VL 5.9 - Installation Problems

[Zakhary]

Hi,

I'm trying to install VL5.9 standard on an older machine which
has been running 5.8 so far without any problems.

I downloaded the 5.9 iso and verified the md5.
I put the CD in and  booted the machine up with the boot & root floppies (used & worked with 5..

The installation program appeared. I used cfdisk to delete all my old partitions
and created a 4GB root partition (ext2), a 600MB swappartition and used the rest for HOME.
I wrote the partition table & rebooted.

I chose the required packages + X11 packages and some of the additional programs.
The installation began. It installed all the packages and says "Installation is done!" 
and next all the problems begin:


- in the lower left corner of my screen a small text appeared saying something like "fatal: kernel too old" or something
like that.

- then a message box appears (the background is still blue) saying "Hmm... VL has been installed, im not sure about the configuration lets reboot and see what will happen".

--> I reboot.
Now. this obviously does not work as a bootmanager has not been installed. The machine complains
about not having an OS installed. I booted the VL installation again using the floppies and tried the "install LILO"
option but it complains about a failure.

I'm lost. Help. Please.


Thanks.

[Zakhary]

The Master Boot Record is phucked, right?
How can I clean/repair/reset/erase/fix it?

[Zakhary]

Or am I doing something wrong with the floppies ?

[newt]

Regarding lilo:
Since v5.8 worked for you then you should be able to use the 5.8 cd you have to install lilo.  Perhaps that will get you into your system.

Regarding your installation:
It sounds like it didn't work out too well the first go'round.  Perhaps attempting a second is in order.  Did you choose to format your new partitions when you created them?  If not then maybe that's where the 'kernel too old' message is coming from.  If I were you, I would begin from scratch again making sure to use reiserfs as the filesystem and choosing to format all partitions.  Then I'd go through the installation again with as vanilla options as possible.  If lilo causes problems again then try using your 5.8 cd to install lilo.

HTH

[Zakhary]

Thanks for the answer.

However:
- I already tried installing at least 8 times. I tried    Ext2 & Ext3 and I always formatted.
- I tried creating the partitions again and made sure everything is right.
- I even tried creating a new set of boot floppies (this thing cant boot from the cd)

One thing I forgot to mention previously: Before installing VL5.9 I tried another slack based
distro called "Wolvix". I did not like it so I want VL5.9. Wolvix installed Grub. Perhaps this is where
the problems are coming from? I removed grub by booting with a win98 bootdisk and
using the command Fdisk /MBR. It seemed to work.

[newt]

Sounds like you've attempted many ways of installing and I don't see how reiserfs will make much of a difference than ext2/3.  I'm sorry to hear you're still having troubles.

I've had troubles loading lilo in the past after having used grub, however I've always been able to fix the problem by doing exactly what you've done (using a win98 boot disk and issuing fdisk /mbr to reset the mbr); after that I've been able to load lilo without any problems.

Once you have VL59 installed did you ever try using the VL58 cd you have to load lilo (just lilo though)?

[Zakhary]

Seems like I cant even install vl58 now.

[icedtea]

Seems like I cant even install vl58 now.

In my opinion. . maybe the VL 5.9's dependencies cannot be handled by your old machine .. unlike when 5.8 was installed before as you said. . now IF even 5.8 could not be installed. .MAYBE some configs of your system was affected during your attempt in installing 5.9 --well its only my view.. TRY installing your 5.9 on a newer system.. and see IF same problem arises.. you could conclude from there. . 

[Zakhary]

I did install VL5.9 on a virtual box just to see what SHOULD happen.
When booting from the CD the whole thing looks a bit different
than when booting from a floppy.

When bootin from a floppy it says in the beginning something about "kernel 2.4"
 when booting from the 'CD it says something bout "kernel 2.6"... huh?!

Something wrong with the floppy way of doing things?

[toothandnail]

I did install VL5.9 on a virtual box just to see what SHOULD happen.
When booting from the CD the whole thing looks a bit different
than when booting from a floppy.

When bootin from a floppy it says in the beginning something about "kernel 2.4"
 when booting from the 'CD it says something bout "kernel 2.6"... huh?!

Something wrong with the floppy way of doing things?

It sounds as though your boot floppies are too old.

As an alternative, you could try Smart Boot Manager - it allows machines which can't normally boot from CD to do so, and may allow you to boot from the 5.9 CD in your machine. Have a look here -

http://sourceforge.net/projects/btmgr/

Hope that helps..

paul.

[Zakhary]

Ive tried smart boot manager several times before.
It works all right.. It's just that the CD-rom does not appear in the menu