linux install

[Neo_10]

well i got past the kernal panic with the NOUSB for RedHat 9, but after installing packages the installation freezes, any ideas?

[Steven E. Protter]

Neo,

Tell us what was on the screen when it froze.

The most common cause of freezes that I have run into is running out of disk space. Next most common is unsupported graphics card or network hardware.

SEP

[Michael Steele_2]

Need the first error message or anybodies guess is as good as the next.

Did it hang here?:

Initializing PC Card Services
Enabling swap space
service/Sendmail

Where'd it hang?

[Caesar_3]

Hello!

If you say you had problems with kernel panic
it could be that your kernel bacame the problem for the freeze but it would help if
you will write when it's freeze.

Also could be some hardware problem.

Caesar

[Neo_10]

after the RedHat9 installation finishes installing packages, it runs the post-install script and freezes on the make Floppy Startup disk screen. im using a ze4125 laptop which may be the source of the problem

[Steven E. Protter]

Was the laptop certified by Red Hat? Is the graphics card?

Unlike Windows, supported by Billionaire Bill, there are limits to how many hardware configurations Red Hat can test.

I'd still like to know who built that laptop. Doesn't sound like HP. Not that it matters, but I'd like to check the compatibility list and let you know if Red Hat tested it.

SEP

[Bruce Copeland]

The ze4125 IS an HP Pavilion. Like nearly all the members of the ze41xx, ze42xx, ze43xx, ze51xx, ze52xx, ze53xx series and many of their Compaq cousins, it uses a RadeonIGP graphics system. The RadeonIGP system has Mobility Radeon properties (since it uses a radeon graphics chip). It is however, substantially unsupported under Linux because it uses an ATI agpgart that is unknown to any Linux kernel. The RadeonIGP will do X using the XFree86 VESA driver or (for XFree86 4.3.0 or later) a beta Radeon driver, BUT the noaccel option IS REQUIRED. Most Linux distributions (and XConfigure, etc) have difficulty identifying and configuring the RadeonIGP system.

Many models of these series have additional issues (firewire, usb, pcmcia) and require the appropriate nousb, nopcmcia, or nofirewire options. Many also require that Legacy USB support be turned off in the bios. Many of the similar Compaq models have problems with keyboard timeouts and require use of the mouse_uf utility.

RedHat may or may not have tested the ze4125, but it certainly wouldn't certify it under these circumstances. On the other hand these HP and Compaq notebooks are becoming very common. Most of them can run Linux, but it takes work! It would be really great if HP would devote some web site space to the basics of Linux support for these extensive series of models!

Bruce