I am having problems installing Mandrake 7.0 onto an older laptop on which I can not boot from a CD-ROM nor simultaneously install a CD-ROM and floppy drive. I previously installed Redhat 6.0 on a large ext2 partition on the local hard drive using the RH text based install program (which appears similar/identical to the LM 7 program). I am willing to reformat the partition, if necessary to install LM 7.0 I have copied the mandrake_70-2 CD /Mandrake/Base and /Mandrake/RPMS directories to the root of an unused vfat partition on my local hard drive. On another machine, I used rawwritewin.exe to create two boot floppies, one with the hd.img file, and one with the txt_boot.img file. When I use the hd.img file to attempt an install, I got as far as the screen that asks which partition the base and RPM directories are located. I responded OK with the appropriate selection. The install program then starts to load the second stage RAM Disk and returns: In second stage install Died at /usr/bin/perl-install/install_steps_gtk.pm line 202 Install exited abnormally I get the same response no matter whether I use the file created on 10.01.2000 (found on the CD) or the revised file created on 31.01.2000 (found in the LM updates directory at various ftp sites). When I attempt an install using the txt_boot.img file, I get the following response whether I select the default or expert install modes. The initrd.img and vmlinuz files load. Then I get the screens reminding me to register, and asking what language and keyboard I use. Then, rather than asking what type of media I want to install from (Figure C.5 on page 336 of the User Guide Reference Manual), I get taken directly to a screen asking me to insert my Mandrake CD into the CD drive. It would appear that the program defaults to the CD install method. In either case, I am unable to install Mandrake 7. Does anyone know a way around these problems? Is there a modification that has been made/could be made to either the hd.img or text_install.img files? Any other ideas? Thank you Paul Kaplan
