Re: laptop install problems

From: WCH (whexeterDELETEthisPART_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 04/25/04 

Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 14:04:45 GMT

"WCH" <whexeterDELETEthisPART@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:GaPic.19286$0u6.3094138@attbi_s03...
> I'm trying to install Linux to an older laptop so I can learn how to use
it.
> I've got a Toshiba Portege 3110CT with 128MB RAM and a 9GB drive that I
used
> PartitionMagic to create a 5GB Linux partition. I bought a copy of SAMS
> "Teach Yourself Red Hat Linux Fedora" (other of their guides have worked
for
> me) which came with two "Fedora Core Publisher's Edition" CDs. I don't
want
> to just install Linux and stumble around the GUI, I want to understand at
> least a little about command line and file management and the underlying
> processes.
>
> My laptop can't boot to a CD-ROM. OK, I used dosutils to create a
bootdisk
> and booted from the floppy. Good so far. Then I used dosutils to create
a
> pcmcia image on a floppy, which I put in when the install asked for a
> drivers disk in order to install from a CD-ROM (which it couldn't find).
> That worked, too.
>
> Then, as I could see lights on the CD-ROM (it's an external drive) and
hear
> it spinning, I got error messages saying"error 2 reading header: cpio: bad
> magic" and "exec of anaconda failed Bad address install exited abnormally"
> along with termination messages.
>
> I turned off the laptop, cleaned the CD (just in case) and used compressed
> air to blow out the CD drive. Tried everything again (and again), same
> result.
>
> Then I thought maybe I had bad media so I got on the Mandrake site,
> downloaded the images for Mandrake 9.1 and tried that. Their pcmcia
floppy
> disk is bootable, so I was able to go straight from first floppy to my
> CD-ROM, but when it read the CD-ROM it generated error messages saying
> "Could not uncompress second stage ramdisk. This is probably an hardware
> error while reading the data (this may be caused by a hardware failure or
a
> Linux kernel bug)." The only button choice is OK, after which it says I
> can't recover from this so reboot.
>
> The CD-ROM is an external pcmcia device made by Port. It works perfectly
in
> Windows. It is able to detect whether the CD-ROM in the drive is what the
> software on the floppy expects to see. Beyond that, though, I can't tell
if
> it's defective in some way, and I don't have another compatible CD-ROM
> drive.
>
> I'd really like to get Linux installed on this laptop, but I'm at impasse.
> Sorry for the long post, trying to provide enough specifics to get good
> advice. Any help appreciated.
> WC
>
One more development. I borrowed a Sony pcmcia DVD player and tried using
that. On the Mandrake pcmcia floppy it IS recognized and the CD starts and
sets me up to install. But the Fedora pcmcia floppy doesn't recognize the
Sony DVD ("no devices of the appropriate type were found ..."), even though
the Sony DVD gets lights and power once the Fedora pcmcia disk is read as a
driver disk.

I know this means something. Just don't know *what*.
WC