ThunderFox
2006-10-05, 05:55 AM CDT
I am in no way a Linux Guru, rather a n00b then but I've always propagated for Linux and Fedora in particular, so when I ditched my uber-die-hard A64 X2 gaming machine and got myself an Aspire 5112WLMi with integrated everything kinda(btooth, wlan, yadayadayada) and 120GB Sata disk I decided that it was time for a change and partitioned the disk for 15GB Windblows, 16GB Linux and the rest as a "data storage" using FAT32(so it could be mounted easily in FC). XP works a charm on this machine if you opt against using the Acer supplied preinstalled ****e and do a fresh install off a real media and not the restore disks. When I installed FC5 however I got quite a headache, the install runs smoothly in GUI mode and everything seems fine until you reboot for the last part. the module udev won't start and the boot process is halted there(it can't continue), while searching for some fix for this problem I decided to try the "noapic nolapic acpi=off" at GRUB but that will end with a kernel panic so it wouldn't do... Someone thought that updating pcmicautils would fix it but it won't, running yum -y update all makes your machine download 1GB of updates but won't apply any of them(in my case anyway) because it couldn't resolve dependencies for something.
What fixed my problems were these steps and I'm sharing them here to maybe, just maybe relieve someone else from the same headache:
1. When your machine reboots quickly tell the BIOS bootsequence to boot the FC5 DVD/CD again and type "linux rescue" at the prompt, it will then ask if the network interfaces whould be enabled, choose yes and proceed to let it configure by DHCP or manually. Next it will ask if it should mount your filesystem as RW, RO or not at all, choose continue here to mount it RW, press ok at the end of the mount process and take note of the message "chroot /mnt/sysimage", it will be your friend in a short while.
2. Enter "chroot /mnt/sysimage" at the prompt and press enter(a tip for newbies that are unaware, type chroot /mnt/sys and press the TAB key to complete the directory name. Your HDD installation of FC is now mounted as root and everything you type will affect it's files, typing rm -rf * might not be the best of ideas now ;)
3. Type "yum -y install kernel", this will cause yum to look through the online repositories and install(at the moment at least) kernel 2.6.17-1.2187, but you aren't ready to go yet, type "yum -y update udev" and when it's done installing, type "yum -y update pcmiciautils".
4. You should be set now, type exit, press enter and exit and press enter again to reboot, remove your FC5 disc and sit back while it boots.
Unless you have some ultra-different special external devices that I don't have you will now be presented with the final X-based part of the install(I run KDE by the way if you wonder, I'm not compatible with Gnome;)
I hope this will solve someone's nightmare out there... Now all I wish for is that ATi suddenly decides to make good stable working drivers for X that won't FUBAR your system, if you decide to try them please open terminal window, type su - and specify yoyr root password, type cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etx/X11/xorg.conf.failsafe and press enter, do this prior to the install to be sure that you have a backup copy that's not recognized by any installers and can't be FUBARed up by them because I am almost 100% sure that you will end up pressing enter and then "a" to add a "3" at the end of the kernel boot string in grub after having stared at a black screen where your login screen should have been... if this happens, log in as root under runlevel 3 and simply "cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.failsafe /etc/x11/xorg.conf" and then return to the drawing board... Good luck! (trying to solve problems like this and not giving up is a good way to become more aquainted to your distro of choice, but wives and girlfriends might think you're an asocial buff) :D
What fixed my problems were these steps and I'm sharing them here to maybe, just maybe relieve someone else from the same headache:
1. When your machine reboots quickly tell the BIOS bootsequence to boot the FC5 DVD/CD again and type "linux rescue" at the prompt, it will then ask if the network interfaces whould be enabled, choose yes and proceed to let it configure by DHCP or manually. Next it will ask if it should mount your filesystem as RW, RO or not at all, choose continue here to mount it RW, press ok at the end of the mount process and take note of the message "chroot /mnt/sysimage", it will be your friend in a short while.
2. Enter "chroot /mnt/sysimage" at the prompt and press enter(a tip for newbies that are unaware, type chroot /mnt/sys and press the TAB key to complete the directory name. Your HDD installation of FC is now mounted as root and everything you type will affect it's files, typing rm -rf * might not be the best of ideas now ;)
3. Type "yum -y install kernel", this will cause yum to look through the online repositories and install(at the moment at least) kernel 2.6.17-1.2187, but you aren't ready to go yet, type "yum -y update udev" and when it's done installing, type "yum -y update pcmiciautils".
4. You should be set now, type exit, press enter and exit and press enter again to reboot, remove your FC5 disc and sit back while it boots.
Unless you have some ultra-different special external devices that I don't have you will now be presented with the final X-based part of the install(I run KDE by the way if you wonder, I'm not compatible with Gnome;)
I hope this will solve someone's nightmare out there... Now all I wish for is that ATi suddenly decides to make good stable working drivers for X that won't FUBAR your system, if you decide to try them please open terminal window, type su - and specify yoyr root password, type cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etx/X11/xorg.conf.failsafe and press enter, do this prior to the install to be sure that you have a backup copy that's not recognized by any installers and can't be FUBARed up by them because I am almost 100% sure that you will end up pressing enter and then "a" to add a "3" at the end of the kernel boot string in grub after having stared at a black screen where your login screen should have been... if this happens, log in as root under runlevel 3 and simply "cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.failsafe /etc/x11/xorg.conf" and then return to the drawing board... Good luck! (trying to solve problems like this and not giving up is a good way to become more aquainted to your distro of choice, but wives and girlfriends might think you're an asocial buff) :D