Every distro hangs on install

[nickj6282]

Hi, searched this site, Mandrake, and Google for answers and came up empty so far.

I'm trying to install a distro on my Windows box and everything I try to install hangs at some point very early in the install. Usually the CD's boot up and thats about it, the computer's frozen after that. I tried Slack, Mandrake 9.0-10, Lindows/Linspire, and anything else I could get my hands on. My Knoppix 3.4 CD boots and works just dandy, and I can install that to the HD no problem, but I'd prefer Mandrake if I can get it. Any suggestions?

MSI 865PE Neo-2 Platinum ed. (MSI-6728)
P4 2.4Ghz 800fsb w/ HT
512MB Atlas PC3200 DDR
WDC 160GB primary master (XP on 40 gig partition, rest empty unformatted)
WDC 60GB primary slave (whole thing NTFS)
NEC NR-7700A CD-RW

Thanks a bunch for any help y'all have!

[tmcG]

Hi nickj6282

I would say that maybe you could try passing some different options to the kernel on boot to eliminate possible problems with hardware setup/configuration.

I had the same problem of PC lock up (acutally the keyboard would not type) when I installed Slack on my laptop.
I used nousb and this fixed the problem.

In order to do this, when it asks which option you wish to boot, instead of just hitting the ENTER key, type the kernel name followed by the option

EG: linux nousb
linux nodma

Depending on your distro, the kernel name may not be linux (ie in Slack the default kernel is bare.i)

the nousb option diables any legacy USB boot devices and the nodma option disables direct memory addressing between IDE devices.

I hope this helps and I have made sense
Good luck!
Let us know how you go!:)

[pezplaya]

I used to have a problem with usb devices. If I had anything plugged into my usb ports the cd installer would always freeze.

[nickj6282]

Will I be able to re-enable these devices when I'm using the distro. Sorry for the remedial question but I'm a major newbie. I have a PS/2 mouse I can plug in for the install, but the one I use normally is a USB.

[nickj6282]

Ok, tried NOUSB and NODMA and no dice, same problem. Anything else you can think of?

[fatTrav]

Do you have a raid card? Installs would "hang" (i mean spend about 20 min trying to detect raid drives) while trying to detect raid drives and such.

[nickj6282]

the MB has built in RAID on the SATA (which aren't being used)

[fatTrav]

That is probably it. Take a look at the output from the kernel on the bootup and if it gets to the part where it is probing for disk drives and then pauses, it is searching for RAID stuff. Just give it like 20 minutes (seriously) to do it's thing and then it will continue and boot up just fine.

Then after you get a distro installed, first thing re-compile a kernel and remove all the RAID options. This will prevent the system from spending 20 min probing for devices that don't exist.

However, if you don't get to the part where it starts probing for hard disk devices...I can't help you and disregard everything I've said here. sorry.

hope this helps

travis

[nickj6282]

Ok, it gets past all the hardware probes, and goes to a screen with some text on the top to the effect "Mandrake 10" and on the bottom it has some options "Press Alt-F1 for here" etc. But the keyboard does nothing and the screen is blank otherwise and it just hangs here until I restart the computer.

[fatTrav]

I think that screen is when the Mandrake install program is trying to load. If it's between the kernel output and the nice GUI, that is what it is me thinks. I _think_ there is a verbose option there (an alt-Fsomething combo), check that and see what's going on.

What are your system specs?

[nickj6282]

There is a verbose option, but the keyboard does nothing when it gets stuck like this. The whole system seems to be frozen. I can't even open the CD drive, and it's LED goes out.

System specs are

MSI 865PE Neo-2 Platinum (MSI 6728)
P4 2.4Ghz 800fsb w/ HT
Atlas 512MB PC 3200 DDR
WDC 160GB Pri. Master
WDC 60GB Pri. Slave
NEC NR-7700A CDRW Sec. Master
Aopen Nvidia GeForce 2 MX 400 64MB AGP
ATI Radeon VE 64MB PCI
Realtek RTL8169 NIC (Built in to MB)
USB Optical Mouse

Thanks for all your help BTW

[tmcG]

This may be a long shot, but is it worth loading BIOS defaults??:confused:

This has fixed for me a number of strange things like this!

There is a verbose option, but the keyboard does nothing when it gets stuck like this. The whole system seems to be frozen. I can't even open the CD drive, and it's LED goes out.

This is a common thing with Mandrake. The CD drive will not open because a system process is locking it. If you have a USB keyboard, maybe try a PS2 keyboard if you can. It should not make a difference but you never know.

Let us know!:)

[fatTrav]

agreed. sometimes a usb keyboard throws a big monkey-wrench into an install. not sure why, but it does.

though, i will point out even on a fast system like yours, sometimes installs take awhile to initialize.

sometimes linux is just quirky.

[saikee]

Did happen to me when I used a USB mouse and a modern PS2 Keyboard with extra functions. The system didn't but communication was cut. That was all.

Swapped the keyboard to a older unit and a old PS2 mouse. All Linux systems installed.

Got XP living happily with FC2, Suse, Mandrake and Knoppix and bootable to any of them.

[nickj6282]

Well the Keyboard is just a plain 102 key PS/2, but do you think changing the mouse for a plain-jane ps/2 mouse will make a difference? I started up the installer and got to the point where it freezes the system, then I left it there like that all night hoping it would "hiccup" itself out of it, but when I woke up, nothing had changed.

[camelrider]

Does your BIOS allow you to disable SATA and RAID? If so, it might be worth a try. At least it could eliminate some possibilities.

[nickj6282]

Taa daaaaa! Unplugged my USB mouse and plugged in a PS/2 and it worked just dandy. Then after I got Mandrake installed, I plugged in the USB mouse and the whole system froze up. I went and found the USB to PS/2 adapter I had and now I've got the mouse I want working, but now this USB problem bothers me.

Thanks all for your help!
Any suggestions on why plugging in USB devices locks up my system?

[tmcG]

Great to hear you got there in the end!:)

I still think it could be something to do with your BIOS settings.
If there is an option to disable legacy USB support, I would disable it and see if that helps. (This just allows your PC to boot from USB devices like key ring drives and USB hard drives/CD ROMS, etc) so it won't effect your use of the mouse.

Let us know how it turns out!:)

EDIT: I also found this link on Google that may offer some insight to Mandrake and USB freeze

Google Link (http://groups.google.com/groups?q=usb+mouse+freeze+mandrake&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=af2s43%24snv%241%40venus.telepac.pt&rnum=4)

Do you have an Nforce video card?

[nickj6282]

Well legacy support is enabled for Keyboard and Mouse only. Would it still be prudent to disable legacy support altogether?

[nickj6282]

Got it! Went to MSI, got the BIOS update, reflashed and viola! Everything works like a charm! Thanks to all for all your help!

[tmcG]

Fantastic! I am glad it is finally solved! It is amazing what flashing the BIOS can do!

Enjoy Mandrake!:)