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RUG
13th February 2004, 07:45 PM
Hi:

I have a Compaq Presario 5834, with Windows XP installed.I want to keep WXP. WXP automatically did a partition in my disk and I am trying to use it. I decided to erase everything in that partition (D:\) and I formatted it. Then I booted the computer from the DVD driver, and this seems to work because the installation procces beggins, but it stops at:

running install
running/sbin/loader

Can somebody tell me what is the problem?

Thanks

RUG

bsm2004
14th February 2004, 01:35 AM
here is how I would try.
1. boot with the fedora cd
2. select partition with disk druid
3. delete the partition you want to use.
4. make new partitions as follows.
1. /boot 100mb
2. / remainder
3. swap twice the size of actual ram. if more than 512 mb phys ram then swap partition can be 512 or less ie 768 phys ram = 256 swap.
4. continue with installation
and enjoy.
for some reason linux any distro I have tried none like the partition magick or the windows builtin partition tools
best to use the tool from the linux cd.

mhelios
14th February 2004, 04:44 AM
If you have USB legacy device support set to primary in your BIOS, disable that and retry.

Also you could try adding a few options to the linux install command i.e.:

Try this first:
"linux nofb"

Others you might include are nousb, noapic and noprobe if the others don't fix it.

Also make sure that besides the NTFS partition for WInXP, there's nothing but free space with no filesystem formatted.
Use `fdisk -l` to check this.

RUG
16th February 2004, 02:44 PM
Can you tell me how to access the BIOS in a Compaq? I tryed del, all the F keys, and some others, but still can not access the BIOS.

Thanks

mhelios
16th February 2004, 03:09 PM
F1 or F10 during the Compaq boot-up screen should do it. Otherwise, carefully check the boot screens for a key combo it may specify. Otherwise look in the manual.

EDIT: See this page also:
http://www.burningvoid.com/iaq/compaq-bios.html

billyd
23rd February 2004, 11:53 PM
I have this same problem also. I have a desktop with AMD, 1G RAM and a 40G Seagate. RedHat 9.0 is presently installed. I'm trying to install from a DVD from the "Fedora for Dummies Package" I'm using the 2nd DVD - ordered another from Dummies - they were very prompt.

You can't do anything after machine locks up - you''re not at opening screen yet.

I have tried the noapic & ide=nodma boot options. I also booted the RedHat 9.0CD to see what would happen - it takes me to the opening screen as expected.

Has anyone else had this problem?

mhelios
24th February 2004, 05:29 AM
billyd,

Did you try the "linux nofb" option?

billyd
24th February 2004, 04:20 PM
I finally got Fedora installed. I tried nofb and probably didn't wait long enough the loader to load. The cursor was blinking though and it would proably have installed. I went in BIOS and set the USB option to NO MICE. I'll go back in later and reset it so I can use mouse without PS2 adapter. Thanks so much for your help. You can take a shower, shave and have a cup of coffee while loader loads.

A note about the screens - if screen is 1280 X 1024 like I thought I set it - then large print on screen is very nice for us older people.

mhelios
24th February 2004, 04:51 PM
A note about the screens - if screen is 1280 X 1024 like I thought I set it - then large print on screen is very nice for us older people.

Just remember, you are young at heart. :) You prove that linux is for any age group. And I'm glad the linux you chose was Fedora.

jamie
22nd May 2004, 11:15 PM
try: linux apm=off acpi=off pci=noacpi

newfc2user
24th May 2004, 02:31 PM
I had a similar problem with an old Compaq Armada. I used

boot: linux nousb nofb

and FC2 installed fine after that.

stevehultquist
5th July 2005, 11:20 PM
I have a system with a SuperMicro P6SNA MB that I've been running RH 9 on for quite some time. It seems time to upgrade it, but I can't get the blasted Fedora boot CD to get safely beyond the /sbin/loader line. It waits there for a while, and then spews a bunch of messages that I can't read (scrolling too fast), but that look like CDROM and/or IRQ errors.

I've tried the various options that you've been so kind as to recommend here, but I'm still out of luck. Any additional thoughts?

Thanks...

stevehultquist
7th July 2005, 12:46 AM
Well, I finally decided that Fedora was not going to install on my ancient (circa 1995) system, so I ended up going with FreeBSD this time around. It's a lot less familiar to me, but at least I can have a server without buying any more parts! Thanks, ya'll...

GwiDan
2nd August 2005, 04:19 PM
I have the same problem as everyone else in this topic had - the loader just stops at

"running /sbin/loader"

I thought I'd waited long enough to see that it had indeed hung, but this topic is starting to make me think otherwise. I've waited a good few minutes for something to change, but nothing happens, except the DVD keeps spinning in the drive. How long should one have to wait for something to happen here?

I think the installer just doesn't work on my machine, but I don't know how to fix it because I know nothing about Linux.

Any suggestions short of not using Fedora?

stevehultquist
7th August 2005, 08:34 PM
GwiDan, how much memory do you have in your system? I'm hearing rumors that you'll need at least 256MB to install Fedora, and I only had 64MB in my system.

GwiDan
8th August 2005, 03:53 PM
I have 128MB of RAM. I found a solution - you type in "linux ide=nodma" at the boot screen and it installs without a hitch, though I have no idea what that line of code means.

stevehultquist
8th August 2005, 05:46 PM
Glad it worked for you. It didn't work for me with 64MB of RAM. Well done!

gumbald
17th August 2005, 01:54 PM
That above option worked for me on another install I did, when "linux nofb" only worked on my machine. Can Fedora not solve this problem?

gumbald
17th August 2005, 02:23 PM
Spoke too soon, it said later in the install that no hard drive was detected, did this hook turn something off related to it?

zentaury
29th November 2005, 01:31 PM
I have 128MB of RAM. I found a solution - you type in "linux ide=nodma" at the boot screen and it installs without a hitch, though I have no idea what that line of code means.
GREAT!
I have P2 266mhz 256mb ram. All time stopped at /sbin/loader...
i typed linux ide=nodma nousb nofb
and now i install :D.
I am very happy.
Thank you!

Aeschulus
27th February 2006, 05:20 PM
Like many others, was having quite the trouble instaling the FC4 DVD. My particular install was onto a laptop, the Gateway Solo 1450. Here's what I did, based on what a lot of the users here were saying:

In the BIOS, I removed the backwards compatibility for USB. I think this was the thing that finally did it.

When I received the boot prompt, I entered:

linux nofb noacpi nousb

The nofb had always helped with regards to the flashing of the screen, and the acpi for the power management and the usb was a boon -- after that, it installed perfectly, and boots fine. Video and sound were both detected great.

Thanks for all who posted to this thread, it was a big help!

madafaka
12th November 2007, 04:17 AM
Hello everybody,

I'm new in Linux environment and i'm trying to install fedora 8 but i get the same problem,

when it stops at running/sbin/loader...

I wrote this command : linux nofb noacpi nousb

but still it doens't do anything, do I have to wait a little bit or it goes immideatelly ?

Please HELP.

thanks in advance.

cr4ck3r
12th November 2007, 05:39 AM
try: linux apm=off acpi=off pci=noacpi
This will overcome the problem on my HP DV 5000.
Thank so much!

cr4ck3r
12th November 2007, 05:42 AM
Hello everybody,

I'm new in Linux environment and i'm trying to install fedora 8 but i get the same problem,

when it stops at running/sbin/loader...

I wrote this command : linux nofb noacpi nousb

but still it doens't do anything, do I have to wait a little bit or it goes immideatelly ?

Please HELP.

thanks in advance.
At the boot screen choose option 1 (Upgrade or install), and then press Tab to edit, append those strings to the end and press enter to boot.
That's what I've done to overcome this.
Good luck.

shawn_w
12th November 2007, 07:05 AM
I have this problem, can't get beyond /sbin/loader message, when
I use the bootable CD made from the boot.iso off the dvd. I tried
appending nousb noacpi nofb to the boot options, and disabling
the legacy usb support in the bios, still a no go. To make this
completely unambiguous (in case I am doing it wrong), I press
tab on the first option, and then the command line is appended
to look something like this:
vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img nousb noacpi nousb

Toggling through the virtual consoles, I see 2 other message consoles,
which say something like "loop: module loaded" and "loop.ko", as the
last entries (as best as my memory serves).

I was able to install the KDE live CD version, no problems,
well except the kdelogin was completely unusable, I worked
around that. In addition, I should mention the wireless client
would not connect to my router, I did not waste too much time
on this. I decided the KDE live spin was too bare bones, and
that brings me to this point.

uckelman
12th November 2007, 01:51 PM
I'm upgrading from Fedora 7 to Fedora 8 on a ThinkPad T61. I had this problem---the upgrade crashed and burned in a spew of Python stacktrace---which I solved* by giving the following kernel parameters to the installer:


ide=nodma nousb nofb noapci nolapci

* I asterisk "solved" because doing this got me past the problem. I'm not all the way through the upgrade yet.

bfc
12th November 2007, 03:24 PM
Following these instructions solved my problem:

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=171230&highlight=%2Fsbin%2Floader

Dr.Death
12th November 2007, 06:34 PM
in the grub window press tab and add this option

acpi=off

shawn_w
13th November 2007, 02:10 AM
Ok, I tried appending the boot command line as many have suggested.
I have now created a USB bootable drive, using the diskboot.img, and
dd in Linux. So what is the result, I get stuck at /sbin/loader again!

The thing that puzzles me, is I was able to install the FC8 KDE spin
without this happening. I have downloaded the Dvd iso, all 3GB,
and would like to install, but have no dvd burner. I was going to
try a network http install (all ready to go), but can't make a boot
disk that works.

Anyone have any insight on why the KDE live spin works, but not
the cd or usb bootable images?

berny
14th November 2007, 05:39 PM
Toshiba M400, just in case anyone was interested.

shawn_w
16th November 2007, 05:52 PM
When booting from a cd made with boot.iso, i had to wait about 10-15 minutes after
the /sbin/loader message for some apparent timeout to take effect and continue,
with a full graphical install. Once again, this did not happen with the KDE live
cd spin, and may not have happened if I could have burned a Dvd and installed
from it (I setup a network install).

skolnick
16th November 2007, 08:57 PM
I am having this same issue with two toshiba a135 laptops (1GB RAM, 120HDD, pentium dual core @ 1.7GHz), they hang on the /sbin/loader line. One was a clean install, the other was an upgrade from Fedora 7. Both hang the same. It happens in either graphical or text install. I'll try some of the tips in this thread and come back if I manage to solve the issue.

Regards.