MikeWrite

It wasn't the CDs - although just to be sure, I redownloaded the ISOs, md5 checked them, and reburned them at a slower speed. Still froze, at the same general spot in package installation. Based on other posts I've seen, I tried removing my USB mouse and reconnecting it via a PS/2 adapter. Voila - installation then proceeded normally, passing the place where it had always frozen. After inexplicably being asked for CD 4 - CD 4? - I moved on to post-install configuration. Got past installation of the bootloader; I seemed moments from successful completion. Until, that is, a screen appeared that said "configuring printer Canoni560." And there it froze, again. No, I don't have the printer connected via USB; the mouse is my only USB peripheral. Just an ordinary parallel port printer connection. At this point I have attempted to install Mandrake 10 some four or five times. That's enough. This thing is way too crappy for prime time: an OS installation that chokes on long-established, common hardware configurations? No thanks. Into the trash with this one. Good thing CD blanks are cheap these days. On to another distro to see what happens. Linux remains a boutique OS for a reason.

I seem to have a somewhat different Mandrake 10 installation failure than others here, who report freezes during the initial boot off the CD. My disc 1 boots fine, and I am allowed to plod all the way through partition setup and package selection. Installation of packages then begins fine, and the various splash screens appear. But when installation reaches a point where some 20 to 15 minutes remain, the process freezes. It's a hard freeze: I can't even eject the CD, but must hit the reset button on the box. As Linux always screws up partition tables, I thought perhaps this might be the cause. But I have tried twice: first by using Mandrake to partition unallocated HDD space, and the second time (after again repairing the destroyed table) by first using Partition Magic in Windows to create ext2 boot and root partitions, as well as Linux swap. (In both cases, I attempted to install Mandrake entirely on logical partitions.) Fedora Core 2 installs fine on this system. Is there something other than alleged badly burned ISOs at work here? I've burned dozens of ISOs on this burner, including Windows and Fedora OS CDs, with nary a hitch in any of 'em, so it seems unlikely that I'd happen to burn a bad Mandrake CD, particularly given so many reported Mandrake install freezes - unless there's something inherently crappy in the Mandrake ISOs themselves, requiring kid-glove treatment. Again, assume it isn't the way the CD was burned. What else could it be? NF7-S v2 XP2800 Barton 200x10.5 3x256mb Mushkin 2-2-3-11 Maxtor DM 40gig via PATA-SATA adapter Radeon 9100 Asus 52x CD-ROM LiteOn 52x24x52 CD-RW Sony SDM-X73 via DVI Antec TruPower 380w Cable broadband (no router - yet)