Frustration - unable to install any Linux

for the wireless in debian

http://wiki.debian.org/WiFi

when the install fails on the other distros have you tried looking at the messages terminal or jump to the messages terminal and see where the install falls over at. the messages with be on one of the terminal F1-F7 think your need to press ctrl with the F keys.
 
Thanks deano, about to take a look. Debian is not what I would have really wanted, but given that it is the only one that actually installs and runs, I have little choice. No-where near as user friendly as Ubuntu. Could run Ubuntu 8.10 I guess, but I'm not sure it is a good idea to run such an old distro. I've googled this, and the P5Q motherboard series has given a lot of people a lot of problems with Linux

EDIT: The Debian route looks difficult, looks like I need to install another kernel as the first step. I think I will use Ubuntu 8.10 plus just essential updates.
 
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Tuvoc said:
It goes to a blank screen, CD activity for a while, then the CD drive stops and that is it, nothing
Click to expand...

..I had the exact same problem when trying to install Linux on an old Dell X300 laptop.

...MINT in 'compatibility mode' was the only way I got it working.
 
One last shot before I revert to Ubuntu 8.10 - Mandriva seems to be fine, I got through to the partitioning step on the dual-iso download. Now downloading the full DVD x64 iso. The only other new distro that gets as far as this is Debian, which of course then goes on to install and run perfectly. It is however a really spartan install.
 
deano said:
latest bios ?
Click to expand...

Yes

I understand what is happening in a way - Ubuntu 8.10 uses kernel 2.6.27-7, and Debian 5.0, despite being the latest version, uses an old kernel, 2.6.26. Later kernels on all current distributions (the ones I've tried, but I would say it is all of them) break compatibility with my system. What it is I just don't know. It is a pretty serious thing in my view, they have broken something in later kernels. And my system is not unusual, pretty standard hardware.
I'm just going to run 8.10 now, I've wasted way too many hours on this already. Thanks to everyone who has helped me, much appreciated.
 
it does seem to be a kernel issue, but you did mention mandriva working which is a new kernel.
as long as you update 8.10 then there should not be any issues.
 
deano said:
it does seem to be a kernel issue, but you did mention mandriva working which is a new kernel.
as long as you update 8.10 then there should not be any issues.
Click to expand...

I narrowed it down a little further

kernel 2.6.26 = OK (latest Debian)
Kernel 2.6.27 = OK (Ubuntu 8.10)

Kernel 2.6.28 = not OK (Ubuntu 9.04) installs and boots but then freezes

Kernels in latest Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Mint,Fedora Mandriva, are not OK for me. Mandriva is almost there, it installs but then freezes. None of the others even start to install.

Anyway - I'm happily using Ubuntu 8.10 right now, it is rock solid and it will do fine for what I need.
 
...just an idea

have you tried unplugging one of your hard drives?

or maybe try a different drive?
 
I've no doubt there are lots of things I could do like that, but I don't see why I should. It should just work, end of story. I've been using Ubuntu 8.10 all day today and it has been running perfectly. So I have a solution that I am happy with.

I'll keep an eye on the ubuntu and other forums for any sign of a fix to this, and additionally I'll look at Debian further. Although that is quite spartan, I'm keen to get my hands dirty with it and experiment, but at my own pace and while I have a working solution in the meantime. Debian is a conservative distro, but I do find it interesting that they still use the old 2.6.26 kernel and haven't jumped up to the newer ones. Maybe they know something everyone else doesn't. I certainly do - the newer kernels are not compatible with my hardware ! :eek:
 
Have you tried the virtual machine route, rather than dual booting, you could allocate 6Gb of your 8Gb ram.
 
Tuvoc said:
Debian is a conservative distro, but I do find it interesting that they still use the old 2.6.26 kernel and haven't jumped up to the newer ones.:
Click to expand...

Debian 6.0 will bring a new kernel with it. Due out later this year.
 
I have now tried Mepis Linux, and again the older 8.0 with kernel 2.6.27 works, and 8.5 with kernel 2.6.32 does not. But Mepis gives more information as to why it fails:

It says:
pci 0000:05:02.0: BAR 6 address space collision on of device [0xfebc0000-0xfebdffff]

Now, google that and you find:
It's a bug with the way the kernel 2.6.31 handles PCI resources. Linus Torvalds describes the problem here
https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/39988/
There appears to be a fix in the works, but not for kernel 2.6.31

and
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/424142

So it is at least a known bug, but I'm astonished it isn't fixed as these posts are months old.

And note that 5:02 appears to be the ethernet controller, if I am interpreting things correctly:

demo@mepis1:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset DRAM Controller (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port (rev 02)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 1
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 5
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 6
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 90)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JIR (ICH10R) LPC Interface Controller
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SATA AHCI Controller
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SMBus Controller
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon HD 3870
01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon HD 3870 Audio device
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 12)
03:00.0 IDE interface: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE6121 SATA II Controller (rev b1)
05:02.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8001 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 14)
05:03.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Agere Systems FW322/323 (rev 70)
 
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memyselfandi said:
Have you tried disabling the ethernet controller on 5:02 in your bios (assuming it's onboard) ?
Click to expand...

That got rid of the message, but it just then stopped without any message at all

I'll continue to use 8.10 x64, and watch for news of any kernel updates or other fixes which may solve the bug. Actually, 8.10 is really nice, there is probably no need to upgrade at all.
 
Resurrecting an old post... I tried Debian 6 and it fails to run on this machine, same as all the other later distros with newer kernels. BAR 6: address space collision is the error message with Debian 6.

Debian 5 runs fine with its old kernel, as does the old Ubuntu 8.10, as previously posted.
 
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