[SOLVED] Mageia 3 won't install on Zotac/GeForce mini-pc.

[omelette]

I've just downloaded and tried running the Mageia Live CD, but also tried installing it as well, on a Zotoc pc with Nvidia Geforce graphics. It goes as far as 'OK'ing "Reached target Graphical interface" but just stalls there, for at least 10min anyway, the longest I've waited. I've tried all the available options from the start splash screen, including booting in 'TEXT' mode. There it gets passed the above bit but again stalls, waiting for some network or other to initialise. Pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL or the power-down button instantly has it start closing down stuff, so it's not hanging. I had no problem installing Mageia 1 on the same computer.

I have also tried running it on my Dell laptop and it boots without a problem. Is there anything else I can do to get this installed on the Zotac, replacing my EOL Ubuntu 10.04 setup?

[Ken-Bergen]

If you used an existing /home partition and user the first boot is extremely slow.
I believe what is happening is that it's checking and adjusting ownership and permissions of every file in the user's directory and rebuilding the user's configurations.
Subsequent boots processed normally.

[omelette]

Hi. Well, I'm not using anything as far as I'm aware when I select the Live CD option and it also stalls at the same place there. I don't know what exactly it's doing when stalled, if anything, as I don't have any disc-activity LED on that computer. It's a SSD rather than a conventional drive if that's relevant, and a small one at that - only 32gig - so any disc-checking shouldn't take that long. I've let it run for over an hour now and it still remains stalled at the same spot.

And like I mentioned, Mageia boots from the Live CD option on the laptop impressively fast.

[claire]

You can add xdriver=vesa kernel option at the grub stage of booting and it should bring you to a working desktop. It is likely trying to use an inappropriate video driver for your hardware. Vesa driver should work on almost any hardware but is not the best to use permanently.

After you've booted, you can correctly configure you graphics in MCC. You can also configure the graphics driver when it reaches graphical user target without a working desktop. Press ctrl-alt-f2 and log in as root, then run drakx11

It would be worth creating a bug report for this issue too https://bugs.mageia.org as it should obviously automatically configure things correctly.

[omelette]

Thanks, that sorted it - just the 'xdriver=vesa' was needed. I also created a bug report on this like you suggested. The only problem now is that I seem to be limited to a maximum resolution of 1024 x 768. But I'll mark this thread as solved. Thanks again.