my painfull Red Hat 7.2 setup experience

[THELAIR]

Dell 4100 series laptop, P3 866, 128 MB ram, Radeon Card, 8x CD-R drive etc etc.

First install attempt goes fine untill i tell it to use a generic LCD 1024x768 monitor, and click the TEST button
System freezes, have to format partitison and reinstall from scratch.

second install attempt, jams half way through the installing packages, says it discovered a fault, wanted me to put in a floppy disk to download the memory dump error and email it to Red Hat tech support.

Start all over again making sure NOT to choose the package that it installed that caused the PC to crash, and then when it gets to asking for the 2nd cd, it jams up at the xpdf (adobe PDF viewer for X) saying that the file cant be opened, the cd-rom makes odd noises like it does when its having trouble reading the CD. (Remember the cd has been fine for the other 2 install attempts) So i clean the CD and put it back in the drive. Now the damn program wont spin up the CD anymore. I have to restart hte install process all over again.

Man this is really annoying. I have spent 6 STRAIGHT HOURS (its 3:17am Mtn time now) from the time i burnt the CD's to the time i have gotten now.

And this weekend I tried to get mandrake to install, which it did, but every other reboot it would or wouldnt make the internet run. So all my friends say to dump newbie mandrake and use Red Hat and all my issues would be over.


Man I have an easier time getting NT 3.51 to work on a 286 than the latest versions of linux on a pretty simply equiped laptop.

If it wasnt for the requirement of this one program i need, linux would never touch this system.

ARGH!

ahh well, here's hoping that 4th's times a charm

 

[n0cmonkey]

Why not try a different distro? Or the text install?

 

[Nothinman]

Man I have an easier time getting NT 3.51 to work on a 286 than the latest versions of linux on a pretty simply equiped laptop.

If it wasnt for the requirement of this one program i need, linux would never touch this system.


Way to ask for help and insure you won't get it...

 

[LuckyTaxi]

RH installation sucks big time. i like mandrake and freebsd

 

[CTho9305]

a bunch of my friends (and me) were unable to get anything but mandrake to work on a dell laptop (X would be screwey with everything else). since mandrake sucks so much, we stuck with windows until redhat gets it working

 

[Nothinman]

Why didn't you just take the mandrake config and apply it to RedHat?

 

[rahvin]

Why does anyone install in runmode 5? Install for runmode 3 (in text expert) and startx after logging in.

 

[trmiv]

<< Why does anyone install in runmode 5? Install for runmode 3 (in text expert) and startx after logging in. >>



Probably because not everyone knows you can change it. Most people that are asking Linux questions in here (myself included) are very new to Linux, and wouldn't even know how to get it to run the text install. I don't even recall Mandrake asking me if I wanted to do a text based install.

 

[pcmark]

When you first boot off the cd, there is a screen that says press Enter to install or type text and press enter to do a text install. It's as clear as day.

 

[trmiv]

<< When you first boot off the cd, there is a screen that says press Enter to install or type text and press enter to do a text install. It's as clear as day. >>



Really? Maybe it only is up there for a certain time. When I installed recenty I popped in Mandrake 8.1, went downstairs to get something to drink, and came back to see a graphical screen asking me to select a language, so off I went. Worked fine for me.

 

[THELAIR]

ahh linux is so much fun install almost as fun as the time the dentist slipped with the drill and gouged me under the tongue

I finally went to bed at 4am, got up at 7 to go to work. Im at work now, and im reburning the 2nd CD on a higher quality CD to see if that will help any. If I cant get it to work then im going to try mandrake yet again.

I was being sarcastic with the NT 3.51 on a 286 comment

Im a linux newcomer, so all this configuring crap at the beginning bugs me. I've been spoiled by windows and how easy it is to install.

I wish these linux installs would give you an option to cancel or ignore when it pops up an error, and when it reboots to detect a failed install. Thats a nice feature in the newer versions of windows.

ahh well. 2nd cd is burnt, time to try again

crosses fingers

 

[pcmark]

<< Really? Maybe it only is up there for a certain time. When I installed recenty I popped in Mandrake 8.1, went downstairs to get something to drink, and came back to see a graphical screen asking me to select a language, so off I went. Worked fine for me. >>



It's there for 10 seconds tops. It will defualt to the graphical install if you don't select anything.

 

[Hullboy]

I have to say I'm surprised by the negative comments on installing RH7.2. I installed it on my thinkpad and on my home pc and both went great (okay, a few hiccups on the laptop, but easy-ish). The first time I ran the install (on my pc) I thought it was better than windows. The options were more numerous (but not overwhelming), and it even looked more glossy! I was impressed!

I recently installed Mandrake for a peek and that install was great too. It's so different from installing any of these versions 12 months ago, when I was put off linux for a while due to bad-install experiences.

As for a slackware install...........

I don't expect any install will ever be perfect for everyone. I still shudder to think of installing ATA100 on Windows 2000

That's it. Just had to throw that into the mixer!

 

[UnixFreak]

Another vote for text install, and when doing your x configuration, make to set a text logon. That way you can play around with x, and not have to reinstall every time.

I have found 7.2 to be an easy install, but I have never done it on a laptop. (that sounds bad )

 

[THELAIR]

turns out i think alot of my prob was iwth a badly burned CD.

So the new reburn of CD2 worked well, and it finally installed


Now im going to reinstall it again with some different package options
and see what happens

hehhe

 

[turbo__]

I had the same problem with a badly burned cd as well. Glad you got it working.