't think this is a graphics card issue as I have pretty much the same problems when attempting a text mode install.

[carlosponti]

not real sure i have ever heard of anyone installing to a sli configuration before. also make sure on the cd's you downloaded you did a checksum against them to see if everything was downloaded and uncorrupted. also run the memory checker on the Ubuntu live cd to see if your memory is functioning ok. also you might try installing from the Ubuntu alt cd which gives you the text mode and see what errors you might get. also try the install command line version on the same alt install and see if it gets anywhere. And geez lose your will to live because you are having problems with your pc you might need some therapy in that case.

[oz]

The only thing I can think of is to try experimenting with additional kernel boot options available to you just before the CD begins to boot. Sometimes, people report having success with the acpi=off option. It's different from the noapic option.

[devils casper]

SATA 2*250GB setup as striped raid drive using on board raid device formatted as NTFS

It looks like RAID setup is creating problems. I am not familiar with RAID setup and can't suggest you anything. Google for it.

[abhishek456]

if you have any RAID settings in BIOS disable RAID and check wheter bootloader works

[DerbySteve]

Thanks for the advice so far. I have already tried several boot options including going as far as the safe mode install with (I think, I've attempted so many installs now) OpenSUSE all to no avail. I've also attempted to boot the Ubuntu Live CD after not only disabling the Raid drive controller but also disconnecting the drives. I managed to get the splash screen up on the boot however after about 10 minutes the screen cleared and then after a further 10-15 minutes (not too sure, I went away to eat) I got a message about invalid IRQ type. At that point I gave up again.

As for losing the will to live, read that as losing the will to attempt to investigate the option to run another OS rather than windows.

Good point someone made earlier about the SLi cards, when I get home tonight I will attempt an install with both the Raid and SLi disabled. I'll post the results of that later.

[devils casper]

Try irqpoll option too.

[DerbySteve]

Thanks for all the advice so far.

OK so I'm getting somewhere I managed to get kubuntu 7.04 i386 to boot by disabling one of my video cards and using noapic and irqpoll. The install package did it's stuff and installed everything onto my empty disk grub installed and i reboot to get.....

GRUB
Error 17

Anyone got any clues how I get past this bit, especially since I've had to remove GRUB and re-install the windows MBR to post this message!

Thanks everyone

UPDATE:

This is now being posted from within Kubuntu. Thank you Super Grub boot Still need to sort some issues with graphics and NTFS partitions but that will do for now I think