Ok Linux People, You Win.

[musichere 0]

I reinstalled Windows and now I want Linux again, but there are yet more problems

 

Can you explain these screens I get when trying to install Linux?

 

[qwijibow 0]

seems to be having trouble reading from your cdrom ?how old is your hardware ???i cant remember if i asked you to do an md5 check on your installation cd's ?are the cd's clean and scratvh free ?try dissableing ACPI in the bios, that worked wonders some of my old cdrom drives.other than that im not sure.does your cdrom sound like it having trouble reading the disks ? you know that sound cdrom's make when they are forever spining up and down re-reading sectors, does it make that kind of noise ???other than that, im stumped.the second and 3rd photo's are a direct result of the origonal failure to read the disk.it seems most likely that the disks are corrupt or scratched.when you start the install cd, are you given an option to enter extra boot parameters ?in most installation cd's ive used you can, and there isusually a "hit F2 to see exprea paramerters button.if there is, try booting a different kernel... some boot disks default to the 2.4 kernel, if yout hardware is very new, it might help to force it to use the newer 2.6 series.do you have a knoppix disk ?does knoppix boot okay ?

[musichere 0]

Knoppix is fine, the computer is only 1 year old and the drive has no problems whatsoever. I actually got this disk in a shop and they do thorough tests on every disk, and by looking at it there are no scratches at all. How do you change the kernal?

[musichere 0]

I think I know what the problem is now,

 

It crashes on this blue screen and then gives the 'fatal error' screen (in last post).

 

Then it gives the following message.

[qwijibow 0]

Ive only ever seen the "no init found" error message when ive been compiling a custom kernel, and done something stupid like accidently excluded a vital filesystem driver.i doubt that mandrake would make such a mistake:pa 1 year old computer should be perfect for linux... not bleeding edge, not turning to dust.. lol.thank for the reputation point, i only wish i could sort out the problem.knoppix works fine so we know the linux drivers for your computer work... i thnk this is a mandrake bug.im clutching at straws here, and i dont think this is your problem, but lets try a hardware test.boot your knoppix disk... when you see that first "boot:" prompt, quickly type "memtest86" follwed by <return>this will run lots of tests, on your memory, and generally take about 20 minutes to complete.the test will run forever if you let it, let if run through each tst number once, then stop it.there should be no error messages.if this passes... and im certin it will, all i can surgest is that you try a different distro.its a bit embarasing surgesting linux to someon only to have it fail to install,, lolanyways, sorry i couldnt help.maybe its worth having a quick look on the mandrake homepage for a bug that matches yours, maybe there is a fix.maybe have a look at Ubuntu, its a new distro, but ive heard lots of reviews and recomendations from beople who say "it just works".

[musichere 0]

Thanks for all your help. I ran the test 3 times without errors.I will try Ubuntu, but I still wish there was a way to get Mandrake.

[MajesticTreeFrog 0]

Thanks for all your help. I ran the test 3 times without errors.

 

I will try Ubuntu, but I still wish there was a way to get Mandrake.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually, I think ubuntu is a better choice to begin with. They make a big deal out of useabililty, so they should be more user friendly than Mandrake, if not now, then in short order. Also, you get the advantage of apt-get as well as the very nice, friendly and active ubuntu support people who will be happy to answer your questions.

[musichere 0]

I am downloding Ubuntu, but judging by the front screen it seems like a total retard OS , so I guess that's perfect for me.