[RULE] From Greenland- Slinky install problem-possibly very similar to <slinky fails using up2date RedHat 9 CD-ROMs>

[Jaxon Abroad]

Hi everyone,
To honor the request on the mailing list page I'm going to introduce
myself quick...
My name is Jackson Klein, I'm 18 years old and living in Nuuk,
Greenland right now as a Rotary Exchange Student. I know a fair amount
about computers, I've worked at a pc repare shop, took a class in C++
and have spent a huge amount of timing troubleshooting and sometimes
fixing friends' families' computers. A few weeks ago I bought a Compaq
Armada 1592DT laptop from a local friend for about $15 with the hopes
installing a copy of Linux Red Had 9 I had received from a friend in
America last year. I first attempted installing it a few days ago and
was dismayed to see that I my 16M of ram wasn't gonna cut it. During
my life I have found that there are really very few answers that can't
be found somewhere on the internet. When I came across RULE I was glad
to find that I would be able to give this old pc a second chance and
was also intrigued by the mission of RULE.
So now to the reason I ended up joining the mail list. I'm having a
problem with the installation. I do believe that it is actually very
similar to John Reiser's thread, "slinky fails using up2date RedHat 9
CD-ROMs" posted on Jan 8. However my dos skills are less than adequate
for much of anything so any problems that weren't worked through in
the online instructions or in John's thread are a bit over my head.
Before reading John's post I transcribed most of my installation
process as reference for when I asked the list. After reading his post
I realized that this process was probably not completely necessary.
However I really don't now quite enough about dos/things to even make
that call, so here it all is.
Oh yes…. I believe that the only difference between John's issue and
mine COULD be different versions(?) of Linux. If I looked in the right
place (the header of the main readme file on RH9 disc1) I think my
version is called Red Hat Linux/x86 9 (Shrike).
Note: anything without // is quoted from screen (for the most part...)

//The installation goes fine at first. I yes myself through the first
two questions.
//Choose RH 9
//Choose floppy for stage two scripts
//Choose cdrom for installation
I'll try to use /dev/hdb as your cd drive.
You'll have the opportunity to change this later in the install if need be.
//Choose filesystem ext2 (I don't really know what my best choice here
is, but that's not the issue at hand)

To which device would you like to install RULE? There is no default
value, please enter a valid device from the list below. (perhaps the
problem starts here...)
[hda ]: _
//I type "hda" as that is the only "listed" choice.
//I choose fdisk
//I create two 600mb partitions because I don't really understand how
the will be used  and //I want to make sure lack of space isn't my
problem. I create both as Primaries.
//Set first as a Swap. 
//Don't do anything to second partition

//Hit "W" to move on
The partition table has been altered
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table
hda: hda1 hda2
hda: hda1 hda2
Syncing disks.
The following is your partition layout (Linux partitions only):
/dev/hda1	1	153	616864+	82	 Linux swap
/dev/hda2	154	306	616896	83	 Linux

I found 2 Linux partitions, 1 of which is defined as swap space.
Making swap file sytem on /dev/hda1
Activating swap partition.
Adding Swap: 616856k swap-space (priority –1)

Please select your '/' filesystem. [hda2]:
//I type hda2 as that appears to be my only choice

//I choose to format /dev/hda2

Creating root file system.
Done.
Mounting the root partition on '/newroot'.
Creating directories...
Copying executables and config files...

Please insert the disk containing the stage 2 files in the floppy
drive. And press enter.
//This I do

Mounting  /dev/fd0 on /mnt/floppy
EXT2-fs warning; checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended
Installing the rpm binary and stage two scripts.
Unmounting /mnt/floppy
Changing directories.
Executing pivot_root, making /newroot your new / directory
Success!
Please insert RH 9 disk 1
//This I also do

Mounting /dev/hdb on /mnt/cdrom

//It asks for language, I choose "en"
Rpm is configured to install the following locales:
En
This is configured via /etc/rpm/macros

//Asks about packages- I select none from the list- this is just
because I have tried both ways and know that either way I get an error
and it's shorter for the sake of transcribing this to load nothing
extra.

//Goes through the list just fine, no faults, just hundred percents.
Except (I doubt this matters) but a few times, the text will say
"preparing", the status bar goes up to 100 percent and, then instead
of listing the prepared file (ex. 1:info) on the next line with
another status bar, the next line is just another Preparing thingy,
which is followed by normal ones.

//The preparing of packages finishes with no visible errors. This is
where things start going awry.

Error reported while installing kernel-2.4.20-8.i586.rpm
Finished installing RPMs.

Unmounting and ejecting cdrom...
/root/scripts/base_install.sh: unount: No such file or directory
/root/scripts/base_install.sh: eject: No suh file or directory
Done.

//cd doesn't eject and does not respond to manual eject. I used manual
override pinhole

Please set a root password:
//I'm given no chance to do this. Error message-
/root/scripts/base_install.sh: /usr/bin/passwd: No such file or dirctory

please create a non-root user account, this is required!
Please enter a login name:*****
/root/scripts/base_install.sh: /usr/sbin/useradd/: No such file or directory

please enter *****'s full name: *****
/root/scripts/base_install.sh: /usr/bin/chfn/: No such file or directory

Please set a password for *****.
//No chance to set password just skips to to
/root/scripts/base_install.sh: /usr/bin/passwd/: No such file or directory

/root/scripts/base_install.sh: grep: No such file or directory
/root/scripts/base_install.sh: grep: No such file or directory

#######*******   Important  *******########

you have the option of installing lilo...........

Shall I install lilo on /dev/hda ? [yes / NO]
//I select NO
Lilo installation skipped by user.
Be sure to create a boot disk when prompted!

Shall I create a boot floppy? [yes / NO]:
//I select yes
/root/scripts/base_install.sh: /sbin/mkbootdisk: No such file or directory

/scipts/setup.sh: pivot_root: No such file or directory
rmdir: unable to remove '/newroot/oldroot': No such file or directory
/scripts/initial_reboot.sh cannot create /newroot/etc/mtab: No such
file or directory

You're ready to reboot? [yes / NO]
//yes
Unmounting filesystems.
Couldn't unmount filesystems.
Couldn't unmount /newroot on /dev/hda2: Invalid argument
Turning off swap:
Done. The install is complete!

Please press 'enter to reboot
//Enter
Bummer, could not run '/bin/unmount': No such file or directory
Bummer, could not run '/sbin/swapoff: No such file or directory

This system is going down now!!!
Sending SIGTERM to all processes....
......


PC boots into a black screen with blinking horizontal cursor...


Any of help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if I missed any
important information.
Jaxon
Also very sorry that this post is so long, I wasn't/am not sure what
is needed and what is unneeded information.

_______________________________________________
Original home page of the RULE project: www.rule-project.org
Rule-list at rule-project.org
http://mail.rule-project.org/mailman/listinfo/rule-list_rule-project.org