Mandrake 8.2 install doesnt complete

[mdhome]

Mandrake 8.2 sort of hangs during install. The install doesnt seem to progress too far and I can still move the mouse. There doesnt appear to be any error messages.
I am using an Elite Ks75a with a G400, SB live.
Anyone have any ideas.

Regards MD

[Marshmallowman]

do you get to select any options?, or is it before that.
are you booting from the CD or floppies

There are a few advanced options you can try from the initiak splash screen..text mode install etc

[Wombat]

I haven't installed Mandrake, but how long did you let it sit there? Maybe it was scanning the system to find your devices?

[mdhome]

Sorry Chaps, I should have been clearer.
The distro is on the latest Linux Format bootable DVD.
The problem occurs whilst it is copying the packages that I have selected onto a partition on my secondary hard drive.

I dont believe that it is scanning my system.

Regards MD

[Marshmallowman]

If you bought the DVD, you should be able to get free email support from http://www.linux-mandrake.com/

Does lockup at the same point everytime?
It is worth check some bios settings eg ata modes in bios for the dvd drive.

hmm...is the DVD unscratched/fingerprints etc.

have you installed any other OS on that hardware?

[rugger]

mdhome,

Also check the hard drive for defects.

Hard drive defects can cause linux processes to get locked in D mode (waiting for disk). So the X server would still be running (to update the mouse cursor), but the copy program would seize because the hard drive hit a bad sector and didn't recover.

I have seen this happen on SCSI drives at work, it is likely to also happen on IDE drives, if they don't report bad accesses correctly.

[Kosh Naranek]

Have you disabled BIOS PnP support ?
(Mandrake is cutting edge, but BIOS PnP is rather unstable)

If you had Mandrake Installed here is one fix ....

You could try booting off the DVD and select rescue and then recompile the kernel from there to NOT include PnP BIOS support ... ISA PnP is sufficient.

If Lilo is installed then try adding the nonpnpbios option to the boot line ( this goes for grub as well)

You could also try .....

http://www.mandrakeforum.org

and

http://www.tldp.org/ (The Linux Documentation Projet )

I'm kinda new to Mandrake and from what I can tell ... 8.2 is giving a lot of ppl a lot of problems while installing.

Primary OS is still XP.

[Six Of One]

I am not a Mandrake user, i am pure Debian. But i think i see the source of your problem. At least in Debian circles the SiS 735 chipset is giving some problems, which mainly concern the onboard components. Try switching off your onboard components like NIC, Sound and Modem and start again.
The reasoning is that the kernel is one-size-fits-all and therefore is probably heavily modularized and starts a modprobe at install to figure out which modules it needs. This will work most times but some modules, most notable the NIC module, have the habit to "hang" afterwards. This is caused by different revisions of the chipset, i have read.

Well, that's not much, agreed, but try it.

[mdhome]

I tried everything and nothing really seemed to make much difference however I have managed to get just a minimal install of Mandrake 8.2. I think that there must be a problem with the DVD because it hangs whilst copying some of the packages. Looks like I will have to request a new version from the magazine.

Regards MD

[leech]

While all the other responses were great, when you said that it froze during the package installation and copying I also figured that it was because the DVD was dirty, scratched or just bad. When 8.2 was in beta 2, I downloaded all three ISO's off a ftp mirror and all of them failed at the md5sums check, so you might want to check that to make sure it matches (assuming that you have the md5sum number.)

Leech