bikeman

not sure that really needs a reply does it? Anyway, it would seem that even the 'experts' here are struggling to get me up and running with Mandriva so thank's for all the help but I've given up with mandriva. I've moved to Ubuntu which apart from a screen resolution issue did install without a problem. Like I said in an earlier post you will need to make it somewhat easier if you want us newbs to use it. bye

just tried the live install again. It asks me which partitions to install to. It then spends 10 minutes copying files. It then starts the live cd. Mandriva is not installed.

[root@localhost ~]# df Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on none 907M 674M 234M 75% / /dev/hda5 1.2G 60M 1.1G 6% /mnt /dev/hda7 1.2G 60M 1.1G 6% /mnt [root@localhost ~]# mounted hda7 instead. that only has the folders guest & Les i don't think madriva actually installed anything

remember I an running the live cd - surely anything outside of /mnt is on the cd? in /mnt I have home lost+found usr in /proc there are loads of folders - but isn't this on the cd anyway? likewise /boot/grub which has menu.lst

did i mention i am a newb? i am running the live cd as we converse so i have no idea how to check what you suggest. you have to tell me exactly how to do what you suggest

tried the distro chooser - it suggested mandriva or ubuntu. what would you like to know about my hardware: I have a HP vectra vl PIII-550Mhz with 512Mb ram and 10GbHD. It was previously working as dual boot with win98 and Mandrake 9.2. I only tried to update to mandriva one because the app I wanted to use didn't work on mandrake 9.2 fyi I couldn't install ubuntu because the screen resolution couldn't be changed from 640x480 - so I couldn't see the next button. So an entirely different issue but still unsolvable at the ubuntu forum.

I am following your advise step by step - I am posting everything here so you can see. this [root@localhost ~]# uname -a Linux localhost 2.6.12-19mdk-i586-up-1GB #1 Mon Apr 10 13:28:48 EDT 2006 i686 Pentium III (Katmai) unknown GNU/Linux [root@localhost ~]# the download was from the mandriva site so it should be ok. the md5sum matched I dont really care what distro I use... one that installs would be nice. I have already tried ubuntu.. that didn't install properly either! no, but it did install - so I had a chance to learn how to use it...

arctic r u there? why the problem getting this to work? are claims that linux is ready for mass adoption somewhat premature? i think it is going to take a lot more than a windows gui to get linux adopted by the mainstream. perhaps it is time for me to try another distro or go back to windows?

not sure what you meant so i just carried on and as you can see it didn't work.. is this what you meant to do? [root@localhost ~]# mount /dev/hda5 /mnt [root@localhost ~]# chroot /mnt chroot: cannot run command `/bin/bash': No such file or directory [root@localhost ~]# chroot/mnt bash: chroot/mnt: No such file or directory [root@localhost ~]# mount -t proc none /mnt/proc mount: mount point /mnt/proc does not exist [root@localhost ~]#

ok, i mount'd hda5 then stumbled at the next step.. [root@localhost ~]# mount /dev/hda5 /mnt [root@localhost ~]# chroot /mnt chroot: cannot run command `/bin/bash': No such file or directory [root@localhost ~]# chroot/mnt bash: chroot/mnt: No such file or directory [root@localhost ~]# tried both with and without a space....

The version I have is the official download as obtained yesterday. I logged in as root (not sure what you meant by root/superuser/administrator) and did as suggested as you can see below I ended up with a 'cant find' when trying to mount hda5... [root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l Disk /dev/hda: 8622 MB, 8622931968 bytes 240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1113 cylinders Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 677 5118088+ b W95 FAT32 /dev/hda2 678 1113 3296160 5 Extended /dev/hda5 678 909 1753888+ 83 Linux /dev/hda6 910 956 355288+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/hda7 957 1113 1186888+ 83 Linux [root@localhost ~]# mount /dev/hda5/mnt mount: can't find /dev/hda5/mnt in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab [root@localhost ~]#

is it 2007 already? i tried to install the latest version of mandriva one - downloaded yesterday. i have 3 partitions 1=windows 98 2=mandrake linux 3=user linux i answered the questions to install on part 2 it never asked me anything at all about lilo, grub, dual boot etc it just went right ahead and installed - i thought from the lack of questions it had seen my current setup and assumed correctly that i wanted dual boot. my comment 'please make it work' really implies how can mandriva one have such a poor install routine? i believe my setup is very typical of a windows user who wants to try a dual boot. I am just surprised that the install failed so badly. how do i sort out the bootloader?

Booted up mandrake one cd. Tried the live install. Selected a non-windows partition for the install. After install finsished my pc would no longer boot because Mandrake one had wiped out my lilo and deleted my Windows 98 MBR. Managed to get windows back by restoring the MBR. Still lunux-less... Not very newb friendly is it? Why is it so difficult to create a linux distro which actually installs as a dual boot correctly? Please make it work, or you'll never get us newbs to switch from windowz...