mandrake 10 or 9.2 won't install

[gatemaster]

I have XP on my C drive and am trying to install either mandrake 10 or 9.2 on a seperate drive. the disk will not auto load while in xp, says can't find config file. when I click the ok button it brings up a splash screen with different labels. If I click on label 1 it asks if I would like to reboot, but computer just restarts back to xp. if I try to do a boot from the mandrake CD it does nothing and just then loads to xp. I need to maintain my xp setup for a while at least, so I would like to dualboot I have tried several different distros with no success other than extreme headaches. I am about to give up on linux I think that if the open source community would like to get more converts, they would make thier install and dualboot more user friendly. If my experience so far with linux is any indication of what I am heading to then I will have to accept windows with its issues since they are much less of a headache than linux.

I did mange to install linspire but had too much trouble with lilo and fedora went in but it had trouble with identifing hardrives and was very difficult to get to boot into, I always had to do a partial reinstall to get it to load. I then went for Mandrake because I was told that it was the most user friedly for noob's to linux but am having even more grief with it. I don't want to have to reload XP every time a linux install srews up, and screws up my XP with it. I am still interested in linux

[arctic]

Hi, gatemaster.

I think that your problem can be solved, as there are enough experts concerning dual boot in this forum, but first of all a simple question:

 

if I try to do a boot from the mandrake CD it does nothing and just then loads to xp.

 

did you activate "boot from cd" in your bios? I know, it is a stupid question, but have seen many friends who just forgot to activate cd-boot and also complained that they don't manage an installation and get back to xp/2000/98 all the time.

Edited July 4, 2004 by arctic

[gatemaster]

I have boot from cd as a reg. setting since I rarely use floppies. I have read in this and another forum till the words are getting blurry.

[JClosed]

Well - if booting from your cd does not work, it is better to make a Linux bootfloppy. On CD1 of the Mandrake installation cd-set, there is a directory called "dosutils". In this directory is a little program called rawrite. There is also a directory called "images" in this diretory there is a floppy-image called cdrom.img. With the rawrite program you can put the image on a blank floppy. The most easy manner is to use the rawwrite (notice the extra "w") program under windows. Just doubleclick and have a blank floppy ready. When the program starts up you have to give a image file. Just push the button on the left and choose /images/cdrom.img, after that choose write and your boot-floppy will be made.

 

Dont forget to set the floppy as first boot device in your BIOS and boot your computer. The installation will go fine, starting from a floppy.

 

Now for the dual boot problem. When you try to make partitions from the Mandrake partition manager during install, in some cases it will go wrong if you have XP installled allready. The best solution is to use a parition manager like Partition Magic to create the swap and ext3 partitions on the forehand. During the Mandrake install choose to use the "manual" instal and just give a mount point on the ext3 partition (thus using the existing partitions you made before) and say ok. In this case there is no partitioning and no damaging your partition table. Note: In fact Mandrake is not damaging your partition table - it's XP that is using an non-standard table to start up. If Mandrake is writing an table that is a standard norm, XP get a hickup and refuses to boot. XP needs an non-standard table, so in most cases whn using a Linux distribution it will be bad for XP.

 

If for some reason you want to stop using Mandrake, you only have to do two simple things - removing LiLo and reclaiming the Linux partitions.

 

If you want to remove LiLo from a drive (if you used the above setup), just insert a DOS or Windows98 startup floppy disk, reboot your computer and wait until you see the prompt. Type in FDISK /MBR , remove the floppy an reboot your computer. It will start up in XP as it did before the installation.

To reclaim the Linux partitions you can use the same partition manager as you used before.

Edited July 4, 2004 by JClosed

[gatemaster]

Thanks Jclosed I will try that. I am leaving for fireworks with the family so it will be later when I get to it. One more question can you give me a simple procedure for adding the mandrake boot files to the XP bootloader for ease of use. I see a lot of problems on linux sites using grub and lilo with xp duelboot setups. Or would it be better to not install any linux bootloader and just boot from a floppy when I want to load linux? If the later is the best solution how would I make a floppy to boot(not install) from? Thanks

[JClosed]

During install in one of the last screens you get a oversight of all the installed hardware (like mouse, keyboard, network etc.). In this screen you van choose to set up your boot-loader. Just click on thet button an choose as install medium not the default (most-times hda1), but fd0. In that case Lilo is placed on a floppy and not on the MBR of your hard disk.

 

Most times the boot loader is allready installed on your harddisk and you are left with two identical boot-loaders (one on the floppy and one on your HD). You can - in that case - just remove the boot-loader from your harddisk in the same manner as i described in my posting above. I strongly reccomend to use the method (making partitions with Partin Magic etc.) as described in the same posting.

 

N.B. Forgive my not-so-great engish. My native language is dutch, so mistakes are easy to make.

Edited July 4, 2004 by JClosed

[AussieJohn]

I think your problem solution is as simple as going into your BIOS and changing the boot up sequence to Floppy and THEN CDROM and then hdd. The usual default sequence has the hdd and cdrom reversed so naturally when the boot sequence starts it checks for a floppy disc and if it finds none it then goes to the next in the sequence and naturally it finds a bootable os , namely your XP, so it boots into it. so of course it does not look for a cdrom. When you put cdrom in 2nd position then the hdd will not be activated on unless nothing is found in the cdrom. If the cdrom boot image is detected then it will be acted on and the sequence will not even look to the hdd.

 

The new sequence recommended can be permanently left this way since it is far more sensible and practical.

 

Cheers. John.

[gatemaster]

Aussijohn, your sequence makes sense, but I normally have no problem booting from cd with it set as first boot device.

 

Jclosed, I made the boot floppy as instructed. I see that those files are not on the cd except in a folder, maybe that is why they were not being seen. when I make the partions do you suggest a size for each or will partition magic do that? I will be installing mandrake community 10 to a 13.5 hardrive exclusive for linux. I also have 9.2 if that is more stable or preffered for any reason. Your english is fine by the way.

[JClosed]

Those files are indeed in a folder. That's normal and no mistake. By the way - my impression was you can't boot from ány Mandrake version. If this assumption is wrong, i have a little question now: can you boot from the installation cdrom of Mandrake 9.2? If so - you encountered the Mandrake 10 community boot problem. If this is the case there is a workaround to get Mandrake 10 setup booting.

 

As far as i know there is a problem with the first CD of the Mandrake 10 community set. To solve this problem you have to boot from CD2 and then - when the installation asks what medium to use - swap CD2 with CD1 and choose Cdrom.

 

This problem is solved (as far as my computer concerns) with the Mandrake 10 official version.

 

Now for your partitions. More experienced users use more partitions to store a selection of folders. But for now you better keep it simple. Linux only uses two partitions in the most basic form. The first partition you have to create is the swap partition. It's rather small in size. I use 512Mb for that but 128Mb also will do fine. I use Partition Magic (version 8) to do this (i will call this program PM from now on). The second partition is where the actual installation will reside. You can make it as big as you like. If you plan to store lots of data (like big games as Ureal Tournament 2003 or so) just make it big. The best partition type here is Ext3. This type of partition is much better to repair if you by accident shut down your computer without bringing it down. Both partitions are supported by PM. My preference is to make both partitions as primary, but that's not absolutely required. If you plan to use a dual boot system (XP/NT and Linux) you can also make a little FAT32 partition as a medium between the two operating systems to exchange files. Linux can read from NTFS but writing to it, is not recommended. So using a FAT32 inbetween is a safe bet.

 

Well - that's it!

 

Happy installing!!! ;)

Edited July 5, 2004 by JClosed

[gatemaster]

I can't boot from either 10 or 9.2. I can boot from fedora core2 but it has other problems. I can also boot from linspire but it also had problems with lilo.

I have PM 8 and it gave the option of formating and partitioning the 13.5 drive to ext 2 and ext 3. I have another 60gb drive I use for storage and it has a 5gb partition I could format to fat32 as a go between.

[JClosed]

You created a Ext2 ánd a Ext3? Is there some reason for that? No offence on my part, but i'm just curious.

 

In my opinon you better stick with only a swap and a Ext3 partition. Ext3 is a more advanced version of Ext2 and has better recovery feautures. Notice - a swap partition is nót the same as an Ext2 partition.

 

Now for the booting problem. I have noticed that on older machines (i have a P1 - 233MHz running with Mandrake 9.2), you have to use a boot floppy with Mandrake 10 and Fedora. I have no idea wat is wrong, but it must be something to do with hardware that's not working as expected by those distro's. I also won't delve deeper in it, because the floppy solution works well. Maybe in the near future - when i have some more time available - i will take a closer look at this problem.

 

For now - it would be nice to hear if the installation has succeeded.

[gatemaster]

I did not create any partition yet. My machine is latest technology I build them myself and upgrade constantly so old is not a problem. the floppy boot fix is fine no need to delve futher. I have not been able to get to the actual install yet. I have been doing several things at once. I will create a swap and ext3 and will let you know how it goes. I do appreciate all of your help.

[gatemaster]

I did everything as instructed. install went fine, but cd won't autoload in linux so I couldn't instll staroffice. I tested the install cd's which checked out fine. I installed the bootloader on a floppy only. But it totally screwed up my XP setup. I tried using a 98 bootdisk and typed fdisk/mbr but no luck. XP wouldn't load, instead I got disk error cant' read. I removed linux cuase I had to use that harddrive to load xp so I could access some files on my original xp drive. I then had to do a complete re-install of XP and all of my programs. I didn't see any compelling reason to switch to linux. more problems than I ever had with windows. Maybe when I pickup an older machine which is independent of my XP machine I will start over with linux.

I do appreciate all of your help and patience.

[AussieJohn]

Gatemaster

The reason the fdisk/mbr did not work is because you did not put a space after fdisk.

 

 

 

It should be fdisk /mbr . Remember that is microsofts instructions not Linuxs.

 

You did not have to do a reinstall of XP at all. If you had cleared the MBR correctly you would have been able to go straight into XP as normal. You cannot blame Linux for that.

 

Another point. I bet you did not defrag XP immediately before trying to install Linux. XP makes it a practice of making sure that stuff is placed near the end of the drive as a DELIBERATE deterrent to any other system being installed on the hard drive. That is why most sensible people use a facility such as Partition Magic to repartition hard drives but you still need to defrag first.

 

I find it strange that you have to use a floppy to boot up first so you can install from the cdroms.

I HAVE NEVER HAD TO DO THIS ON ANY MACHINE I have been involved in. I am inclined to think there is something wrong with your CDROM reader regardless of whether it works in Windows. And this is the first area I would check out. I use a Pioneer DVD-CD reader and it is exremely effective and reliable. The same cannot be said for a lot of other cheaper brands.

 

Sounds like you have a good machine. It's worth having the BEST OS on it so perservere with it. Once you start using Linux (especially Mandrake 10 OE) you will wonder what you ever saw in XP to use it in the first place.

 

Cheers. John.

[gatemaster]

Thanks for your in put Aussiejohn, I did not notice the space, so that explains why it didn't do anything at all. When I installed it said that some partitions were not aligned properly. I used partition magic 8.2 and followed the instructions exactly as Jclosed gave them. It always causes an error on my storage drive which does not have an OS on it. I don't know why mandrake won't boot from the CD, fedora and linspire did. I use a Liteon 52-24-52 cdrw drive. I will try burning the install cd again with a different program. At this point I am only curious about linux and would like to check it out. I don't have any real complaints with XP and I get all my software for free. If I could afford to buy them I would, so I am not taking sales from companies that deserve to get paid for thier investment in producing them. I will give it a go again sometime soon.

Cheers to you