[SOLVED] installing F 16 64 on friend's computer

[johnlvs2run]

My friend has a Dell Inspiron that he got a month ago with win7. It has kept crashing and getting viruses. He says Dell is no help and agreed to have me install Fedora, so I have the computer for a day. He doesn't know any of the computer details. A memtest shows he has 4gb of ram.

I thought the liveCD would give me an option to partition, but it's not showing up upon boot, and the CD is not opening.

dracut Warning:  No root device
"live:/dev/disk/by-label/Fedora-16-x86 64-Live-Lxde.iso" found

Dropping to debug shell.

sh:  can't access tty:  job control turned off
dracut:/#

I'm wondering why the liveCD doesn't open, if this could be due to a setting in the bios that I need to change.
From doing this a few previous times, it seems that the same live CD formatted the disk and then made the partitions prior to installing.

One of the guides said a full DVD is better than a liveCD, so I'm going to download the last F16 32 and hope it will work.
The F16 64 that I have was when it first came out a year ago. Maybe it has more bugs but still it should work.

I'd like to get this done by tonight if possible. Any comments and suggestions are much appreciated!


Update: The DVD takes 8 hours and 35 minutes, compared to 1 hour for a liveCD. So much for tonight.

[BBQdave]

Originally Posted by johnlvs2run

I thought the liveCD would give me an option to partition, but it's not showing up upon boot, and the CD is not opening.

Depending on how old the dell Inspiron is (32-bit or 64-bit) would determine which Fedora to install. If the dell Inspiron is using 4 gigs of ram, most likely it would support a 64-bit system. And F16 live cd is a could way to test that. I believe one of the function keys (F2 maybe) should get you into the bios and allow selecting cd drive to boot from.

I have had no issue with F16 (64-bit) live cd booting up and installing. On an old dell inspiron 1100 (one gig of ram), I have F16 Xfce spin (32-bit) running with no issue.

If it is a graphics issue, you may have better luck with F16 Xfce

[johnlvs2run]

Thanks much for your messeage.
The dell inspiration is new. He just got it from dell a month ago.
My cd is F 16 64 LXDE. The same liveCD worked fine for me on my own computer.

Yes, I changed the boot from the bios, so it boots to the liveCD. That's when I got the message.
I'm concerned that it said "no root device found", because the iso is on there.

The DVD download was taking forever. I turned it off and am getting the F17 32 LXDE liveCD.

[BBQdave]

Originally Posted by johnlvs2run

The dell inspiration is new. He just got it from dell a month ago.

...am getting the F17 32 LXDE liveCD.

I believe you want the F17 (64-bit) LXDE liveCD, for the newer dell hardware (64-bit).

The 32-bit version of F17 LXDE would probably install OK, but it would not utilize the full amount of ram (4 gigs) that is available on the dell 64-bit hardware.

[johnlvs2run]

Originally Posted by BBQdave

I believe you want the F17 (64-bit) LXDE liveCD, for the newer dell hardware (64-bit).

Okay thanks. I'll get the 64 bit.

Any ideas why the current CD isn't working?

[BBQdave]

Originally Posted by johnlvs2run

Any ideas why the current CD isn't working?

That is odd that it worked OK for you on another machine, but not on the dell.

Hopefully with you downloading the latest Fedora (17), that will allow you to test and install on the dell

[johnlvs2run]

GnomeBaker didn't find the iso's and they weren't showing up anywhere.

# find / -name *.iso
/tmp/Fedora-17-i686-Live-LXDE.iso
/tmp/Fedora-17-x86_64-Live-LXDE.iso

# mv /tmp/Fedora-17-x86_64-Live-LXDE.iso ~/Desktop
# mv /tmp/Fedora-17-i686-Live-LXDE.iso ~/Desktop
mv: overwrite `/root/Desktop'? no

# find / -name *.iso
/tmp/Fedora-17-i686-Live-LXDE.iso
[root@computer ~]#

Uhoh that is strange. What happened to x86_64?

# mv /tmp/Fedora-17-i686-Live-LXDE.iso /home/john/Desktop

Woo hoo!!! I got one of them moved. Now to start it, and sleep.

[george_toolan]

Is this a trick question? You renamed the file ;-)

mv /root/Desktop /home/john/Desktop/Fedora-17-x86_64-Live-LXDE.iso

Make sure the files are complete before you burn them.

[johnlvs2run]

Originally Posted by george_toolan

Is this a trick question? You renamed the file ;-)

mv /root/Desktop /home/john/Desktop/Fedora-17-x86_64-Live-LXDE.iso

Make sure the files are complete before you burn them.

Awesome! Now it is found again.

Loading from the F 17 32 liveCD was quick and easy, so I did it before sleeping. Now is just to tweek the programs and settings.
Some of the vendor sites stated 64bit doesn't work with intel processors. Maybe that was the reason 64bit didn't work.

Thank you, BBQdave, for helping to keep me on track, and george for the code to find F 17 64!