trouble installing CentOS 5.3 (after failing with Fedora 8)

[Bob McClure Jr]

On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 03:07:37PM -0400, Buz Davis wrote:
> I wasn't sure whether or not to use the old thread about trouble  
> installing Fedora 8 or not, but decided to open a new thread.  As the  
> matters are loosely related let me briefly recapitulate the previous:
>
> ---background---
> I have a small fixed ip network at home, running red hat 9 on two
> amd k6 500 Mhz boxes.  One has 256 M memory and the other 320 M.  They  
> pretty much meet my needs, but lately I have detected that the internet  
> sites
> I frequent are requiring some more modern software than I can run. At  
> the time this started I had no way to write a CD, so ordered a set of  
> Fedora 8 disks.  I picked an older version in recognition of my older,  
> limited hardware.  It turned out that F8 had a problem with amd  
> processors, which was fixed in a respin but the set I had was the  
> original release and the respins don't seem to be available.  During
> the process of attempting to get the install to work I bought yet  
> another old system, but this one running an intel processor and with a  
> drive capable of burning CD's.  (I had to replace a broken Win XP with  
> RH9 to get to it, but it did give me capacity to burn CDs).  F8 wouldn't  
> install on that box because of hard disk problems.  At this point I  
> determined to abandon attempts with F8 and ordered a copy of CentOS 5.3,
> the i386 version.
>
> --- end background ---
>
> The problem:
> The CentOS failed also.  I could get the first screen up, offering  
> choices of how to boot,  and if I asked for memtest86 that would start.
> However, any other choice resulted in a reboot (generally during loading
> of vmlinux).  Sometimes the disk wouldn't be recognized as bootable.
> I have convinced myself that the disks are OK and that I must need  
> either better hardware or more memory (but this is the i386 version of  
> CentOS 5.3) or some parameter on the install that I haven't tried
> (and I've tried about all I have found or remember).  I would appreciate  
> any help.

Your K6 machines are classified as i586 architecture.  They are a
"super Pentium", but not enough to be classed as i686.  I know.  I
still have one of those in retirement.

I had the same problem on my antique IBM Thinkpad with a Pentium MMX
233 (remember those?).  It also is classed as i586.  Though I couldn't
verify it in the docs or READMEs, I suspect that CentOS works only on
i686 or better.  Happily, Fedora 9 loaded just fine on it.  Real Soon
Now I need to upgrade it to F10 or F11.

> Would it be considered bad behavior to also post this on the CentOS  
> mailing list ?

Not at all.  Go for it.

> What I've done so far:
> At first I thought that the disk must be bad (couldn't even run a  
> mediacheck) and emailed the vendor.  Then it occurred to me that I could  
> perhaps download and burn disk 1of6 and use that to get the install  
> started.  I reaized that the process would be a bit "iffy" on a box with  
> hard-disk problems, and also I had never burned a cd, but googled around  
> for instructions and plunged in.  I downloaded an ios, checked it with  
> md5sum and it was OK.  I copied it to the "new" computer via NFS and  
> checked it again: OK.  I burned a CD using cdrecord, and that appeared  
> to work.  The result behaved much like the original had.  I tried two
> more times, varying stuff that I thought might affect the burn, and  
> always got the same sort of behavior.  Finally I tried mounting each of  
> the four disks 1of6 I now had and copied (from /dev/cdrom rather than  
> /mnt/cdrom, so as to avoid separating out the files) each to a separate  
> directory and compared them.  All three that I burned were identical.  
> The "store bought" disk was a little larger, but compared OK up to EOF  
> (and I recall reading that mass-produced disks might be different in  
> their padding).  So I am convinced now that there is nothing wrong with  
> either the original or recently burned disks 1of6
> and the problem must either be requiring better/more hardware (but this  
> is the i386 version of cent OS) or some parameter on the install I have  
> never heard of.

Cheers,
-- 
Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
bob at bobcatos.com             http://www.bobcatos.com
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi
sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, and Levi got
up, left everything and followed him.  Luke 5:27-28 (NIV)