Install Hell

reno1
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Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 1:31 pm

Install Hell

Postby reno1 » Sun Jan 30, 2011 1:42 pm

Hello, another Vail user here trying to install Amahi. For about three weeks now. I had downloaded the ISO about a dozen times, I tried -R and +R DVDs. I actualy PURCHASED an x64 DVD thinking that my two burners were not capable of burning the ISO correctly. I finally even bought a NEW DVD-ROM to use for the install thinking THAT may have been bad as wll. I have tried countless different installs and options.

Here is the thing, it gets about to installing package 400 something when I get an install error and am forced to Exit the installer. Usually it's a message about CANNOT install the RED-HAT Menu system. But, recently I have received an error about NOT being able to install a GOTHIC font set. The thing is, is that I have no control over what gets installed and when.

I would love to use Amahi but after three weeks I'm not sure if I can take any more installs. So I have a fairly modern system with 4G of ram and two 1.5TB drives that I would love to use for an Amahi server but alas, I am thinking that I may as well just go back to Vail.

Unless it's me but I'm pretty sure it ain't. Hopefully *someone* here can shed some light on my issue.

Thanks...

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NeverSimple
Posts: 114
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2010 4:26 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: Install Hell

Postby NeverSimple » Sun Jan 30, 2011 3:07 pm

Hello reno1,

Welcome to the the linux world! As you have discovered it's not for the faint hearted... :mrgreen: (just kidding)

- You say you have a 'fairly modern' system. It could be that the computer is to new to be fully supported by Fedora 12. Or maybe you use some exotic piece of hardware in your computer. You could try installing Fedora 14. Amahi is not yet supported on that platform, but it is expected very, very soon. (any day now)

- Try downloading the Express CD (http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Express_CD). Based on Fedora 12, but only around 400MB, so maybe the conflicting software isn't in there. Be aware however, that you won't get a graphical interface, just the CLI.


Richard

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lou1z
Posts: 206
Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2009 1:58 am

Re: Install Hell

Postby lou1z » Mon Jan 31, 2011 12:50 am

is this a whitebox? i had a hard time on one of mine (a 3 year old pc made up of spare parts)
replaced the cd burner with a spare i had lying around...... no joy. replaced it with a dvd burner..... no joy
it always hung during the install. turned out to be an interupt and a little play in the bios got it working.

there are other ways to install fedora eg usb & netbook although they are a little trickier.

have a look here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/USBHowTo

reno1
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 1:31 pm

Re: Install Hell

Postby reno1 » Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:26 am

Rich - thanks for the idea. I have downloaded the Express CD and will try it. As far as exotic hardware I don't know. It's a Pentium 4 system from maybe 2007? 4G of RAM and two WD drives. I will muck around with the install CD and I may look at the USB install.

Lou - Never heard the term white box but it apprears that thats what it is. An older HP with some newer mem and drives. Sounds like you were in the same situation. I can try to mess around with the BIOS but...IDK, maybe I will just wait for 14 to come out.

BTW, I am an Oracle DBA and am VERY familar with Linux and know full well of the pain of said OS! LOL...I have a FreeBSD box running FreeNas. Never had this kinda issue though so I am a bit chapped! But, I'll see what I can do...

Lou, what kinda inturrupt issue did you have? Just looking for a starting point.

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lou1z
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Re: Install Hell

Postby lou1z » Mon Jan 31, 2011 9:49 am

off the top of my head, i can't remember.
it was either an interupt or i move the cdrom off the shared ide cable or set it to master & slave rather than cable select.
i can remember that it ran appeared to run fine under windows etc but when i tried to install with fedora, it just kept hanging around the same spot.
was a pain but i eventually got it going. you could try the usb install which isn't that hard to do.

reno1
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 1:31 pm

Re: Install Hell

Postby reno1 » Mon Jan 31, 2011 6:44 pm

Welp, I created a LiveUSB of 14. It booted...I said install to Hard Drive..everything fine until it went to load the image to the hard drive. Same thing..."There was an error installing the image to your Hard Drive. This could be bad media."

Not sure how there could be bad media with a DVD and a Flash? Version 12 AND 14?

So, there ya go. I can see the drive light flickering over and over. Almost like it can't write? I don't know, two drives, and I only wrote the install to one of them at a time, BOTH get the same message.

Crazy. I'm all out of ideas...thanks for your help though guys..

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lou1z
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Re: Install Hell

Postby lou1z » Tue Feb 01, 2011 1:16 am

is this ide or sata? i'd play about with the drives eg set them on a different cable or master , slave etc & see where that gets you.
also try & check your cables by swapping them out.
this looks very much like the issue i had a year or so ago.

reno1
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 1:31 pm

Re: Install Hell

Postby reno1 » Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:00 am

Thanks Lou. Yeah I have two SATA drives...like I said, I have used each seperately but have never switched the cables around..NOR replaced the sata cables per se..

The other thing that bothers me too is that when creating the LIVE USB, after it says COMPLETE, when you exit out it says "errors were encountered" and to check a log. Thing is, there is no log. I tried it on three different machines all with the same result so..

I gotta say, I have never had this much trouble installing something before. I hope it will be worth it in the end!!!

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lou1z
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Re: Install Hell

Postby lou1z » Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:12 am

The other thing that bothers me too is that when creating the LIVE USB, after it says COMPLETE, when you exit out it says "errors were encountered" and to check a log. Thing is, there is no log. I tried it on three different machines all with the same result so..
is that purely just fedora14 where you get the errors? on 3 different pc's in your home? it's certainly strange with 3 different pc's giving you errors.
i'd be tempted to download the media from a friends house and burn the cd there or create the usb there just to see what happens.

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NeverSimple
Posts: 114
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Location: The Netherlands

Re: Install Hell

Postby NeverSimple » Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:55 pm

An older HP with some newer mem and drives
Just a thought: Have you tested that memory? It could be that your fedora install uses some mem an other os didn't (yet) use and craps out.
I think that 'memtest86+' (http://www.memtest.org/) is on the fedora install dvd, but if not, you can always download it, burn the .iso to a cd and boot your pc from it. Let it run for some time and see what happens.

Richard

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