Installer stops (freezes) when scanning hardware
Hello,
I am currently using Mandriva on this machine. I have tried installing
Debian on another partition and eventually stop using Mandriva.
This machine is a desktop computer (7VT600P-RZ(-C) mainboard with VIA
KT600 chipset). I think I have only mainstream hardware (this is no
laptop!), yet I always have had some problems with it with different
versions of different distros.
And right now, I can't install Debian (etch 4.0r1), although I have
successfully installed Debian on my secondary (older) computer.
Symptoms with Mandriva:
-----------------------
1) I managed to install it, but I had to disable harddrake (hardware
scanning) at bootup because the bootup sequence would freeze
otherwise.
2) I don't have problems with KDE applications, but with apps such as
firefox, the gimp and the Mandriva Control Center (MCC) I always
experience some problems that seem hardware related: MCC never works
(maybe it scans hardware when we start it), and every morning, the
*first* time I have to open the "save file as" dialog in firefox or
gimp, the dialog and the whole app would freeze for a whole 10
minutes! (when I need to save a file with gimp, I usually open the
dialog box, go back to konqueror for browsing, then come back later
when the app is unfrozen). But then, the second time works as it
should.
This seems to point to a problem with loading some IDE module /
hardware access problem... I don't know.
3) Most of the time, the system does not shut down completely cleanly:
at the end of the kernel shutdown sequence, there are some messages
about being unable to unmount /usr and /home because the resources
are busy, yet I have never found the stray application that causes
this.
I am not completely sure that the above symptoms are relevant to the
Debian install problem, but I include them in case they are...
Symptoms with the Debian installer:
-------------------------------------
I have tried several times, and the installer freezes for 5~10 minutes
*several times* during the install sequence, when checking for the
hardware. The F4 windown shows something either like:
"hw-detect.hotplug: detected hotpluggable network interface eth0"
or like:
"missing modules ide-mod, id-probe-mod" etc. (I searched the web, but
the conclusion seems to be that this is not actually tremendously
relevant!)
Then each time it asks me about entering some data related about
pcmcia hardware (I enter nothing: as far as I could gather by
searching the web, I don't need to).
Then at the stage of looking for the partitions, the installer freezes
one more time, and this time for good (I gave up waiting after 1
hour).
Questions
-------------
What might cause this? (that's the main question, isn't it?)
What options can I try when starting the install?
I usually type "install expertgui". What Do I type instead?
What information should I provide that might be relevant, useful?
Thank you very much for your assistance.
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