It sounds like your hardware is newer than the Linux kernels compiled into the various distros. I've seen similar problems when installing onto obscure hardware (not all distros are prepared at startup to deal with raid controllers). This normally means you have to update the kernel source, and then enable the appropriate drivers within the kernel to recognize the new hardware. But this step is likely beyond a new linux user, so frustrations ensue.
The thing to keep in mind is that Linux is not the true culprit here - the hardware seems to be. Granted, modern Linux distros *should* be able to get at least a base system installed, but sometimes this isn't the case. As suggested, you could try to install Mandrake on a different box, and compile a kernel for the first box. Then it's a simple matter of transferring the kernel file (it IS a single file), to the appropriate place on the new box and trying it out. Unfortunately, this requires rather detailed knowledge about the hardware in question, and some comfort working with kernels and boot loaders. Perhaps this is a case where it would be much easier if you can hook up with an advanced user and have both of you sit down at the box and work through the install? I'm sure there are a few people on the list who would be willing to help (myself included). With regards to Enterprise versions.... These are typically based on older/less cutting edge versions of packages that are considered stable. Other than that, the only real difference is on how much support the company is willing to give you before you need to pay for more. With a little patience and searching, this becomes a moot point as you can find almost all the support you need online. Something is tickling the back of my mind... Is this a case where you have to tell the boot loader to start up with SATA support? Or whatever drivers are needed to get going? I'm not familiar enough with Mandrake to know the options available to you there, but maybe this is a place to look. When you see the boot menu (i.e. boot from hard drive, new install, etc.) try hitting F1 or F2. Sometimes you see tips there on how to start with different drivers or settings, or even different kernels. Just a thought. Shawn On Wednesday 05 October 2005 14:56, D Bhardwaj wrote: > I tried the kubuntu 5.10 preview. It hung shortly after starting. My > limited knowledge wasn't enough to figure out what it was complaining > about. I am searching through ubuntulinux.org FAQ to see what I can find. > > I am not familiar with rsync. > Can I install mandrake on another machine and then somehow 'copy' it over? > But the h/w is all different? > > Besides support, what is the difference between Enterprise and configuring > install based on selected packages? > > Dharam > Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="nextPart16377854.p5dSAVPOYx"; > protocol="application/pgp-signature"; micalg=pgp-sha1 > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > > --nextPart16377854.p5dSAVPOYx > Content-Type: text/plain; > charset="iso-8859-1" > Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable > Content-Disposition: inline > > On Tuesday 04 October 2005 16:04, D Bhardwaj wrote: > > General question on installs: > > I have new hardware and my install fails because it can't even recognize > > the cd-rom even though it starts reading the CD, gets to the next screen > > after USB detection and fails on cd detection? I switched to ubuntu for > > t= > > he > > > heck of it. It loads the os but doesn't recognize the nic or sound, maybe > > other devices I haven't checked yet. > > Try the kubuntu (http://kubuntu.org) breezy preview, I believe it has a > ver= y=20 > recent kernel (vmlinuz-2.6.12-9-386) which has better support for hardware. > > Generally I check hardware with knoppix or another live CD (I had a > kubuntu= =20 > live CD with me when I bought my laptop) as long as it could see the > hard=20 drive I was pretty sure I could get the rest of the system running. > > > What is the general work around in this situation? > > You could also take the hard drive out of the new computer, put it in the > o= ld=20 > computer, rsync the old drive over to the new, and build a kernel that=20 > supports your hardware. USB enclosures are awesome for this sort of > task=20 (actually they are pretty handy to have around for a variety of > tasks). > > Hope this helps. > > > Dharam > > --nextPart16377854.p5dSAVPOYx--
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