[lug] Severe difficulties in installing RedHat 7.1

[D. Stimits]

George Sexton wrote:
> 
> Just to be on the safe side, you might want to check your RAM. Go to:
> 
> http://www.memtest86.com/
> 
> and download Memtest and run it on the machine. It's easy to do and it will
> eliminate one possible cause.

memtest86 is always a good bet during install failures, but most of the
time I think bad memory will result in a CRC checksum failure during
decompression of the kernel (it uses a lot of memory and requires it to
be perfect). The script driven items (like anaconda, running on python)
don't seem to have as much of a problem. The nice thing about memtest86
is that you can run it without any operating system and check memory
without worry of other things getting in the way.

Looking at some of the newer email on the subject, both the ATA 100
controller and USB raise red flags. There has been a lot of kernel devel
activity lately related to both USB and (just a short time ago) ATA 100.
RH has released some 2.4.3 heavily-patched kernels, I don't know how
easy/difficult it would to try one of those kernels since it is during
install. I think if I had to do this, I would go into the bios and
disable all USB and pretend the comp did not even have USB, at least not
until after install was working. And if a non-ATA 100 controller is
available, I would disable the ATA 100 and use only the other one during
install as well.

D. Stimits, stimits at idcomm.com

> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lug-admin at lug.boulder.co.us [mailto:lug-admin at lug.boulder.co.us]On
> Behalf Of Jack Swope
> Sent: 02 July, 2001 8:56 PM
> To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
> Subject: [lug] Severe difficulties in installing RedHat 7.1
> 
> I am attempting to install RH 7.1 on a Gateway Select
> Machine.  Let me give you a rundown of the hardware:
> 
> CPU- AMD Athlon 950mhz
> Harddrive- IBM Deskstar-DTLA-307045 ATA/IDE 46.1G,
>     RPM 7200, attached to Promise Ultra ATA Controller
> 
>     or to the primary IDE bus on motherboard
> Memory- 128M
> CDROM- Toshiba DVD-Rom Secondary IDE bus
> Net Card- Intel Pro100+ PCI  adapter
> Video Card- NVidiaRIVA TNT2 Model 64
> Zip Drive- Iomega Zip 250
> Monitor- Gateway EV910B
> Sound Card- Creative SB Live!
> 
> Here's the problem...System hangs while installing RH
> 7.1.  No matter where the hard drive is connected (ATA
> or MB) booting from floppy system reaches "running
> anaconda" and MD recovery thread is activated and
> system unmounts all filesystems mounted and then tells
> me it can be safely rebooted.  I have tried graphic
> install, text install, expert install, and linux dd.
> All hang in approxiamately the same place.  I had
> Caldera Open Linux installed at one time but no
> longer.
> 
> Jack Swope
> 
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