Hello, I am currently using Mandriva on this machine. I have tried installing Debian on another partition and eventually stop using Mandriva.
This machine is a desktop computer (7VT600P-RZ(-C) mainboard with VIA KT600 chipset). I think I have only mainstream hardware (this is no laptop!), yet I always have had some problems with it with different versions of different distros. And right now, I can't install Debian (etch 4.0r1), although I have successfully installed Debian on my secondary (older) computer. Symptoms with Mandriva: ----------------------- 1) I managed to install it, but I had to disable harddrake (hardware scanning) at bootup because the bootup sequence would freeze otherwise. 2) I don't have problems with KDE applications, but with apps such as firefox, the gimp and the Mandriva Control Center (MCC) I always experience some problems that seem hardware related: MCC never works (maybe it scans hardware when we start it), and every morning, the *first* time I have to open the "save file as" dialog in firefox or gimp, the dialog and the whole app would freeze for a whole 10 minutes! (when I need to save a file with gimp, I usually open the dialog box, go back to konqueror for browsing, then come back later when the app is unfrozen). But then, the second time works as it should. This seems to point to a problem with loading some IDE module / hardware access problem... I don't know. 3) Most of the time, the system does not shut down completely cleanly: at the end of the kernel shutdown sequence, there are some messages about being unable to unmount /usr and /home because the resources are busy, yet I have never found the stray application that causes this. I am not completely sure that the above symptoms are relevant to the Debian install problem, but I include them in case they are... Symptoms with the Debian installer: ------------------------------------- I have tried several times, and the installer freezes for 5~10 minutes *several times* during the install sequence, when checking for the hardware. The F4 windown shows something either like: "hw-detect.hotplug: detected hotpluggable network interface eth0" or like: "missing modules ide-mod, id-probe-mod" etc. (I searched the web, but the conclusion seems to be that this is not actually tremendously relevant!) Then each time it asks me about entering some data related about pcmcia hardware (I enter nothing: as far as I could gather by searching the web, I don't need to). Then at the stage of looking for the partitions, the installer freezes one more time, and this time for good (I gave up waiting after 1 hour). Questions ------------- What might cause this? (that's the main question, isn't it?) What options can I try when starting the install? I usually type "install expertgui". What Do I type instead? What information should I provide that might be relevant, useful? Thank you very much for your assistance. -- Augustin http://minguo.info/ better election methods http://minguo.info/usa/ the USA FA/DP Free Association with Delegable Proxy: an internet experiment in democracy. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
