Very Computer

by **Laurie & Stuar** » Tue, 17 Feb 1998 04:00:00

Unable to install Red Hat 5.0 on my desktop.
Using Disk druid I configure the following:
1) Swap drive (40 mb - same amount as my ram)
2) / (80 mb)
3) /user (500 mb)
4) /home (100 mb)
5) /temp (100 mb)
This seems to go okay.

Next I format the swap drive. Also seems to go okay.

The installation hangs for a long time at "find installation files".
Finally I get the following error: "error reading header at 290816".

When I attempt to continue the installation, several packages begin to load
and then I get the following error:
"error -2 read
ing header: Success
install exited abnormally
sending termination signals...done
sending kill signals...done
unmounting filesystems...
/tmp/rhimage
/mnt/home
/mnt/user
/proc
/mnt/
You may safely reboot your system".

I have tired and retried the installation for the past two days and it
inevitable ends in this manner.

Additional info: I've never installed or even used Linux before.
I have installed System Commander on my system in hopes of making this an
easier process.
My HD is 3.26 gig. Of this, 2 gig is partitioned for Win95, the rest in
unpartitioned and eagerly awaiting Linux.

Please help.

Stuart

by **Rod Smi** » Wed, 18 Feb 1998 04:00:00

[Posted and mailed]

Quote:
> Unable to install Red Hat 5.0 on my desktop.
> Using Disk druid I configure the following:
> 1) Swap drive (40 mb - same amount as my ram)
> 2) / (80 mb)
> 3) /user (500 mb)

If it's really a "/user" mount point, that's your problem -- most of the
Linux install goes under "/usr", not "/user". Therefore, your install is
trying to cram far more than 80MB of data onto the 80MB root partition.

Quote:> 4) /home (100 mb)
> 5) /temp (100 mb)

Likewise, Linux doesn't normally use a "/temp" directory; it uses "/tmp".
I'd advise against creating a separate partition for this, at least for a
newbie; it'll gain you little or nothing (and may actually cost you) on
performance, and it limits your flexibility in terms of disk space usage.
In fact, for a Linux newbie, I generally recommend keeping the number of
partitions down as far as possible -- meaning one for swap and one for
everything else, in most cases. Figuring out how much space to devote to
each part of your filesystem is something that's difficult to do until
you've actually used Linux for a while, so creating separate partitions
just reduces your flexibility. It does make it a bit safer in terms of
disaster recovery, but IMHO the increased flexibility of a single large
partition outweighs the safety advantage for newbies.

Quote:> The installation hangs for a long time at "find installation files".
> Finally I get the following error: "error reading header at 290816".

If you actually specified /usr and /tmp and just mis-typed them in this
message, I'd say that this error message sounds like you may have a
corrupt Linux CD. My hunch is that this is a deceptive error message,
though, and the problem is really with available disk space because you
created most of your Linux space in a partition that's not being used.

--
Rod Smith Author of:

http://www.users.fast.net/~rodsmith "OS/2 Soundcard Summary"
NOTE: Remove the digit and following word from my address to mail me

by **Kierka** » Sat, 21 Feb 1998 04:00:00

I don't think this is the main cause of your problem, buy the user
directory is labeled
/usr not /user

> Unable to install Red Hat 5.0 on my desktop.
> Using Disk druid I configure the following:
> 1) Swap drive (40 mb - same amount as my ram)
> 2) / (80 mb)
> 3) /user (500 mb)
> 4) /home (100 mb)
> 5) /temp (100 mb)
> This seems to go okay.

> Next I format the swap drive. Also seems to go okay.

> The installation hangs for a long time at "find installation files".
> Finally I get the following error: "error reading header at 290816".

> When I attempt to continue the installation, several packages begin to load
> and then I get the following error:
> "error -2 read
> ing header: Success
> install exited abnormally
> sending termination signals...done
> sending kill signals...done
> unmounting filesystems...
> /tmp/rhimage
> /mnt/home
> /mnt/user
> /proc
> /mnt/
> You may safely reboot your system".

> I have tired and retried the installation for the past two days and it
> inevitable ends in this manner.

> Additional info: I've never installed or even used Linux before.
> I have installed System Commander on my system in hopes of making this an
> easier process.
> My HD is 3.26 gig. Of this, 2 gig is partitioned for Win95, the rest in
> unpartitioned and eagerly awaiting Linux.

> Please help.

> Stuart

--

-- LINUX not just for breakfast anymore...