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Disappointing MDK10.1 install [Unsolved]


yr2alex
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Ok, I see.

 

But my point was: only one burnt cd suffices to determine if there's something wrong with the burning setup - if the burnt cd has the same md5sum as the iso and this corresponds to the officially published md5sum, then you know

 

 

Adamw, Gowator: this is the reason I do a clean install starting with RC1 for each Mandrake release, and I can only say I have had no major issues since 8.something.

So it's a matter of not enough people testing this and giving feedback about things.

I think this may be a reason why Debian has had a very minimal installer for a long time: those who got through it, never needed it again: they just apt-get update their whole system...

 

BTW Mandrake is not the only one with this "limited resources for testing on the complete spectrum of hardware out there" - SUSE and Ubuntu for instance have similar problems, and likely any other linux distro.

No distibution maker has enough resources to test on all possible configurations/hardware - which is why it's so important to get momentum for the big distributions...

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gowator: it's tested on all the hardware Mandrake has access to, but because they're not very rich, they only have a limited range of test hardware in the tens, rather than hundreds or thousands, of systems. Another part of the problem is it's not tested as much as the rest of the system by the public beta testers (i.e. Cooker users), because we all tend to just keep our systems updated with rolling updates and don't do installs very often. I *try* and do at least one install every release cycle, but don't always manage it :(. My install of 10.1CE went perfectly, though, which was good for me but bad for bug squishing - heh.

 

I stopped bug testing in 9.0 since they don't actually listen! After bug testing 9.0 I actually bought the powerpack and the Cd's were fsck'd... Mandrake's response join the mandrake club and pay for mandrake expert.

 

But that isn't the point....

90% of the install problems are deliberately put there by Mandrake, I suppose to make people join the club! Either that or they are very very stupid! Given the distro is so great once installed (with exceptions) I think it must be the former.

 

Ive lost track of the number of people with the same problems ... luckily most are solvable by using noacpi or nolacpi etc. so why don't mandrake make a install kernel with them switched off?

 

Because they don't care about their customers!!! Show me the customer care email!! They don't have one! they just have email here to say how cool mandrake is ... but we won't answer!

 

Find the email ?

 

They can't make their mind up to charge or not... I have all the powerpacks from 7.0 through 9.0 but I will NEVER pay for another until Mandrake change my faulty disks. I will also tell people how shabby they are as a company because they are!

 

They have also ripped off numerous customers forgetting to deliver and charging $6000 by accident then blaming their bank... (like it matters... they should have given the money back and allocated blame later, we had people here with mortgages being threatened and all mdk could say was were looking into it... ..

 

Great distro ..crap company.

 

As far as I am concerned they still owe me MDK 9.0 powerpack working disks... when they finally start acting like a company and acknowledge this I will start treating them like one!

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I have had all my 10.0 bugs fixed in the meantime.

 

noacpi nolacpi ==> noapic nolapic (and in case you were aiming at this one: acpi=off)

 

It's not like they don't care about their customers, it's that they likely consider you a lost customer. Should they send you working discs for 9.0?

Would you?

 

About the bank thing: it was a bank error, and the bank should fix it. Next thing you're going to put the blame of the LG dead drive on Mdk too. Please get real.

 

On a side note: please open your own ranting topic in the respective subforum, not in someone elses call for help.

 

Oh yeah, Happy Holidays! :P

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest thisbungle

I have had exactly the same problem with one of my machines. I am installing in VMWare. The md5sum's are correct using both methods described here. When I install I get the error message:

 

There was an error installing packages: x

 

Which just repeats over and over if I click OK.

 

The SAME media works on another machine. It may be a hardware problem. Any ideas how to diagnose?

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  • 2 weeks later...

This seems to be the thread that turns up on Google when one searches for this problem.

 

Anyway - I had the same problem. VMWARE GSX Server - with both the downloadable CD ISO and the downloadable DVD ISO.

 

I suspect that Mandrake 10.1 can not be installed on VMWARE in any of its guises (be it GSX or Workstation)

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I've had this same problem, on even earlier versions of the Mandrake, REdHat, Fedora, TurboLinux, and the Windows Oses too.

 

Some of the issues, and things mentioned below have still not been done, but am repeating.

 

It's been mentioned on numerous times above, to actually validate the MD5 checksum on the actual Burnt CD's, and not just the Downloaded ISO.

 

So if your file is on your hard drive and you md5'd it and it was okay then that was step 1. Then you burn it to CD. Then you MD5 it on the actaul CD. So if (we'll use DOS for this) your CD-ROM drive is E: then put the burnt CD into that drive and then MD5 E:\ and make sure it matches also. If not you got burn problems.

 

If all is well then, you can still have issues, and they could be intermitent issues.

 

First one can be a intermittent/or permanent bad CD drive (been mentioned somewhere in the postings above that it has worked on another machine - and if not on another machine maybe that machine may have a problem below also). The CD may read correctly when doing MD5 check, but when installing a read error could be generated when installing. Whether due a faulty buffer memory in the CD's memory that is not being used at time of install done differnetly by doing a MD5 check. Or to a peice of hair/dust/dirt/etc. upon the sequencing of the way the head moves during install as opposed to a linear movement on an MD5 check that causes the faulty read(s). And a whole slew of other issues.

 

Easiest thing to do (not so easy for notebooks unless you got a portable CD to try) is put in a new CD drive. Also just blowing inside the drive door cold help (do not use too poerful of compressed air if you do use it), and make sure not to spit. ;)

 

Next one, your CD has issues following the strict guidelines to CD Standards. Meaning that it is one of the many drives that either do not fully support or had actually issues handling the total size standards on reading the full 700MB size standards. Go to a hardware testing/review Website. Anandtech is one I know offhand that does fairly good analysis and may have older listied drives still listed. Easiest fix for that is once again, try another CD drive.

 

The CD error can also be attributed to the drive controller or MB (whether intermittent or permanent) that has finally creeped up also. Then you got a differnet issue. And yes it could be a specific way the data is accessed that hits the controllers faulty area (or it could b a compatibility or bug issue that causes it to retrieve data incorrectly). This issue is not a quick fix as it could rquire a new MB. And also remeber the drive controller also controls Hard drive and floppy/etc. so then the issues also ends up showing up there , so even a Hard Drive install may fail in the same way.

 

Now another issue could be the memory corruption upon installation. Meaning a bit or many bits in your actual PC memory that is now currently being accessed by 10.1 install is bad. Try another memory chip(s).

 

Another issue is actual video related (which also can be tied into a memory or CD drive issue) . I'm not getting into great detail here on all the ways it affects the install, but if you got another video card (even a different brand) try that.

 

Easier yet, just type "text"(without quotation marks) at the beginning of the boot prompt at the initial install bootup screen and try a text install. It eliminates video issues, hopefully bad memory accessed areas , and also a lesser issue on CD ROM accessing.

 

It could also be a newer driver issue. Meaning that 10.1 may have a newer driver that it uses to install and so either it is faulty running now with the current machine, or the older driver was faulty and it's failure was handled in a way that allowed the older installation to continue (this is one of the few instances a bad driver is a good thing - but in reality is not cause it then seems that the actual Device is good but is in fact not). A fix to this is not so easy but try the text install, or try the 3rd party driver install option (I would try the CD driver first, try the rest after) or the driver on the previous version. Or replace the device with something else (like the CD, memory issues above).

 

Or it could be that your hardware now is no longer supported or even tested with the newer version. This means even the manufacturer or Mandrake may have altered drivers enough not to fully include all of the slight variations in the design of your model anymore (meaning they didn't test/include all older hardware revisions bioses, firmwares etc) and may not work anymore. Check any hardware compatibility list. If it is not listed as being verified, then it's a hit or miss attempt to get it all working.

 

Just a few suggestions to try out above.

Edited by User
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This seems to be the thread that turns up on Google when one searches for this problem.

 

Anyway - I had the same problem. VMWARE GSX Server - with both the downloadable CD ISO and the downloadable DVD ISO.

 

I suspect that Mandrake 10.1 can not be installed on VMWARE in any of its guises (be it GSX or Workstation)

 

I see the same problems with Mandrake 10.1 here (VMWare GSX), and those are definatly not acpi or alike related. Even installing the packages in a chroot (minimal build for use in Vserver) let's half of them fail with rpm script errors. And yes, i did check the md5sum's.

 

So for me this looks simply, as if the rpm's scripts have a problem in certain installation situations on the public iso's.

 

/Marlow :angry:

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