Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 86466
anaconda fails to initialize during install
Last modified: 2007-04-18 12:52:17 EDT
From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020830 Description of problem: This was attempted with RedHat 7.3 and 8.0, both with the same results. I attempted to install both versions of RedHat on my wife's PC, running a P-III 800. In both cases, anaconda fails with an error regarding a failure to allocate memory. I would point out that her box is currently running Debian Linux, so she does not appear to have a hardware problem. I would suggest that the problem is either anaconda, or the bootloader used to load anaconda. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Boot off RedHat 7.3 or 8.0 CD. 2. Press 'Enter' at the prompt, or enter "linux text". 3. Watch anaconda fail. Actual Results: Anaconda fails with an error regarding an inability to allocate memory. I would capture it for you, but it fails so early in the process that I have to go on memory. Expected Results: I expected to be able to use anaconda to install RedHat Linux. Additional info: As the machine in question is currently running Debian Linux, I'll glean some information for you. msoulier@poohbear:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 8 model name : Pentium III (Coppermine) stepping : 3 cpu MHz : 801.822 cache size : 256 KB fdiv_bug : no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug : no coma_bug : no fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 2 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse bogomips : 1599.07 msoulier@poohbear:~$ lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: ALi Corporation M1621 (rev 04) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: ALi Corporation PCI to AGP Controller (rev 01) 00:02.0 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03) 00:07.0 ISA bridge: ALi Corporation M1533 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV] (rev c3) 00:0c.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10) 00:0c.1 Communication controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10) 00:0e.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 10/100 Ethernet (rev 02) 00:0f.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c2) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV5 [Aladdin TNT2] (rev 20) Please let me know if you need anything else.
How much RAM and swap does the system have configured?
msoulier@poohbear:~$ free total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 159516 155056 4460 0 35080 44520 -/+ buffers/cache: 75456 84060 Swap: 489908 57116 432792 Mind you, this was a brand-new install, so the swap isn't important here, is it?
If you have less than 192MB of RAM its important even when doing a fresh install that RAM+swap >= 256MB. Was that the case with your install attempts?
> If you have less than 192MB of RAM its important even when doing a fresh install > that RAM+swap >= 256MB. I'm intrigued to know why swap is important for the installer, when no assumptions about the platform can be made, since the disk could be brand new and not even partitioned yet. Are you saying the anaconda will use the native swap, and then stop using it for disk druid, and then start using it again? > Was that the case with your install attempts? No. Above you will see that the system had 192M of RAM, and 500M of swap. It was a Debian install at the time we rebooted it and tried to install both RedHat 7.3 and 8.0. We got the error in both cases.
No if its happening before you get to the option of partitioning then we have not turned any swap on yet. However 192M of RAM should be adequate. Does it fail before the 'Running anaconda....' message is printed out?
> Does it fail before the 'Running anaconda....' message is printed out? Upon booting the CD, the kernel boots, /sbin/loader runs, and the blue screen with "Welcome to RedHat Linux" comes up. It then sits there, apparently doing nothing, for several (read: 20+) minutes. There is some harddrive activity. Aha. The third virtual terminal shows "modules to insert ide-cd" The fourth terminal shows endless looping on the part of the ide controller for the CD. "<4>Error -3 while decompressing!" "<4>hdc: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }" "<4>ATAPI reset complete" "<4>hdc: cdrom_decode_status: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }" These are the same CDs that I used to install my current RedHat 8.0 system, and I've used the 7.3 CDs before too. They're from the same burner that made the Debian CDs that we installed on that box. Odd.
You certainly have a case of CD media and your CD drive not liking each other. CDs can be frustrating let me tell you... I'd try a different CD drive to see if that helps.