fedora 12 install woes
in [UK Linux]
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From: Baron on 10 Jan 2010 15:43 davesurrey Inscribed thus: > > "davesurrey" <dave(a)antispam.invalid> wrote in message > news:4b48ad38$0$2492$db0fefd9(a)news.zen.co.uk... >> The HDD on my test PC gave up this seek so I have been installing a >> bunch of distros used for testing. >> All went well except for trying to install Fedora 12 (x86 version). >> >> I used the very same Live CD that I had previously used for 2 >> installs, which allows me to do an install to HDD but in both cases >> it reports a kernel error and refuses to get past the stage of >> updating the software. >> >> I did a new download of the live CD but same results...kernel panic. >> Now after a reboot it even refuses to boot up ...again error reported >> is kernel panic. >> >> I have also downloaded the DVD and this would not even boot without >> setting all BIOS boot options to CD. Then the install crashed 3 times >> at various stages before I gave up. >> >> Questions to those who have experience of Fedora 12. >> >> 1. from Google it seems kernel panics and fedora are common. Is there >> a >> way around for this? I can't imagine such a prestigious distro >> really is this bad. >> 2. Anyone any experience of using the DVD for an install? It does >> seem second rate and a bit "dodgy" compared with the Live CD >> 3. I saw somewhere on my Google travels that "fedora needs a separate >> boot partition". Is this the case with version 12? I don't remember >> having this on the previous install which booted okay. >> >> FWIW I have fedora on primary partition sdb1 formatted as ext4 and >> booted by grub2 in Ubuntu 9.10 >> Fairly old K7S5A mobo with Athlon xp 1800 cpu and 1GB ddr2 ram. >> All other distros work just fine in this PC. >> >> I'd really like to try fedora 12 and don't want to give up but it >> isn't helping itself. >> Thanks for any help. >> >> Dave > To all who have posted here: > > 1. I am very grateful for your help and ideas. > > 2. I had to deal with an emergency today so could not work on this > problem nor reply to you all > but am starting now. I'll let all know how it goes, > I'll use all your suggestions (apart from throwing the Mobo away, just > yet ) > :-) > > 3. some of you have suggested that I have been too quick to disgard > the theory that it is hardware related. > You are correct. But I am now going to have a good look at eliminating > the hardware as best I can. > The reason for my reluctance is that several months ago I was having > strange booting problems and all and sundry suggested it was due to my > hardware. I practically rebuilt the PC changing all the main > components including PSU but in the end it was a software issue as I > had suspected. Once bitten twice shy comes to mind. But I now am > taking on board all hardware issues that have been mentioned. > > Cheers > Dave The bottom line is "If the hardware isn't right the software never will be" ! Its far easier to test hardware than it is to test software. Replacing a piece of hardware is a valid technique for fault finding. However most people don't have the skills nor the equipment or spare parts to fault find down to component level. -- Best Regards: Baron.
From: davesurrey on 10 Jan 2010 15:46 "Baron" <baron.nospam(a)linuxmaniac.nospam.net> wrote in message news:hide59$o8a$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... > davesurrey Inscribed thus: > >> >> "davesurrey" <dave(a)antispam.invalid> wrote in message >> news:4b48ad38$0$2492$db0fefd9(a)news.zen.co.uk... >>> The HDD on my test PC gave up this seek so I have been installing a >>> bunch of distros used for testing. >>> All went well except for trying to install Fedora 12 (x86 version). >>> >>> I used the very same Live CD that I had previously used for 2 >>> installs, which allows me to do an install to HDD but in both cases >>> it reports a kernel error and refuses to get past the stage of >>> updating the software. >>> >>> I did a new download of the live CD but same results...kernel panic. >>> Now after a reboot it even refuses to boot up ...again error reported >>> is kernel panic. >>> >>> I have also downloaded the DVD and this would not even boot without >>> setting all BIOS boot options to CD. Then the install crashed 3 times >>> at various stages before I gave up. >>> >>> Questions to those who have experience of Fedora 12. >>> >>> 1. from Google it seems kernel panics and fedora are common. Is there >>> a >>> way around for this? I can't imagine such a prestigious distro >>> really is this bad. >>> 2. Anyone any experience of using the DVD for an install? It does >>> seem second rate and a bit "dodgy" compared with the Live CD >>> 3. I saw somewhere on my Google travels that "fedora needs a separate >>> boot partition". Is this the case with version 12? I don't remember >>> having this on the previous install which booted okay. >>> >>> FWIW I have fedora on primary partition sdb1 formatted as ext4 and >>> booted by grub2 in Ubuntu 9.10 >>> Fairly old K7S5A mobo with Athlon xp 1800 cpu and 1GB ddr2 ram. >>> All other distros work just fine in this PC. >>> >>> I'd really like to try fedora 12 and don't want to give up but it >>> isn't helping itself. >>> Thanks for any help. >>> >>> Dave >> To all who have posted here: >> >> 1. I am very grateful for your help and ideas. >> >> 2. I had to deal with an emergency today so could not work on this >> problem nor reply to you all >> but am starting now. I'll let all know how it goes, >> I'll use all your suggestions (apart from throwing the Mobo away, just >> yet ) >> :-) >> >> 3. some of you have suggested that I have been too quick to disgard >> the theory that it is hardware related. >> You are correct. But I am now going to have a good look at eliminating >> the hardware as best I can. >> The reason for my reluctance is that several months ago I was having >> strange booting problems and all and sundry suggested it was due to my >> hardware. I practically rebuilt the PC changing all the main >> components including PSU but in the end it was a software issue as I >> had suspected. Once bitten twice shy comes to mind. But I now am >> taking on board all hardware issues that have been mentioned. >> >> Cheers >> Dave > > The bottom line is "If the hardware isn't right the software never will > be" ! Its far easier to test hardware than it is to test software. > Replacing a piece of hardware is a valid technique for fault finding. > However most people don't have the skills nor the equipment or spare > parts to fault find down to component level. >
From: davesurrey on 10 Jan 2010 15:52 "Baron" <baron.nospam(a)linuxmaniac.nospam.net> wrote in message news:hide59$o8a$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... > The bottom line is "If the hardware isn't right the software never will > be" ! Its far easier to test hardware than it is to test software. > Replacing a piece of hardware is a valid technique for fault finding. > However most people don't have the skills nor the equipment or spare > parts to fault find down to component level. > Hi Baron, I have no problem with hardware and , as I type this, I have an (admittedly old, but working) Tek 465 scope about to look at the PSU lines for spikes etc. Just looking for the probes now. Will report back but probably not tonight Cheers Dave
From: Jim Price on 10 Jan 2010 16:22 Baron wrote: > Jim Price Inscribed thus: > >> Jim Price replied to his own post which said: >>> My >>> machine already has Ubuntu 9.10 and 8.04 on it, but only legacy grub >>> and I gave away the Nvidia 5200 last year as it caused so much >>> trouble, so it has an old Radeon in it. >> the graphical software update tool failed all over the >> place. > > What graphics card ? It's a Radeon 7000ve (rv100 based, VGA, DVI and TV out, AGP 2x/4x). The failures in software update were not of the graphical variety BTW. The errors did not cause software update to crash, just fail to actually perform any of the updates it found. I was only running software update to see if I could replicate the original problem, which it did. yum update worked perfectly. xrandr was able to resize the display, and apart from a little flickering on booting, which is normal for that card, I didn't notice any issues with the display. KMS is enabled - I only said it works, not that it performs particularly quickly. The Nvidia 5200 I had was a right pain to get drivers working reliably with recent distributions on the K7S5A, and I suppose might be causing Dave's issues, but I have had a trouble free vanilla install from the liveCD on my K7S5A with only one disk present, whereas with two disks present, the install failed, so I'd be hesitant to blame the 5200 despite my previous experience with it. -- JimP
From: davesurrey on 10 Jan 2010 16:55
"Jim Price" <d1version(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message news:hidgdl$1rh$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... > Baron wrote: >> Jim Price Inscribed thus: >> >>> Jim Price replied to his own post which said: > >>>> My >>>> machine already has Ubuntu 9.10 and 8.04 on it, but only legacy grub >>>> and I gave away the Nvidia 5200 last year as it caused so much >>>> trouble, so it has an old Radeon in it. > >>> the graphical software update tool failed all over the >>> place. >> >> What graphics card ? > > It's a Radeon 7000ve (rv100 based, VGA, DVI and TV out, AGP 2x/4x). The > failures in software update were not of the graphical variety BTW. The > errors did not cause software update to crash, just fail to actually > perform any of the updates it found. I was only running software update > to see if I could replicate the original problem, which it did. yum update > worked perfectly. xrandr was able to resize the display, and apart from a > little flickering on booting, which is normal for that card, I didn't > notice any issues with the display. KMS is enabled - I only said it works, > not that it performs particularly quickly. The Nvidia 5200 I had was a > right pain to get drivers working reliably with recent distributions on > the K7S5A, and I suppose might be causing Dave's issues, but I have had a > trouble free vanilla install from the liveCD on my K7S5A with only one > disk present, whereas with two disks present, the install failed, so I'd > be hesitant to blame the 5200 despite my previous experience with it. > JimP I really must thank you for all the effort you are putting in here. My sincere thanks. I did a quick look around my K7S5A rig and checked capacitors which seemed the slimmest on the planet, PSU voltages which seemed fine, put a scope on the rails and didnt see any spikes that would scare me, swopped RAM, unhooked one of the HDDs, added noapic to the grub, unhooked one of the DVD drives, unhooked the FDD, changed PSU just in case, and then rebooted...Same problem. So I then brought down the PC under the stairs that time forgot. Installed fedora 12 on it...went like a rocket ...and then started a software install and, yes, the same problem as I was having originally and like you seem to have had. It just won't update the software and reports a kernel panic. So may I ask what you did and I need to do to perform a software update using YUM rather than the graphical mode. I am really a novice when it comes to Fedora...that's why I wanted to install it to check it out and learn. I have the feeling that if I can get past the update for abrt then I may have a chance of success. Thanks again Dave |