problem installing Fedora 8

[Rick Stevens]

Buz Davis wrote:
> Rick Stevens wrote:
>  >Have you tried looking at the other consoles (ALT-F2, ALT-F3, ALT-F4) to
>  >see if there's some specific error when it croaks?
> 
> Thanks for the suggestion, Rick.  I was unaware of these.  I have 
> checked them and found messages to the effect that the processor is not 
> supported.  These actually referenced a processor later than my K6.
> I then did some googling and found that apparently the first release of
> Fedora 8 did have a problem with AMD processors.  This was apparently 
> fixed in what some sites refer to as "respins", but they don't seem to 
> be available at this time.

Oh, that may be an issue.  F8 is dead (F10 forced EOL on F8, F11 forced
EOL on F8, F12 will force EOL on F10, etc., etc.).  Fedoraunity.org was
the home of the respins, but I don't know if there's any F8 respins left
there.

> I went ahead and ordered a copy of CentOS and am mainly counting on 
> that.  However I also bought an intel-based pentium system at the local 
> NearlyNew store thinking that perhaps I could install Fedora 8 on that.
> I had to blow away a broken XP system (I now have perhaps the hottest 
> MS-DOS box around) and I am getting farther into the install before 
> problems crop up, but so far there have been problems.  The CDs pass the
> media test, but they always seem to fail somewhere in the install itself 
> with "probably invalid media".  Perhaps the CD drive needs cleaning, or 
> perhaps the hard disk is flakey - I just haven't had a chance to check 
> in any detail.

It's not uncommon for the CD tests to fail even if the media is fine.
That issue is better addressed in later Fedora releases.  If you turn
off DMA during the install (appending "nodma" to the command line), the
test will probably pass, but the install will be slow and anaconda will
add "nodma" to the boot command in grub.  Easy enough to remove it, but
there it is.

> I haven't totally given up on F 8  but as I said I am waiting for CentOS
> (which sounds like the system for me - I want something reasonably 
> up-to-date but not necessarily leading-edge).

F11 is pretty stable, but it orphans your processor, I think.  Since F9,
only 586 and later processors are supported.  You gotta join the 21st 
century at some point, I guess.

> Is it possible to copy the CD images to another computer on the network
> and then start the install from the target machine referencing the 
> network as a source for the images ?  I do have a network, but nothing 
> fancy (though I think the "new" pentium computer has a cdrw drive).

Yes, it's called a "network install".  There are a couple of ways to
do it...one is to put the .iso image on a server somewhere and access
it via HTTP.  Another is to have the _files_ inside the .iso extracted
to a specific directory on the server, then share that directory via NFS.

> Man, I hope you don't live anywhere near those brush fires!  I know 
> there are lots of folks hurting and I hope you aren't among them!

I don't, but my mother does.  Not too close (about five miles, one
freeway and several canyons away), but close enough where the smoke is a
problem (she's 80).  I used to work at JPL in my younger days and I know
many folk who live in LC/F (La Canada/Flintridge) and I'm worried about
them.

That's the price you pay for living in the hills, unfortunately.  I live
near the beach, so the price I pay is in dollars.
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- Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer                      ricks at nerd.com -
- AIM/Skype: therps2        ICQ: 22643734            Yahoo: origrps2 -
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-   The light at the end of the tunnel is really an oncoming train.  -
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