Red Hat 8.0 Installation Takes Way Too Long

Sat, 31 May 2003 12:53:01 -0700

I have yet to resolve my problem (I opened up an incident with Red Hat), but
I wanted to report on what I have found out.

I am attempting to install Red Hat 8.0 from a boxed-CD set, and although the
installation seems to go fine, it is taking WAY too long. I was doing a CD
boot installation, in text mode, and got to the point where it started
actually installing the components. The installation was slow to this point,
but, being interactive, it was manageable. At this point, I left it
installing the
components and went to bed. After six hours, the installation program said
it still had ten (10) more hours to go.

The system has a Pentium-II processor running at 266-MHz with 540-MB of RAM,
and I was installing to a secondary 13-GB IDE drive (hdb or D:, depending on
the OS). Not state of the art, but capable of RH8, per the HCL. I verified
the first CD (the installation has never gotten past the first CD), and
passed, although it took 57 minutes to run mediacheck. The CD light blinks
very slowly, compared to when it runs under Windows 98, which is the OS
running on the first hard drive. I ran a test of the CD drive using Easy CD
Creator, and it runs fine.

I also tried making a disk driver diskette, and redid the installation using
this diskette: no help. The install log doesn't show anything significant,
but the system log shows the following message several times:

	<4> hdc cdrom_decode_status: status 0x51 {DriveReady SeekComplete Error}
	<4> hdc cdrom_decode_status: error 0x30

At this point, I am waiting for Red Hat's word on this, and I also want to
try installing to a different system (I have another system with a P4
processor, but I have to wrestle it away from my kids). I will report back
anything else I find, but in the meantime, if anyone has any ideas, they
would be GREATLY appreciated.

Ernie

Ernie L. Bérriz
 Mesa, Arizona
  Fax:  509.752.6776
   Ernie_Berriz@qwest.net

| -----Original Message-----
| From: plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
| [mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of Thomas
| Cameron
| Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 10:18 AM
| To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
| Subject: Re: Red Hat 8.0 Installation Takes Way Too Long
|
|
| That's highly unusual - did you verify disks first?  Sounds like bad media
| or CD drive.
| --
| Thomas Cameron, RHCE, CNE, MCSE, MCT
| Cameron Technical Services, Inc.
| (512) 454-3200 Main
| http://www.camerontech.com
|
| ----- Original Message -----
| From: "Ernie L. Bérriz" <Ernie_Berriz@qwest.net>
| To: <plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
| Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 12:08 PM
| Subject: Red Hat 8.0 Installation Takes Way Too Long
|
|
| > I am attempting to install my first Linux system, Red Hat 8.0, from a
| boxed
| > set. I was doing the text-based installation, taking my time to
| make sure
| I
| > understood as much as possible for future reference, and
| everything seemed
| > to be going fine, except for the fact that after 6 hours of
| installing the
| > RPMs, the installation counter showed it still had 10 hours to go.
| >
| > I have read all the documentation I could get my hands on, searched the
| Red
| > Hat site, as wells as googled for more information, all to no
| avail. I am
| > assuming this is not normal :)
| >
| > My system is a Pentium-II running at 266-MHz with 640-MB of RAM, a 13-GB
| IDE
| > hard drive for the Linux system, and a CD-RW drive, from which I am
| > installing. It's not state-of-the-art, but it's well within the specs
| listed
| > by Red Hat in their Hardware Compatibility List. It also has
| been running
| > Windows 98 with no problems.
| >
| > I was attempting to install it on the second drive (hdb or D:\,
| depending
| on
| > the OS), and using GRUB to choose the OS to boot. Drive C:\ still has
| > Windows 98 on it.
| >
| > This is all the information I can think of that may be relevant to this
| > problem, but I will be glad to provide anything else that may help to
| > analyze this problem.
| >
| > I would be extremely grateful for any assistance.
| >
| >
| > Ernie L. Bérriz
| >  Mesa, Arizona
| >   Fax:  509.752.6776
| >    Ernie_Berriz@qwest.net
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