Fedora Core 3 install hangs at /sbin/loader

[Edward]

Gernot Hassenpflug wrote:

> Dear list members,
> 
> I have just started finding out about Fedora Core 2 and 3, having used
> RH7.3 on my desktop for the last several years. However, the boot from
> the first install CD for either FC2 or 3 (iso image) hangs at the
> point where /sbin/loader is executed. The installation works fine on
> my Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop at work. I have searched the archives,
> particularly with respect to nVidia cards (see below) but could not
> find any reports of errors such as what I experience. At the initial
> installation boot: prompt I have tried the following:
> 
> linux noprobe
> linux text noprobe
> 
> but the install process still hangs at the point indicated above.
> 
> Some background: my machine has the following specs:
> 
> Asus P2B motherboard w/ BIOS v.A06
> Intel Pentium II-CEE 400MHz
> 128MB RAM
> nVidia Riva TNT2 graphics card w/ 32MB RAM
> Eizo L360 15" LCD monitor
> 
> HDD:
> 8GB Western Digital WDC AC28400R (primary IDE master)
> 4GB IBM-DCAA-34330               (primary IDE slave)
> 
> Other drives:
> CD-ROM (secondary IDE master)
> 1.44MB Floppy drive
> 
> Boot order option:
> Floppy, CD-ROM, HDD
> 
> Boot HDD detection settings (BIOS, Partition Magic, Windows and Linux
> have different ideas on the fictional geometry):
> both drives set LBA
> 
> At present I am running a dual-boot system with MS Windows 2000 Pro
> and Redhat Linux 7.3, booting from the Windows bootloader in the MBR
> of the IDE primary master (WDC) drive.
> 
> Partitions are as follows (done with Partition Magic 8 and disk druid,
> in a nasty combination that eventually worked out fine):
> 
> Disk:  partition  type  size  comments
> WDC:   /boot      ext3  50MB  primary (where the linux boot loader lives)
>        C:         FAT32 ~8GB  primary (active, with a boot image file for RH7.3)
> 
> IBM:   /swap      swap  500MB primary
>        /          ext3  2.6GB primary
>        (900MB extended partition, divided into 3 logical partitions)
>        /var       ext3  300MB logical
>        /home      ext3  100MB logical
>        D:         FAt32 500MB logical (for use by both Windows and Linux)
> 
> My apologies for the long mail, it is my first post to the list, and I
> hope I have given enough relevant information to give knowledgable
> people here an idea of what might be going wrong. If a clean install
> of both Windows and Linux is the answer, so be it... Many thanks in
> advance,

Try other options. There's one to turn acpi off, which helps some 
people, one for DMA which helps others. I can't remember them all off 
the top off my head, but a quick browse through the archives should tell 
you, as this installer hanging problem has been asked quite a few times 
before.

Regards,
Ed.