Help installing linux mandrake.

[imphasing]

First off, sorry about the last post...I should have read the posting guidlines first. Silly me.


Okay, I have an IBM 365X (The one with the CD-rom) And I want to install linux mandrake, 9.2. I downloaded the first ISO file, and used un-disker to extract the files to another CD. I somehow managed to make a boot floppy, on the computer that I am installing on. The computer I am on now has no floppy drive, and the computer I am installing on has no operating system. (Welcome to my world...) I can't open the autorun file on the CD, because the windows 98 startup disk does not support fat32. I tried downloading freedos, and it doesn't support fat32 either. Does anyone have any idea what I can do? I have a floppy and a cdrom on the computer that I am installing from. On this computer, I have a CD burner, and no floppy. I can't burn a standard installation disk that my boot disk will regognize, becuase I have some cd-burner program that is called "Drag 'n drop CD" and it won't make a proper installation disk. Just the big ISO file. When I use undisker to extract the files to another CD, the boot disk says that it's not a installation disk. Help? am I screwed? Is there anything I can do?

Thanks!
Alex

[mdwatts]

First of all, have you burned the iso correctly? Can you see a filesystem (files/directories) on the cd or just the single iso file?

Can the pc you are installing on boot from cd? Check the bios to see if you can change the boot order.

[JayMan8081]

From the sounds of it your CD burning program isn't letting you make the ISO image bootable when you burn it. If you can't burn the ISO as an image and you have to individually extract the files then burn them that is your problem. What version of Windows are trying to burn CDs from? There is a free CD burning program that is pretty good for CDs.

Deep Burner (http://www.deepburner.com)

[imphasing]

I'm using XP on my burning computer. Just extracting the files onto the CD won't make it bootable? You think that is my problem? I have another problem to...I actually got it to start installing from the hardrive, but it gave me an error about half way through. "There was an error installing one of the packages" or something like that. I think it may be due to the partition size, which was 2.9 gigs that it was installing on. Is that to small? Maybe I have a corrupt ISO file.

Thanks!
Alex

[JayMan8081]

Yeah I think that the CD not being bootable is probably your problem. Also too you should have three CDs when you go to install Mandrake. The partition might be big enough but you will have to do a small install, like only installing KDE or Gnome and not both. When you are selecting the packages to install it should tell you how big the install will be before it actually starts copying any files.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by imphasing
I'm using XP on my burning computer. Just extracting the files onto the CD won't make it bootable? You think that is my problem?

See if http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/howtoburn.html helps with burning the iso image correctly.

[imphasing]

Okay, I finnaly got it to install. Happy day. :D BUT...when I start it up, I get that blue screen that asks what you want to load, and I choose linux. After that, it goes into this long text loading proscess, and at the end, it asks for my login, and I enter it, and then it gives me this little prompt that says "[alex@localhost alex]$ " (alex is my user name) and I didn't know what to do, until I did a little search, and this site said to enter "startx" into the prompt. So I did, and it sat with a black screen, loading something for a little while, then it gave me two thin orange lines on the screen. And then it stopped. I don't really know what to do...how do I load a GUI? I decided to go with gnome, because it's smaller...any suggestions?

Thanks!
Alex

[mdwatts]

Did you select to boot into graphic or text mode during the initial distro installation? Also did you configure X and is your video card supported?

Have a look through your X logfile for any errors. At the commandline, enter

grep EE /var/log/XFree86.0.log

Check to see the default runlevel. '3' should be text mode while '5' is graphical.

grep default /etc/inittab

Mine is

id:5:initdefault:

as I boot to graphical mode.

[imphasing]

Well, I don't know if my graphics car is supported...I don't even know what kind it is. I'm pretty sure that my screen is 1024x784, or whatever that one is...can't remember. But anyway, I really don't know...I've been trying different ones, but they don't have any for IBM...this is very confusing...

Thanks!
Alex

[mdwatts]

I would assume Mandrake 9.2 uses X 4.3. Here is a link to the IBM video cards.

http://www.xfree86.org/4.3.0/Status14.html#14

It would seem that one model is not supported and you may need to use the vesa driver instead.

Does

lspci

at the commandline show what video card you have?

Any results from those commands I posted above?

[imphasing]

Well, those commnads didn't do anthing...just said that the file couldn't be found. I think it's possible that it's to big of a distro...to modern for my computer to handle maybe? At the moment, I;m downloading peanut linix, and damn small linux. I'll try those out. I finnished downloading the damn small linux, but it gave me four files...not just the iso file. Weird. Anyway, thanks for all the help you guys have given me...

Alex

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by imphasing
Well, those commnads didn't do anthing...just said that the file couldn't be found.

You need to have root access to run that command since it is not in the users PATH variable (echo $PATH to check) or else use the full path

/sbin/lspci

[imphasing]

Happy, happy day! I figured I shouldn't be giving up on mandrake so quickly, and I fiddled around with it some more, and I got it to work! I'm using some other desktop other than KDE or gnome, but it works! It's on 1024x748 also! Not bad color either...anyway, I just wanted to let you guys know, and thank you for all the help you gave me!
Thanks!
Alex

[thaddaeus]

just a fun little tip, mandrake comes with an easy configuration/administering program called wbmin http://www.webmin.com located on http://localhost:10000 if you need to install any programs or configure letsay webhosting(apache) it makes it very simple, also easy user admin. it is accesable via a browser, infact you can use it to give yourself acces to your machine from lets say china, but i defanantly recomend it for installing programs, use the install packages program and use rpmfind and it will find almost every rpm (programs) for mandrake.
now my question...where did you find the iso for mandrake 9.2...i can'tfind it anywhere but the mandrake site and they want me to pay them some dough,

[imphasing]

This is all really confusing...what do I do if I want to open a life from the cdrom? There nothing like windows explorer...maybe it's becuase I only installed the desktop to cut down on the install time...oh, and I got it from:

http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=29

Alex

[cougarboy]

To mount a cd-rom from gnome, do the following:

1)Click on gnome symbol on taskbar
2) Click on Programs, Settings, Peripherals, CD Properties.
3) Check data cd and audio cd
4) Check all the boxes
5) Command line in box should read: gtcd --play --device %d

This way no matter what cd you put in the drive, it will automatically mount the drive, and bring up Nautilius (linux version of Windows Explorer).

I'm still new at this as well; have Red Hat 7.2 Enigma. I installed it using the text command; man was it ever quick.

Hope this help you, or at least guides you in the right direction.

[proKrastinate]

i am also having problems installing mandrake for some of the same reasons. When I open the zip file that my Mandrake came in, all I see is the files and folders themselves. My Mandrake is 9.2 and I got it >here< (http://www.thetechguide.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9877) . There isn't an iso image to burn and thus i guess it isn't bootable. However, in nero it gives me the option to burn a "bootable" cd. Will this require me to have an iso or can i use the files in the zip file?

will i be able to start the installation for a boot disk even?

is mandrake 9.2 available for everyone now that they have 10.0?

update

ok, i insert the cd into my drive while in windows, and mandrake comes up offering to do an install...something i didnt expect :). Anywho, I have a second drive (hdd1) that I wan't to install linux to and I want to keep my win2k installation. will mandrake, when it reboots, let me choose where i want to install?

[catman]

Originally posted by proKrastinate
update

ok, i insert the cd into my drive while in windows, and mandrake comes up offering to do an install...something i didnt expect :). Anywho, I have a second drive (hdd1) that I wan't to install linux to and I want to keep my win2k installation. will mandrake, when it reboots, let me choose where i want to install?

Set your hard drives up properly in the bios, so that you can boot from the cdrom. Put the first Mandrake cd in and boot from that.
Make sure that you then get Linux installed on the correct hard drive; otherwise you might install it over your windows installation.

The safest way is to disconnect your primary drive, from the ide cable and power, boot from the Linux cd, install Linux, once installed and running properly, reconnect the other drive, and use your bios to select which drive you want to boot from at boot-up time.

That’s my 2 cents worth one the matter, I trust that it will be of some help to you.

I am running a dual boot system at the moment, off two separate drives, and I use the bios to select which system I am going to boot from.

Everything depends on how hardware and pc literate you are! :D

Make sure that the pc is off, before messing with the ide cables and power connections to the hard drives!

[XiaoKJ]

If you have no time to look at the iso burning article, I can just tell you that you must burn ISOs as ISOs themselves are supposed to be burned -- as a full fledged CD. You are not to extract them and burn them as files, but dragging and dropping. ISOs are to be burned by sophisticated burners that will protect the bootable image and all the preset binary sequences, or else things will be much different.

Also, mandrake older CD ISOs are available on the web for downloading. Although Mandrake's official website demands money before anything else, web servers worldwide will receive them in 2 months(read the terms of the site carefully). This means that you can get the ISOs when they are stable, tested, and on unofficial servers. This is their policy.

Lastly, Mandrake's graphical installer features a non-destructive partitioner that allows safe partitioning of windows's drives.

As a last note, new migrators should not keep expecting dragging and dropping, or else you will never climb the learning curve. Mandrake should just be a transition distro for newly converted users. Try not to use dragging and dropping, and seek to understand and RTFM!!!

[proKrastinate]

i figured out why my system wouldn't boot the disc. Xiao you hit it on with me extracting the iso. My system has winrar automatically associating itself (i was unware of this until now) with iso's. Sure enough when I went to go burn an image i was able to burn the (what i thought was a winrar file) iso.

so let me get started again before i got to work, and just as a precaution i think i will disconnect my windows drive.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by proKrastinate

so let me get started again before i got to work, and just as a precaution i think i will disconnect my windows drive.

Just make sure you do a expert/custom install so you have complete control over the entire installation process including what hd's to use, partitions, filesystem types, formatting and where to install the bootloader.

Your distro should have installation documentation on their website that will certainly help.

[XiaoKJ]

Ohh! DO NOT REMOVE YOUR WINDOWS DRIVE!

Why? Install the system with windows on it so that windows will be detected on the system and settings will be set for it. You will not want to set all those settings yourself when they can be done perfectly and automatically for you, or else you can easily fumble.

Also, each connection and disconnection of drives will cause the hd* numbering to be reset. You wouldnt want to face these problems.

[catman]

Originally posted by XiaoKJ
Ohh! DO NOT REMOVE YOUR WINDOWS DRIVE!

Why? Install the system with windows on it so that windows will be detected on the system and settings will be set for it. You will not want to set all those settings yourself when they can be done perfectly and automatically for you, or else you can easily fumble.

Also, each connection and disconnection of drives will cause the hd* numbering to be reset. You wouldnt want to face these problems.

Your advice and that of Mdwatts is sound advice, I was just trying to prevent a loss of data on the windows drive.

Should he/she follow the advice given by you folks + read all the correct docs, he/she should not have any problems.

Thank you kind folks for sound advice that you gave the new convert. :)

And may there be many more new converts:D