Can't install Mint on Dell Inspiron 8100

[cornwallav8r]

I freshly formatted a 40 gig hardrive with gparted, in prep for a standalone Mint installation.
But it hangs up partway through the install with the LinuxMint logo and the changing color dots below, no textual error or anything.
As I am a beginner Linuxer, would be most appreciative as to some assistance what to look for...thanks much...

[rivenathos]

Welcome to the forum. Have you tried booting with "Compatibility Mode" yet?

[cornwallav8r]

Yes, that didn;t work either. What is frustrating to a new user, is no text indicating where it crashes.

[rivenathos]

I have had something similar to this happen before. If you are using a Live CD to install, try this. I know it is going to sound odd, but I have had good luck with it in the past. Instead of burning the ISO onto a CD, burn it onto a DVD. There is something about the SquashFS that might be causing your headaches. When I switched to using a DVD instead of a CD, I have had no more booting errors. My problems started with Mint 8, I think. I automatically burn to DVDs these days.

[rivenathos]

Oh yeah, I forgot to ask the standard questions, but are you making sure the MD5sums match? Are you making sure you are burning at the lowest possible speed?

[cornwallav8r]

Hmm, there doesn't appear to be anything at all wrong with my burned disk.
Maybe the partitions weren't right.

I tried CentOS distribution, and now that boots into the LiveOS version perfectly.
Now if I can figure out how to install it to disk for a standalone version operating off disk instead of the slow CDRom...
why is nothing with this Linux stuff intuitive or easy? I am either getting old, or have forgotten the slow learning curve with DOS prompt work. Windows has us spoiled.

[bobcollard]

I doubt if the Partitions are your problem, should be two, one for / and one for swap, Did you set it for Ext3 or Ext4? Sounds more like a Disk problem. If you checked your md5sum then burn at 3x and as rivenathos suggested with a DVD.

[Aging Technogeek]

How much ram do you have in this 8100. I have seen a few and they tend to be very ram deprived. I think the max is 512 Meg. This is the minimum amount of ram needed to install Mint Gnome, KDE, or Xfce.

I once had an almost identical problem with an old P3 home built system. I put the CD in and it took forever to get to the desktop (literally, about 30 minutes). I did what I should have done first, and checked with the owner. He only had 256 Meg of ram. I am surprised it got as far as it did.

[cornwallav8r]

How much ram do you have in this 8100. I have seen a few and they tend to be very ram deprived. I think the max is 512 Meg. This is the minimum amount of ram needed to install Mint Gnome, KDE, or Xfce.

I once had an almost identical problem with an old P3 home built system. I put the CD in and it took forever to get to the desktop (literally, about 30 minutes). I did what I should have done first, and checked with the owner. He only had 256 Meg of ram. I am surprised it got as far as it did.

Thanks, spot on! Despite confirming the physical ram as 512mb, the BIOS said 256. I reseated the ram modules, now it reads correctly. Will try the complete install again...also need to find out how to update the nVidia driver for the GeForce2 GO video card, as the default screen doesn't work properly, but downgrading the resolution one step at least makes the grahics viewable, albeit smaller than full screen. It is always something

[cornwallav8r]

All working fine now, thanks for the info. Now if I can just get my Orinoco wireless Silver Card to connect to the WEP encrypted hub, I am golden. It is clearly supported, it sees the access point from the network manager...I am lost.