Mandrake 9.0

[qajfat]

Hi, I thought I'd give Linux a try, and I've been reading that Mandrake is easy to install and setup. So I downloaded Mankrade 9.0, checked the MD5 checksums, and burned the cd. I booted with it on a PC with newly formatted hdd and I chose the option to install. It copied the files to memory, and then the screen went black and it said "in second stage install Please wait while probing serial ports" That's it - it just sat there doing nothing. Is my Cd no good? Can anybody who is a Linux user/expert help me out with this. I really wish I could give it a try and not keep relying on Windows. Please help. Thanks a lot.
PS My system is an AMD K6-2 500MHz with 128 PC100 ram, and 3.1 GB HDD. Is that enough?

[jetblackz]

Boot CD1
Enter mem=nopentium at the boot prompt

Certain distros won't boot on AMD CPU.

[Mech13]

"Certain distros won't boot on AMD CPU."

Is there anyway of knowing if it is going to work before you try? I am getting ready to try Mandrake as well and I trying to be prepared for any challenges. :cool:

[mister_math]

qajfat, your system is certainly more than enough to run Linux. However, make sure you don't install more than you need, as a 3.1 GB hard drive may be a bit tight for some of the larger distros if you install everything. As far as the hang goes, I've seen that problem before, but I don't remember the solution offhand. Keep digging! The answer is out there.

jetblackz, I've installed Mandrake 9.0 on two systems, one with an AMD 1400 Mhz and one with an AMD XP 1800+, and had absolutely no problems as far as the install is concerned. It's more likely a problem with the computer or the CD and not with the distro per se.

Mech13, I know Knoppix will run off of a CD, without installing anything to your hard drive unless you want it to. You could try that. Go here:
http://www.knoppix.org
or here:
http://www.distrowatch.com
for more information.
My personal advice (if you have a little money) is to go buy a second hard drive, swap it out with the one in your computer now, and see if you can install and run Linux. If you can't, just swap drives back, and no harm done! And now you have an additional 20 or 40 GB of storage space!

[dkeav]

how long did you wait?

i installed 8.2 on a p1 system and it set there for about an hour and a half you have a slightly slow system for mdk9 not linux but some distros are getting bigger and bigger and catered to the faster machines these days

i would try again and be patient go eat, watchtv, take a nap whatever give it some time and see if it will finish