ComCraq

[mugs]

I am trying to install Suse 8.0 on an old Compaq 5030. It is a PII 300 mhz machine. (this was a machine my son got from Make a Wish several years ago). Anyway, right away when it gets to the partition check (this is a fat32 Windows 98 machine with an 8 gig hd), it gets to hdd (which is the zip drive) and it just keeps repeating "hdd:hdd lost interrupt over and over again. I also tried Red Hat 7.3 and had the same exact thing. If anyone knows what I can do to get past this, I would appreciate it and so would my 9 year old son who really wants linux on his machine. (this was his older brother's machine, from Make a Wish, like I mentioned above. His older brother died in 2001 :'()

Thanks!

[JimH]

Try booting the install with: linux nodma

You can do this with Red Hat. I imagine you can also do this with Suse.

If that doesn't work you could temporarily unplug the Zip drive.

Jim H

[mugs]

Thanks for the reply. I am not familiar with what you mean about nodma, can you elaborate? The zip drive is internal, so it will be a little harder than just unplugging it.

[JimH]

Booting with linux nodma disables DMA ( direct memory access) in the kernel. More then likely the zip drive does not support DMA and this is what is causing the errors.

Jim H

[mugs]

Ok, I just dont know how to boot with nodma. I am trying to install, using a Suse boot disk. Can you let me know how to boot that way? Thanks.

[trommaster]

at the install prompt just type linux nodma

[mugs]

I finally got back to this and in Suse, there is a Safe Install Option which says "nodma". I thought, great that will do the trick, but I am still getting the lost interrupt on the zip drive. Does anybody have any other ideas? I may just take out the zip drive.

[mugs]

I disconnected the zip drive and was able to install. Suse runs really poorly on this old machine. I guess it will take some work.

[JimH]

With old hardware that slow KDE or Gnome is not likely to perform very well using any modern Linux distribution. You are going to be better off running a more lightweight window manager.

Jim H

[mugs]

Ok, thanks for the suggestion. The sound didnt work either, something to work on.

A question, I have DSL and my main machine uses a router.
what do I have to do to get this machine to connect to the internet also?