On Wednesday 23 July 2008 10:09:34 am Nigel Henry wrote: > On Tuesday 22 July 2008 21:52, elijah r. wrote: > > Debian Etch ISO images are available for download, completely free, > > via the internet, just like those Fedora ISO's you are downloading. > > > > I highly recommend you get the single Debian NetInstall ISO. Since > > you are using a Dial-Up connection, this will be the fastest way to > > install Debian. > > > > On a side note, what kinds of problems were you running into when > > installing other distros? > > > > I had problems installing most distros on a computer I built that was > > using a motherboard with a VIA C3 processor, which is missing the > > "CMOV" instruction that some 686 binaries are compiled with. > > > > Cheers, > > Elijah > > Hi Elijah. I think that I'll go ahead and download the 1st cd iso, and see > if it boots ok on this new machine with the Asus M2N-X Plus mobo. > > As your regards your question above. The first problem was that I had to > disable ACPI in the BIOS, as neither install disks or live cd's would boot > before doing that. > > Fedora 8 then installed ok, but post install wouldn't completely boot up, > and got stuck at starting service ip6tables, and rebooting into runlevel 1, > it got stuck at "cpu frequency scaling" (I think the messages said not > supported in kernel). Rebooted, doing an interactive startup, and said "No" > to a whole bunch of services starting, and then the bootup ran to > completion. > > Kubuntu 7.10 was more of a problem. It would bootup as far as starting KDM, > then it obviously was trying to startx, and present the KDM splash screen, > but all I got was a black screen, with a mouse pointer, but everything was > locked up, no mouse movement, no keyboard, the whole machine had just > stopped, and I had to do a hard reset. After some time, and trying various > incantations on the kernel line, I eventually removed the part which said > "force-vesa", and added "acpi=off". Enter, then it booted up, and tried to > startx a couple of times, then dropped me to the command line. Tried, just > for fun, startx, and it logged me straight in to KDE, with no problems. Now > Kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10, is live cd, but when booted up, has a desktop > icon to install to harddrive, and I was able to install it ok, but still > have to append the kernel line, with "acpi=off", otherwise when booting up > it locks everthing up when it gets as far as opening the KDM splash screen, > needs a hard reset. > > Kubuntu Breezy installed ok, and I have all the updates for upgrading to > Dapper on another harddrive. Having upgraded it, I tried booting with the > later 2.6.15-52-386 kernel (the Dapper one), and again it got stuck at > opening the KDM splashscreen. I rebooted it appending the kernel line to > boot into runlevel 3, as I wanted to check any messages, as to what the > problem might be. It didn't boot into runlevel 3, but strangely opened the > KDM splashscreen, and I was able to login ok. Adding 3 to the kernel line > in /boot/grub/menu.lst, it now boots up ok, but all a bit weird. > > All of this is why I need at least the 1st i386 cd for Etch, so that I can > see any similar problems on this new machine, when trying to install Etch. > > I don't know if the netinstall cd would do. Does it use the same installer, > as on the 1st i386 cd for Etch? > > Thanks folks, for all the suggestions, and many apologies for anything I > said yesterday. > > Nigel.
At least in English (US) we have a saying, "Been there, done that!". I have been (in the distant past) very upset at "Linux". In reality, it was closed source firmware/drivers and cut rate manufactures who built a machine to windows specs *only* that was making me frustrated. I think the netinstall does use the same installer, so it will work or not. I would only install the base and only the base system. When the "Software selection" ncurses screen comes up deslect all but the "system" (I think that is the right name for it, no Desktop, no *server, you may want to select "Laptop". Then modify your sources list to point to testing, update, then aptitude safe-upgrade, if all goes well, then aptitude full-upgrade. THEN and ONLY THEN would I run "tasksel" and pick "Desktop environment". Here is my rational: you are running what would appear to be very new hardware (are very badly designed older hardware, same effect) and Testing will have newer drivers (in the kernel) better able to handle it. If the installer will not even work for you (a possibility) then if you want Debian, you will need an installer that will install testing or sid (Sidux will install Sid). You can find these by googleing for debian installer. There are many different third party installers that will install testing or sid or have different kernels for difficult machines. Sidux is the only one I am currently familiar with. You might want to cut to the chase and download that. http://sidux.com/ Sidux IS Debian Sid with a few custom scripts that try to prevent you from installing "buggy" software that will turn your install into a brick. One warning, I made a separate home at install and it did not take. My /home was in my 4G / partition and I ran out of room on the system when transferring all my "must have" data back into /home. This required me to test my emergency recovery skills in a single user log on. I hope this helps. -- Damon L. Chesser [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linkedin.com/in/dchesser
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