Installation from live KDE CD--Can't boot from HD

[andromeda99]

I've made three attempts at an install of KDE-PCLOS on a Toshiba laptop that previously  ran Mandriva and also Fedora 13.  I've used both the PCLOS iso image from the PCLOS site and a DVD from LINUX Format magazine and get the same results.  At the end of the install from the liveCD, the DrakeLive -- Install window pops a message saying that it is saving the boot record and it may take several minutes.  Nothing further happens even after 5 min!.  So, I do a normal shutdown from the live CD which then hangs with the message no processes at this runlevel.  Doing a manual reboot and starting from the HD results in a boot menu and after selecting PCLOS the kernel loads and then stops with initrd and nothing further--the machine hangs.

So, how do I get PCLOS installed on this machine!

Thanks for the help

[Old-Polack]

I've made three attempts at an install of KDE-PCLOS on a Toshiba laptop that previously  ran Mandriva and also Fedora 13.  I've used both the PCLOS iso image from the PCLOS site and a DVD from LINUX Format magazine and get the same results.  At the end of the install from the liveCD, the DrakeLive -- Install window pops a message saying that it is saving the boot record and it may take several minutes.  Nothing further happens even after 5 min!.  So, I do a normal shutdown from the live CD which then hangs with the message no processes at this runlevel.  Doing a manual reboot and starting from the HD results in a boot menu and after selecting PCLOS the kernel loads and then stops with initrd and nothing further--the machine hangs.

So, how do I get PCLOS installed on this machine!

Thanks for the help

You wait longer when the bootloader is being installed. The last part of the installation is the creation of the initrd image, which it would seem is corrupted, in your case, because of shutting down before the process is complete. Sometimes it only takes a minute, but I've had instances where 15-20 minutes passed before success was achieved. I don't know why the time varies so much, but suspect just hardware differences.

[Texstar]

Do you have a setting in the BIOS which prevents writing to the Master boot record?

[andromeda99]

The master boot record is set as it was for the previous install of Mandriva.  The previous comment makes sense so will try install again and just wait ---.  this seems very strange to wait 15 min -- never had to do this with previous installs-- SUSE, Fedora, Mandriva.

[Old-Polack]

The master boot record is set as it was for the previous install of Mandriva.  The previous comment makes sense so will try install again and just wait ---.  this seems very strange to wait 15 min -- never had to do this with previous installs-- SUSE, Fedora, Mandriva.

SUSE, Fedora and Mandriva are not PCLinuxOS. They each have their own idiosyncrasies too, just different ones. 

[Texstar]

The master boot record is set as it was for the previous install of Mandriva.  The previous comment makes sense so will try install again and just wait ---.  this seems very strange to wait 15 min -- never had to do this with previous installs-- SUSE, Fedora, Mandriva.

Do you have a lot of multiple partitions with different installations on them from Fedora, Mandriva and SUSE? If so then PCLinuxOS is trying to find and understand your grub layout in an attempt to add those installations to its grub boot menu.

[Was_Just19]

I've made three attempts at an install of KDE-PCLOS on a Toshiba laptop that previously  ran Mandriva and also Fedora 13.  I've used both the PCLOS iso image from the PCLOS site and a DVD from LINUX Format magazine and get the same results.  At the end of the install from the liveCD, the DrakeLive -- Install window pops a message saying that it is saving the boot record and it may take several minutes.  Nothing further happens even after 5 min!.  So, I do a normal shutdown from the live CD which then hangs with the message no processes at this runlevel.  Doing a manual reboot and starting from the HD results in a boot menu and after selecting PCLOS the kernel loads and then stops with initrd and nothing further--the machine hangs.

So, how do I get PCLOS installed on this machine!

Thanks for the help

You wait longer when the bootloader is being installed. The last part of the installation is the creation of the initrd image, which it would seem is corrupted, in your case, because of shutting down before the process is complete. Sometimes it only takes a minute, but I've had instances where 15-20 minutes passed before success was achieved. I don't know why the time varies so much, but suspect just hardware differences.

This would appear to imply that the creation of the initrd image at the end of the install is part of the Grub installation.

If it is not part of the Grub installation then surely it should be completed before the installer advances to the Grub installation part of the Wizard?

I hope those questions are not regarded as taking the thread off topic .......  I just wish to get clarified what the explanation actually means rather than me misinterpreting the explanation.

regards.

[Old-Polack]

I've made three attempts at an install of KDE-PCLOS on a Toshiba laptop that previously  ran Mandriva and also Fedora 13.  I've used both the PCLOS iso image from the PCLOS site and a DVD from LINUX Format magazine and get the same results.  At the end of the install from the liveCD, the DrakeLive -- Install window pops a message saying that it is saving the boot record and it may take several minutes.  Nothing further happens even after 5 min!.  So, I do a normal shutdown from the live CD which then hangs with the message no processes at this runlevel.  Doing a manual reboot and starting from the HD results in a boot menu and after selecting PCLOS the kernel loads and then stops with initrd and nothing further--the machine hangs.

So, how do I get PCLOS installed on this machine!

Thanks for the help

You wait longer when the bootloader is being installed. The last part of the installation is the creation of the initrd image, which it would seem is corrupted, in your case, because of shutting down before the process is complete. Sometimes it only takes a minute, but I've had instances where 15-20 minutes passed before success was achieved. I don't know why the time varies so much, but suspect just hardware differences.

This would appear to imply that the creation of the initrd image at the end of the install is part of the Grub installation.

If it is not part of the Grub installation then surely it should be completed before the installer advances to the Grub installation part of the Wizard?

Don't ask me, I'm implying nothing. All I know is that it's one of the very last processes on the installation scripts, and occurs while the installation says it's installing the boot loader. If you stop short, the initrd image is incomplete, ie corrupted, and you get either a boot hang, or a kernel panic. One can mount the installed / partition, do a chroot to the mount point, cd to the chroot /boot directory, run mkinitrd for the installed kernel, and the next boot will work.

[Was_Just19]

I've made three attempts at an install of KDE-PCLOS on a Toshiba laptop that previously  ran Mandriva and also Fedora 13.  I've used both the PCLOS iso image from the PCLOS site and a DVD from LINUX Format magazine and get the same results.  At the end of the install from the liveCD, the DrakeLive -- Install window pops a message saying that it is saving the boot record and it may take several minutes.  Nothing further happens even after 5 min!.  So, I do a normal shutdown from the live CD which then hangs with the message no processes at this runlevel.  Doing a manual reboot and starting from the HD results in a boot menu and after selecting PCLOS the kernel loads and then stops with initrd and nothing further--the machine hangs.

So, how do I get PCLOS installed on this machine!

Thanks for the help

You wait longer when the bootloader is being installed. The last part of the installation is the creation of the initrd image, which it would seem is corrupted, in your case, because of shutting down before the process is complete. Sometimes it only takes a minute, but I've had instances where 15-20 minutes passed before success was achieved. I don't know why the time varies so much, but suspect just hardware differences.

This would appear to imply that the creation of the initrd image at the end of the install is part of the Grub installation.

If it is not part of the Grub installation then surely it should be completed before the installer advances to the Grub installation part of the Wizard?

Don't ask me, I'm implying nothing. All I know is that it's one of the very last processes on the installation scripts, and occurs while the installation says it's installing the boot loader. If you stop short, the initrd image is incomplete, ie corrupted, and you get either a boot hang, or a kernel panic. One can mount the installed / partition, do a chroot to the mount point, cd to the chroot /boot directory, run mkinitrd for the installed kernel, and the next boot will work.

So it seems that the bootloader section goes ahead without the initrd image complete .......  that would explain why the bootloader takes so much time to write when it should be a matter of a couple of seconds.

[menotu]

I too would suggest giving it some time when the bootloader is doing it's work - can be "make a coffee" time. 

The odd thing is it seems to only occur (to me) when using the 2010.12 iso - the .10 iso works as normal - 30secs or so.

[andromeda99]

Well, following the above advice I tried again to install PCLOS.  When I reached the final screen saying installing boot sector -- I waited and I waited a whole 25 min--I timed it!  The window was blank for the entire time and occasionally I heard the CD rom start up.  Finally, a message appeared saying the system was installed.  Clicked Finish and rebooted successfully.

Now, I've installed LINUX on machines for over 15 yrs and Yes each Distro has its quirks -- BUT, to wait 25 minutes with a blank screen!  No, not acceptable and no very user friendly, at least a message or progress bar could provide feedback.  Ok, this is an old, 8 yrs, machine.  But, Mandriva, SuSe, Fedora and Mint have all been installed and while slow for some at least I knew what was happening.  A blank screen tells me nothing, hence after a few minutes, I did do a restart as noted in my original post.

If this situation happened with go old Win you can bet the LINUX community would be all over it.  I don't think this kind of problem is something to gloss over--fix it!  Newbees would never use LINUX if this happened.

On the positive side I like what I see of PCLOS -- very polished.  Would I put it on my desktop machines which currently run SuSE--I doubt it.

Thanks for the help.  My old laptop seems to be happily running PCLOS so we'll explore and who knows!

[Old-Polack]

Well, following the above advice I tried again to install PCLOS.  When I reached the final screen saying installing boot sector -- I waited and I waited a whole 25 min--I timed it!  The window was blank for the entire time and occasionally I heard the CD rom start up.  Finally, a message appeared saying the system was installed.  Clicked Finish and rebooted successfully.

Now, I've installed LINUX on machines for over 15 yrs and Yes each Distro has its quirks -- BUT, to wait 25 minutes with a blank screen!  No, not acceptable and no very user friendly, at least a message or progress bar could provide feedback.  Ok, this is an old, 8 yrs, machine.  But, Mandriva, SuSe, Fedora and Bacon have all been installed and while slow for some at least I knew what was happening.  A blank screen tells me nothing, hence after a few minutes, I did do a restart as noted in my original post.

If this situation happened with go old Win you can bet the LINUX community would be all over it.  I don't think this kind of problem is something to gloss over--fix it!  Newbees would never use LINUX if this happened.

On the positive side I like what I see of PCLOS -- very polished.  Would I put it on my desktop machines which currently run SuSE--I doubt it.

Thanks for the help.  My old laptop seems to be happily running PCLOS so we'll explore and who knows!

If it's unacceptable, I suppose you could uninstall it.

I installed to a 2002 Compaq, AMD 2100+ 32 bit processor, 2 GB RAM, and IDE/PATA hard drives and CD/DVD burner, and the grub install stage took about a minute. Like I said, it seems to depend on the hardware involved. It could be the hardware itself, or the current condition of that hardware. It could also be the speed of the burn, or a slightly misaligned burning or reading laser. Could be as simple as a dirty lens. Whatever it was, it hung in there until the task was complete.

Whatever the problem it encountered with your hardware, it still managed to complete the installation in a usable configuration. Yours isn't the average install time, but there are too many variables involved to reach a conclusion as to why it took so long, without extensive forensics on the specific machine. As the end results were those desired, it still rates as a success.

[menotu]

Your install and bootloader delay (as was mine when I was testing the 2010.12.iso) is a rare occurrence.

I've installed PCLinuxOS on umpteen systems and never encountered that problem before - and doubt if I will again.

But as it's such a perfect fit for all I do, I'd probably put up with it, especially as PCLinuxOS is a one off install and wouldn't need installing again because of the rolling release update format.

Lets hope you don't encounter any other issues.  Good luck.

[Was_Just19]

BUT, to wait 25 minutes with a blank screen!  No, not acceptable and no very user friendly

I agree, and I feel very sure if this behaviour was noticeable prior to release of that ISO, the ISO would not have been released.

Seems it does occur in some rare cases .....  but without a lot of testing on those pieces of hardware, who knows what causes it ... ?

Maybe for the next ISO, which is due for release sometime in the near future, you could do some testing to see if it behaves in a similar manner on that hardware.

Good luck with your install of PCLOS.

regards.