Installing on eMachines eMonster 1000

[Robert L Cochran]

It boots Windows XP just fine and without a long wait. In fact, there 
has been slight improvement in boot timings since adding an ATI Radeon 
7500 PCI video card and then updating it to the latest ATI driver version.

The CDRW drive is an TDK CDRW 4800B. When the Fedora Core 1 CD #1 is put 
in this drive, and you start Windows Explorer, and click on the drive 
letter for this drive, the hard drive activity light goes on and never 
turns off and the hourglass icon goes on and never disappears. There is 
no way to get this to stop short of pressing the CD eject button on the 
CD drive.

When the Fedora Core 1 CD #3 is put in the drive, repeating the process 
described above, the same thing happens and then after about 60 seconds 
the Windows Explorer right-side pane fills with the contents of the CD 
root directory. You can click on the subfolders and see their contents 
with no problem.

The difference between these two CD's (besides the fact that one is 
bootable) is that CD #1 was recorded using cdrecord with speed=52 and CD 
#3 was recorded using cdrecord with speed=36. As I say below all CD's 
have passed mediacheck.

However perhaps CD #1 is still bad, so I've burned a new CD #1 using 
cdrecord at speed=8.

I'll try your other suggestions. I thought both acpi and DMA are off by 
default in Fedora Core? I'll check for APIC options in the BIOS.

Thanks a lot for your time, effort, and help.

Bob


Alexander Dalloz wrote:
> Am So, den 04.01.2004 schrieb Robert L Cochran um 07:16:
> 
>>Hello,
>>
>>I'm installing Fedora from installation CD's on an eMachines eMonster 
>>1000. This machine is running Microsoft Windows XP. The goal is to dual 
>>boot XP and Fedora. I added a second hard drive onto which Fedora will 
>>be installed. Pentium III, 1 Ghz system. The motherboard is an Anaheim, 
>>either the 2, 2A, or 3 -- I think probably the Anaheim-3 but can't be 
>>sure. The graphics card is an ATI Radeon PCI 7500.
>>
>>All the installation CDs passed the media checking.
> 
> 
> Good.
> 
> 
>>When I try to boot from CD #1 to start the install, the hard drive light 
>>goes on for a long time. Then the line
>>
>>ISOLINUX...
>>
>>shows up and remains there with no other monitor activity for more than 
>>60 seconds.
>>
>>Sometimes, the ISOLINUX... line is blanked out and the system boots 
>>Windows XP.
>>
>>Sometimes, the ISOLINUX... is replaced with the graphical Fedora Core 
>>splash and the familiar boot: prompt.
>>
>>If I then press <enter> to start the default install, or type
>>
>>linux acpi=on
>>
>>the hard drive light will go on, and the installer will load very 
>>slowly. That is, vmlinuz and initrd will load with glacial slowness. So 
>>does everything after that. I will come to the screen where I'm offered 
>>a media check. I skip that. Progress continues with extreme slowness, 
>>always accompanied by a brightly lit hard drive light. In fact the CD/RW 
>>light doesn't seem to come on as often as it should given this is a CD 
>>install.
> 
> 
> If you directly boot Windows XP all is fast? Your describtion sounds to
> me like a hardware problem with the CD drive. So on WinXP it is usable
> without any problem?
> 
> 
>>Maybe I need to pass
>>
>>linux acpi=on hdc=ide-scsi?
> 
> 
> For a start I would leave acpi call away and the ide-scsi call is only
> needed when you want your CD/RW to use for CD burning. During install I
> would leave that away. You can define that afterwards.
> 
> 
>>The BIOS doesn't seem to have a "Plug and Play OS" option. Under 
>>advanced options one can select from "Win98/Win2000", "Win95", or 
>>"Other". I tried booting under "Win98/Win2000" and "Other".
> 
> 
> Other might be the correct and certainly means no plug 'n pray OS.
> 
> 
>>What could be causing these problems?
> 
> 
> Hard to say. Maybe your machine needs special kernel parameters, even to
> recognize full RAM size. Unfortunately I do not know your motherboard. I
> recommend some other boot parameters like disabling acpi, disabling ide
> dma. If you have a BIOS option for changing APIC try mode 1.1 instead of
> 1.4.
> 
> 
>>Thanks
>>
>>Bob
> 
> 
> Alexander
> 
> 

-- 
Bob Cochran
Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
http://greenbeltcomputer.biz/