# Solved: Mandriva Live Install/HD partition trouble



## CDBongo (Sep 23, 2005)

Hello, i have a "mandriva one" live linux cd and i want to do the "live install" that puts the o/s on my hard drive.
Before i did anything i ran scandisk and disk defragmenter on windows 2000. THen i booted on the linux cd, put in my city/time zone stuff, then selected live install. I chose the option to partition my hard drive and resized my windows partition to 30gb leaving about 8 for linux. Then it shut my computer down for no apparant reason. I retried the install thinking that it was a two step process, but it would not even come up with the install window, it just gave me a dim blinking hard drive light and froze. I booted into windows, found my c:/ drive as 30gb in my computer, and three partitions in disk manager that were unlabled, all three ammounting to the 8gb i partitioned for linux. I then deleted them all and made one partition and formatted it to ntfs as "e:" Booted into linux again, I got into the installation window, and had to play around with it's partition manager, eventually had to create the partition again and format it, it kept saying stuff about "mount point" (wth is that?) THen it got about half way through in "coping files process" and froze, again giveing me a blinking dim hd light. I booted into windows, and disk manager revealed a 8gb partition which was unlabled, and also 100% free. I then deleted that partition, booted into linux, and the install window would not come up again and i got a blinking h/d light. Another try let me get into the install window and i selected "use free space" for the install option (a new option) The next window said "formatting hda5" which took no more than half a minute, and goes to install, gets about 90% done this time and leaves me with a frozen computer and blinking h/d light. I booted into windows and found three "empty" partitions in windows again. I leave that alone and try linux installation one more time. I choose "use existing partitions" and next screen says "scanning to find mount partition" it was there about half a minute two, then the next window says to "choose the mount points" only two partitions show up, one is "hda5" (4.1gb ext3) and "hda7" (2.6gb ext3) the other 800mb partition that windows showed is now missing. So no knowing what the heck a mount point is, i choose one as /hdone and one as /hdtwo. In the next window it asks me to format one or both partitions, i choose both. It takes me to the installation screen, gets about 75% done and freezes, but with no hard drive light blinking. Windows shows the same "empty" partitions. 
My friend had similar problems with the installation stopping midway and nothing being copied to the hard drive.
ANy help with this insane problem would be GREATLY APPRECIATED
Thanks


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

Simple.

Mounting point is the root of the Linux. Every Linux must have a root directory call "/". You select a partition for mounting "/". If you don't get this right the installer could just install the system into a temporary file and has no where to put it.

I would in your case use a Linux partitioning tool to create only 2 partitions. One say hda5 of 7 GB for the root and another 1 Gb say hda6 for Swap. If these two partitions are created in Linux the standard type is 83 suitable for Linux installation and the Swap should have Type 83. It is a good practice to reboot after amending the partition table so that the hard disk is validated.

Tell Mandriva installer to use existing partition and nominate hda5 for mounting, select "/", format it as Ext3 or Reiserf and the installer will know what to do with the swap and the rest.

In a normal installation Mandriva will pick up your Windows to dual boot it.


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## CDBongo (Sep 23, 2005)

THanks, i see the thing about linux swap, I made a 700mb partition for the swap and it some how split the other 7gb partition up again, but i am not complaining. FOr some reason the installation did not freeze, and besides it freezing all that time, mandriva has been the most simple os installation ever!
Still don't know why it was freezing all that time but oh well, it works now and i am not complaining.
Does anyone know how to get nvidia drivers for linux and if i can play some of my favorite 3d games?
thanks for the help saikee


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## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

I am not into games but never had any bother with using "nv" for my low-end nvidia graphic card.

You should check the /etc/X11/xorg.conf to see if this line is inside

Driver "nv"

It is possible that the generic "nv" driver may not be good enough for your games after matching the screen display frequencies of your monitor.


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