Installation stalls while loading from ISO disk

[Pfredpfudpucker]

I am attempting to load F8 to my PC which is running XP also. I want to be able to dual boot. The installation disk boots OK, but stops while loading scsi drivers. I didn't see an option to do a new install with dual boot either. Any ideas?

[scottro]

The scsi driver thing sometimes hangs for quite awhile. Usually, (though not always) it will continue eventually, but sometimes it takes as long as 10-15 minutes.

As for dual booting at some point or another, you're given various partitioning options as well as the option to add entries to the bootloader, etc.

[Pfredpfudpucker]

I'll be more patient. Thanks for the help.

[Pfredpfudpucker]

Well, I rebooted with the ISO disk and went out to cut firewood. I came back in about half and hour and anaconda was stuck in the same place. I downloaded using Bittorrent, and verified the disk after I burned it.

[Pfredpfudpucker]

I also iserted a fedora 7 disk that I used to install OS on laptop. It stopped at the SCSI load also. Hmmmm.

[scottro]

I just saw another post on this--apparently a lot of people are running into the issue. It seems that one solution is to use the LiveCD to install. Sorry, it seems as if I might have steered you wrong. (However, in my case, the solution I gave, of about 10-15 minutes patience, worked.)

Sorry to have wasted your time, but on the bright side, you got the firewood cut.

[Pfredpfudpucker]

Yeh. Heh, heh! I got mad at the local electric utility and installed a wood-burning stove. By the "Live cd" are you referring to the rescue cd?

By the way, I really should clarify things a bit. I installed a new 360 gig hard drive because I got it for Christmes. I didn't really need it, but since I had it I stuck it into a removable drive and hooked it up. I now have two SATA drives and two IDE drives. I have XP installed on the master drive, and would like to install F8 on the big slave drive (SATA)

I would also like to have the dual boot capability. If I remember, F7 gave me the option to specify an installation drive, but I can't remember if it dual boots from the drive where the F8 OS is installed, or boots from the master drive. I have looked at the Forums, and it looks like it might be a bit dicey when you have a separate drive that contains Linux. I can't find anything that addresses that issue.
Any advice would be appreciated.

[stoat]

Originally Posted by Pfredpfudpucker

I didn't really need it, but since I had it I stuck it into a removable drive and hooked it up.

Hello Pfredpfudpucker,

Did you mean that the new drive is in an external USB case? If so, try unplugging it and see if the Fedora 8 DVD will get past the loading of the drivers and make it to the graphic interface (just a test, abort if you don't want to continue). If the DVD works with the external drive unplugged, can you install the new drive inside the computer connecting it to the mainboard? It might work better there.

Originally Posted by Pfredpfudpucker

I would also like to have the dual boot capability. If I remember, F7 gave me the option to specify an installation drive, but I can't remember if it dual boots from the drive where the F8 OS is installed, or boots from the master drive.

GRUB is very versatile and can do either one. But the default-traditional-classic-popular thing is to allow GRUB to be installed in the master boot record of the drive that is first in the BIOS boot order (probably what you are calling the master drive with XP). I recommend doing that as long as you know your current master boot record is not "special" in some way. By that, I mean sometimes computers have a special feature that is accessed by pressing certain keys during booting. For example, some (all?) Dells shipped with XP have a restore feature that returns the drive to its factory condition if Ctrl+F11 keys are pressed at the Dell splashscreen. A special function like that which depends upon a special proprietary master boot record can be broken by installing GRUB there. If you have some feature like that and want to keep it, then you should consider some of the other dual booting options.

Originally Posted by Pfredpfudpucker

I have looked at the Forums, and it looks like it might be a bit dicey when you have a separate drive that contains Linux.

The usual ways to complicate dual booting Fedora with XP harder are installing XP after Fedora, or creating space for Fedora "in front of" XP's partition (closer to the beginning or the drive). But if you already have XP installed in its usual place at the beginning of the drive, Fedora usually will add XP to its menu during installation and XP boots. If it doesn't, a simple tweak or two usually makes it happen.

[paulspignon]

I am having the same problem with the Fedora 8 iso DVD. The installation hangs at "loading ata_piix driver". Have no wood to chop but spent half an hour in the kitchen one time, nothing happened. This a Compaq Presario with a Pentium 4 and 512 MB RAM, Ultra ATA, master and slave drives, the slave is a new 160 MB ATA/IDE which I just installed, still virgin.
I recently installed Fedora 8 on another machine, dual-boot with XP Pro, don't now have all the details for that machine, but it is also not so new. No problems there.
I have seen a variety of suggestions about how to beat this, but also responses saying "that didn't work for me", so I'm still looking.

Paul

[Pfredpfudpucker]

To further clarify, the big hard drive actually was in a USB case, but was really slow. I transferred it to a removable drawer on the PC, and the hard drive is now connected directly to the motherboard. The computer I have is a homebuilt with an Intel Motherboard and 2.80 GHz Pentium 4 processor and a gig of RAM. I reformatted the new drive as NTSF and there it sits.

I'm beginning to think that there is a problem with the download DVD. I downloaded it from the Fedora site. I think I'll download the CD version and try that.

Thanks for the help. If the CD install OK I will post that here.

When I installed F7 on my laptop, it went in slick and walked me through the process with no problems. I think the install will do the same thing including the reformat and dual boot. We shall see.

[paulspignon]

I now discovered that the "loading ata_piix driver" does NOT occur if the new Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 hard drive (160 GB) is not present (was connected as primary slave), or if I replace it with a Maxtor 6L200P0 (200 GB). I have no idea what the deciding factor is. The Seagate drive says it has "Ultra ATA", and it works just fine for Windows. It also makes no difference if I connect the Seagate drive as Secondary Slave, anaconda still freezes.

[paulspignon]

sorry, meant to say "loading ata_piix driver freeze-up"

Also I'm wondering why there can't be an option to skip the SCSI drivers altogether, as for the moment I have no need of them, and it can't be so hard to install them as and when. Maybe I should start messing with the source code there ?

/Paul

[Pfredpfudpucker]

Wellllll....I downloaded F8 a second time using Bit torrent and it loaded fine. I am proceeding with the install. I appreciate everyones input. Thanks

Pfred