Mandriva + AMD64 + nforce4 = Suffering!

On Wed, 23 Nov 2005 23:18:20 -0800, Paul wrote:

> I am trying to get a 64bit version of Mandriva installed on my system
> without success. The hardware I am using:
> ASUS K8N4-E (nvidia 4 chipset)
> AMD 64 3700+
> 1G Ram
> Geoforce 6600mx dual head video card
>
> I have not been able to install either 2005 LE nor 2006 in the 64 bit
> versions. I can get to booting the kernel during the install but then
> the process just hangs. I have tried passing various kernel parameters
> and playing with bios settings but without success. The images I am
> using were all checked for errors after download and again after burning
> to disk.
> I can install the 32bit version of both distributions without apparent
> problem. Anyone have any ideas about what is going on? Thanks in advance
>
> Paul

Did you try the -noapic option? The Mandriva installer doesn't work on
AMD64 with NForce chipsets unless you use -noapic. Personally I've given
up on Mandriva and switched to Fedora Core. FC4 installs without a hitch.

>
> Did you try the -noapic option? The Mandriva installer doesn't work on
> AMD64 with NForce chipsets unless you use -noapic. Personally I've given
> up on Mandriva and switched to Fedora Core. FC4 installs without a hitch.
>
>

Yes I did try the -noapic at some point. Also turned it off in the bios
but will try again. I have tried so many permutations that I may have
missed something.

What do you think of FC4. I looked at a couple of reviews and they did
not seem to be particulary good. Seemed like a bloated package with a
number of bugs. Has your experience been different?

Paul

foX wrote:

> "Paul" <idontwantspam@comcast.net> schreef in bericht
> news:6LGdneDl6Oyj9BjenZ2dnUVZ_vidnZ2d@comcast.com. ..
>

>>I am trying to get a 64bit version of Mandriva installed on my system
>>without success. The hardware I am using:
>>ASUS K8N4-E (nvidia 4 chipset)
>>AMD 64 3700+
>>1G Ram
>>Geoforce 6600mx dual head video card
>>
>>I have not been able to install either 2005 LE nor 2006 in the 64 bit
>>versions. I can get to booting the kernel during the install but then the
>>process just hangs. I have tried passing various kernel parameters and
>>playing with bios settings but without success. The images I am using were
>>all checked for errors after download and again after burning to disk.
>>I can install the 32bit version of both distributions without apparent
>>problem. Anyone have any ideas about what is going on? Thanks in advance
>>

>
> For the nforce4 drivers you need the powerpack (to buy) because on the free
> download version the drivers can not be included due to patent cases.
>
> greets
> Fox
>
>

The drivers are available directly from nVidia but I dont know how or if
it is necessary to pass them to the kernel during install. They are
packaged in RPM files. Can an install be completed without using the
nforce drivers?

Paul

foX wrote:

> For the nforce4 drivers you need the powerpack (to buy) because on the
> free download version the drivers can not be included due to patent cases.

Oh. That's sounds to me like a reason *not* to buy a nforce chipset based
Mobo.


De Kameel

Paul wrote:

> I am trying to get a 64bit version of Mandriva installed on my system
> without success. The hardware I am using:
> ASUS K8N4-E (nvidia 4 chipset)
> AMD 64 3700+
> 1G Ram
> Geoforce 6600mx dual head video card
>
> I have not been able to install either 2005 LE nor 2006 in the 64 bit
> versions. I can get to booting the kernel during the install but then
> the process just hangs. I have tried passing various kernel parameters
> and playing with bios settings but without success. The images I am
> using were all checked for errors after download and again after burning
> to disk.
> I can install the 32bit version of both distributions without apparent
> problem. Anyone have any ideas about what is going on? Thanks in advance
>
> Paul

I have been using Mandriva X64_86 (both 2005 and now 2006) without a hitch,
on a Soltek VIA chipset motherboard.
Before you do anything drastic, try using a different RAM, as this could
well be the cause.
Hope this assists

--
Rgds.
Edward
Registered Linux User No. 224802

On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 11:28:22 -0800, Paul wrote:

>

>>
>> Did you try the -noapic option? The Mandriva installer doesn't work on
>> AMD64 with NForce chipsets unless you use -noapic. Personally I've given
>> up on Mandriva and switched to Fedora Core. FC4 installs without a hitch.
>>
>>

> Yes I did try the -noapic at some point. Also turned it off in the bios
> but will try again. I have tried so many permutations that I may have
> missed something.
>
> What do you think of FC4. I looked at a couple of reviews and they did
> not seem to be particulary good. Seemed like a bloated package with a
> number of bugs. Has your experience been different?
>
> Paul

Fedora Core takes a little more work then Mandriva because they don't
integrate any non-open source programs. However there are third party
repositories that offer all of the multi-media RPMs, once you've set
up your yum.conf file it's trivial to install everything that you need.

My experience with the Fedora Cores is that they end up being completely
solid after they've been out for several months. Fedora Core follows a
different trajectory then Mandriva because it's a development platform not
a commercial release. When a new version of Fedora Core is released it's
very buggy. However FC is continuously improved, not just with bug fixes
but also with new kernels and new package versions. Within two or three
months Fedora Core reaches a quality level that's at least as good as
Mandriva, by the end of it's life Fedora is as solid as Redhat Enterprise
(in fact it essentially is Redhat Enterprise at that point, if you look
at any RHEL release it looks very much like the version of Fedora that was
current at the the time of the new RHEL release). Fedora Core 4 has been
out for a while and it's solid as a rock.

One tip about Fedora. FC has several different GUIs for doing package
updates and installs. The old program was up2date which is what they
install by default. It's worthless, you should only run it once so that it
can configure yum for you, then you never need to run it again. After
you've run up2date you'll want to update all of the packages to the
current level. You can do that from the command line by typing

yum -y update

If you want finer control or you want to add or remove packages you'll
want to use yumex. Yumex is a very well thought out GUI front end for
yuman, it's much better then Mandriva's package management
tools.

To make things simpler for you here is my yum.conf, all of the necessary
third party repositories are included.

[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
pkgpolicy=newest
distroverpkg=redhat-release
tolerant=1
exactarch=1
retries=20
obsoletes=1
gpgcheck=1

# PUT YOUR REPOS HERE OR IN separate files named file.repo
# in /etc/yum.repos.d


[dries]
name=Extra Fedora rpms dries - $releasever - $basearch
baseurl=http://ftp.belnet.be/packages/dries.ulyssis.org/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/dries/RPMS/

[dag]
name=Dag RPM Repository for Fedora Core
baseurl=http://apt.sw.be/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/dag
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1

[freshcore]
name=FreshRPMS-Core
baseurl=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/core
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

[fresheupdates]
name=FreshRPMS-Updates
baseurl=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/updates
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

[freshrpms]
name=FreshRPMS-Fresh
baseurl=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/freshrpms
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

[newrpms.sunsite.dk]
name=Fedora Core 4 i386 NewRPMS.sunsite.dk
baseurl=http://newrpms.sunsite.dk/apt/redhat/en/i386/fc4
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

[greysector]
name=Grey Sector RPMs for Fedora Core $releasever - $basearch
baseurl=http://rpm.greysector.net/yum/$releasever/$basearch/
#mirrorlist=http://rpm.greysector.net/yum/mirrorlist-$releasever
gpgkey=http://rpm.greysector.net/greysector-pubkey.txt
enabled=1

[greysector-testing]
name=Grey Sector RPMs for Fedora Core $releasever - $basearch - Testing
baseurl=http://rpm.greysector.net/yum/testing/$releasever/$basearch/
#mirrorlist=http://rpm.greysector.net/yum/mirrorlist-testing-$releasever
gpgkey=http://rpm.greysector.net/greysector-pubkey.txt
enabled=0

[greysector-all]
name=Grey Sector RPMs for all Fedora Core releases - $basearch
baseurl=http://rpm.greysector.net/yum/all/$basearch/
#mirrorlist=http://rpm.greysector.net/yum/mirrorlist-all
gpgkey=http://rpm.greysector.net/greysector-pubkey.txt
enabled=1

[greysector-testing-all]
name=Grey Sector RPMs for all Fedora Core releases - $basearch - Testing
baseurl=http://rpm.greysector.net/yum/testing/$releasever/$basearch/
#mirrorlist=http://rpm.greysector.net/yum/mirrorlist-testing-all
gpgkey=http://rpm.greysector.net/greysector-pubkey.txt
enabled=0

[atrpms]
name=ATrpms - Stable
baseurl=http://apt.atrpms.net/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/at-stable
http://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/at...pms.net/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/at-stable
http://wftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/ATrpms/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/at-stable
enabled=0
#gpgcheck=1

[atrpms-testing]
name=ATrpms - Testing
baseurl=http://wftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/ATrpms/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/at-testing
http://apt.atrpms.net/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/at-testing
http://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/at...pms.net/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/at-testing
enabled=0
#gpgcheck=1

# Warning: This is unstable software!
[atrpms-bleeding]
name=ATrpms - Bleeding
baseurl=http://apt.atrpms.net/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/at-bleeding
http://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/at...pms.net/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/at-bleeding
http://wftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/ATrpms/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/at-bleeding
enabled=0
#gpgcheck=1

[livna]
name=Livna.org Fedora Compatible Packages
baseurl=http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.lvn
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://rpm.livna.org/RPM-LIVNA-GPG-KEY

>
> I have been using Mandriva X64_86 (both 2005 and now 2006) without a hitch,
> on a Soltek VIA chipset motherboard.
> Before you do anything drastic, try using a different RAM, as this could
> well be the cause.
> Hope this assists
>

Hmmm.....I didn't think about the RAM being a problem since I have been
able to install Windows XP and a 32bit version of Mandriva. Anybody know
if some RAM might be not work in a 64bit enviroment? I have another
machine with different RAM so it is easy enough to switch and see if
that makes a difference. Thanks for the idea

Paul

On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 17:26:20 -0800, Paul wrote:

>

>>
>> I have been using Mandriva X64_86 (both 2005 and now 2006) without a hitch,
>> on a Soltek VIA chipset motherboard.
>> Before you do anything drastic, try using a different RAM, as this could
>> well be the cause.
>> Hope this assists
>>

> Hmmm.....I didn't think about the RAM being a problem since I have been
> able to install Windows XP and a 32bit version of Mandriva. Anybody know
> if some RAM might be not work in a 64bit enviroment? I have another
> machine with different RAM so it is easy enough to switch and see if
> that makes a difference. Thanks for the idea
>
> Paul

You have more then enough RAM. If you are running XP and 32bit Mandriva
there is nothing wrong with your RAM. The problem is with Mandriva not
your system.