Install Problems

[Clinton MacDonald]

Mr. Brown:

It sounds like you pretty much figured out all your own problems:

On Friday, October 3, 2003, at 09:41  AM, Matthew Brown wrote:
> Hopefully someone can give me some help here..... First off, I am a  
> complete novice when it comes to Linux, let alone Linux on a Mac.

So is everyone here! (Which can make the advice you receive a little  
suspect. ;-) )

> I elected to install only YDL on my iMac 400DV. It has 384MB of Ram  
> and the original 10GB HDD.

I don't recall, but some older Macs (does this include older iMacs?)  
have an 8-GB "ceiling" on how large must be the first partition for a  
Mac OS X or YDL install. There's one thing to check (but below is your  
more likely problem).

> Upon booting to install, I hit enter for the graphical install. This  
> failed and fell back to the text installer.

Terra Soft (the YDL folks) says that only text installation is  
supported on the DV iMacs (scroll to the bottom of the page):

<http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/support/hardware/breakdown/ 
index.php?hw_cat_id=5>

> I went for all default options on a Personal Desktop install. I got as  
> far as 57% of the install, on disk 2, when it froze.
> [...]
> What could cause this? Bad download?

Yes, a bad download is a very common problem that results in the kinds  
of errors you describe. Try downloading again (I hope you have a fast  
Internet connection!).

> Also, I used 700MB CD's. Could that be an issue?

Those *should* be okay with a reasonably new iMac, such as yours.

> I read somewhere that having USB devices plugged into a hub can cause  
> install issues. Seeing as the Apple Pro keyboard is treated as a hub,  
> I plugged my Logitech 3 Button mouse into the USB port on the side of  
> the iMac.

That should work fine. Therefore, it seems your most likely problem is  
with a bad disk image. Download again (or purchase the 3.0.1 disk set  
from Terra Soft -- US$25 without manuals or support), and be sure to  
check the "md5" checksum to determine whether your download was intact.

Best wishes,
Clint

-- 
Dr. Clinton C. MacDonald | <mailto:clint DOT macdonald AT sbcglobal DOT  
net>