System Specs:

Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939
Athlon 64 3200+ Venice Core
2 x 512 RAM - Kingston DDR PC2700
Gigabyte GV-N52128DS GeForce FX 5200
2 x Hauppauge PVR-250
Maxtor 300GB IDE 16MB Cache 7200RPM ( IDE0 Master )
TDK DVD Burner ( IDE0 Slave )

<edit>
forgot this > Installing Knoppmyth R5A30.2
</edit>

Auto Install seems to go ok, unill the very end when I see this (see photo)


Then, I get the message that Install completed successfully...

I have seen a half-dozen or so posts about this (or similar) isssue, but none of those solutions (if any were provided or found) has worked for me yet.

This is a brand-new system, Knoppmyth is the first thing I am installing on this system.

When I reboot as prompted, everything goes ok, I take the CD out and hit <enter>. The system restarts and hangs at "Verifying DMI Pool Data..." just after the PCI Devices Listing (which follows the IDE Detection.

I have tried setting the jumpers on both the DVD Drive and 300GB HD to CS - same result.

When I run "memtest all" after booting to the CD and then quitting the UI, all I get are "unable to malloc XXXXXXXXXXXXX" a bunch of times, then it seems to kill itself. If I try to run "memtest all" at the "boot: " prompt when the CD first boots up, the system restarts.

I have checked my MD5 and burned two copies of the CD.

I have checked my BIOS settings and cannot find anywhere to disable PnP as one of the similar posts suggested.

I am pretty much a Linux NOOB - I have installed and "played with" a few distros, but all of them had nice clean "easy" install interfaces and I didn't have to manually install anything. Command-line is a scary place for me - please be gentle.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am looking forward to getting this sweet computer up and running.

~Andy

You're generally supposed to use PC3200 memory with socket 939 processors. Double check your BIOS settings to make sure it isn't trying to cheat and run the PC2700 memory at a higher speed as a result. You may have to force it to play nice.

By your short reply, TJC, I am assuming that the strange screen output in my photo at the very end of install is "normal"?

I had the two sticks of 512 PC2700 just waiting to go into a DDR system.

I realize that it can handle "up to" PC3200, but the mb detects the RAM at the right size and speed and says "ok" next to it on the POST screen.

Not that this matters, but installing Debian 3.1rev1 netinst went ok - I had to try something to check my sanity.

If memory is a problem, memtest should tell me, right?
Well, I cannot even run memtest reliably... I really am a noob - help!

Thanks.

If you can't run memtest you may have a memory problem. You may also have a bad burn. Try booting from the CD using using testcd as an argument to verify the disk.

testcd ouputs:
Everything looks OK

next idea?

Back to memtest. If that's not working something is just plain wrong.

How are you running memtest? did you download the memtest iso and boot it from a cd?

so when do I run memtest?
specifically?

at the console after I boot and then quit?

or.... when?

If memtest comes on the knoppmyth cd, I wasn't aware of it. I downloaded the memtest iso from here: http://www.memtest.org/ which produces a bootable cd that just boots into the memtest application.

I ran
memtest
at the prompt after booting and quitting

all I get are
"Unable to malloc xxxxxxxxxxxx bytes" for a screen full
and then it kills itself.

I will try it off the iso from memtest's website.

OK

downloaded & burned ISO from www.memtest.org (1.65+)

and my memory passed all tests (twice).

rebooting still hangs with a blinking cursor right after:
"Verifying DMI Pool Data ................"
_

Now what?

Check your BIOS. What is set to boot from? Is PnP disabled?

Well I usually turn to Google. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Verifying+DMI+Pool+Data+&btnG=Google+Search

In that search, the first hit looks promising. As do the rest. Tons of info, all hardware related.

So, because I can install WinXP / Mandriva 2006 / Ubuntu 5.10 / Debian 3.1 netinst, I should troubleshoot my hardware?

All these other OS's install and boot just fine.

So, what are they ignoring about my "bad hardware" that Knoppmyth is panicing on?

Or, maybe is it a boot loader issue? Since it stops at "Verifying DMI Pool Data........." - which I reloaded by the way by updating my BIOS (version F6 to F7, then F7 to F8 - the most current). After this update, I have a PnP section in the BIOS, and all it has is PCI settings / IRQ stuff. Not sure I should change anything in there, but I am up for suggestions.

I have found this website http://www.abarbaccia.com where there is a nice guide to setting mythtv up on Ubuntu, which I may have to settle with.

It seems only to be a problem after installing knoppmyth, so I don't understand how it could be a hardware issue?

thanks for all your help!

did you have the tuner card installed when you put all those other systems on the device. the last thing you say you see on the screen is a bios message which is why people are pointing to hardware since the OS hasn't even started booting at that point. Also what type of drives do you have? there are some issues with knoppmyth and sata at the moment.

_________________
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