Install problems with 810 (grey screen and VC problems)

[gurumaia]

I'm trying to successfully install my first LinuxMCE box. It's going to be a dedicated core.

I'm facing a few issues, mainly a grey screen that never goes away and virtual consoles not working (which doesn't help in resolving the grey screen problem).

Here is a rough timeline of events:
- Tried installing 810 Final from the DVD method, had no output to my TV via DVI (my GPU doesn't have VGA ports);
- Hooked up to an old CRT monitor, kubuntu install went fine;
- Had some issues with lmce install because I didn't realize I needed an internet connection even when using the DVD method;
- Finally installed it. Rebooted, went through AVWizard and encountered the issue reported in this thread: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php/topic,12083.0.html (with the only added detail that if I move the mouse even just a little bit during the grey screen with big white text, the text disappears and I get a grey screen of death);
- Figured I should try the internet method, went through all the steps just fine, same result. I then noticed that ctrl+alt+fX doesn't work, so I'm stuck in the grey screen without being able to revert to another VC and login to a shell;
- After about 5 reinstalls, the Kubuntu installation started to fail, even before having anything to do with LMCE. The install process went fine but on first boot I got some CRC errors and just wouldn't boot. I thought this was an issue with my hard drive;
- Used the seagate tools to check the drive and even though it freezed 3 times, on the 4th time it completed just fine. S.M.A.R.T. tests (both short and long) were also 100%, so I guess the hard drive is ok (it has been working for about 2 years with windows installed on it);
- Since the machine freezed during the tests, I thought I should check my RAM, and all tests were fine;
- Tried installing kubuntu 8.10 again. Machine freezed when creating the partitions;
- Tried booting into the kubuntu live cd, creating one big partition with fdisk and formating it as ext3 with mkfs.ext3 to see if would freeze. It completed just fine (thought I could see that it would be pause for about 1 minute at a time);
- Then tried installing kubuntu one more time. Install went fine but the most bizarre thing then happened. When I boot the machine, it goes into the kde login screen but keyboard and mouse doesn't work. Also tried booting into recovery mode, but the keyboard won't work there either. This has never happened before. They work prior to the OS bootup (BIOS, GRUB, etc) and work fine with the livecd;
- Tried reinstalling kubuntu 8.10 and left it working through the night. I'll see what happened tonight.

It looks like the grey screen trouble I've been having was fixed since then, so if can get kubuntu to install correctly, it should work out fine. Is it recommended to use the DVD method or the Internet method?
Also, I haven't found anyone that has the same VC problem as I do. It works fine under KDE and whenever I reboot the machine from the grey screen (using the reset button) and get to a shell login. The only time it doesn't work is on the grey screen.

Sorry for the long post, I'm running out of ideas here. Without a working keyboard, there doesn't seem like there's much I can do. If my last install didn't work, I'll try the DVD method again. And I'll try to find a ps2 keyboard to see if the problem is with the USB ports.

Thanks!

EDIT: Forgot about my machine specs. Here's what I remember, I'll dig up more info when I'm at home:
Gigabyte G31M Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo (don't remember which one)
Nvidia 8800GS
4GB RAM (probably Kingston sticks)
Seagate 500GB hard drive for the OS
A second encore NIC (10/100mbps)

[gurumaia]

This last install attempt failed stating that there was a problem copying the files. It also said the root cause could be a faulty CD/DVD media, a problem in the DVD drive or the hard drive. I'm really starting to think my hard drive is faulty. I have a few others around, but they're all full. I'll try to free up another 500gig and try to install on that.
Man, this is starting to annoy me.

[locutus]

i have had kubuntu CD's go bad on me before, after several installations so its worth a shot burning a new one on the slowest speed

[gurumaia]

i have had kubuntu CD's go bad on me before, after several installations so its worth a shot burning a new one on the slowest speed

Yeah, I intend on trying the DVD method (which is other media) one more time before trying to find a new hard drive. We'll see how that goes.
Thanks for the help.

[gurumaia]

Ok, more than a month later, here we go. I had to put this aside for a bit as I was out of town.
When I got back, I tried again and failed miserably a few times. I decide to throw out my idea of using the old PC as the core and bought a new Dell server (PowerEdge T110 II).
On my first attempt, everything went smoothly on the core and it seems to be running just fine. Then I set up my first MD and it also went well. I went through the A/V Wizard just fine. But I left it processing and had to go sleep and now I'm at work so I'm not sure if everything went fine after the A/V Wizard.
I'll try my first video watching tonight and I'll post if everything goes okay.
Here are some things that I still have to try out:
- Directly connecting to my FTTH modem through pppoe. It seems you need to do some things in the MySQL DB. Right now I have a wireless router in front of it, which does the pppoe authentication;
- Turning the Core into a dedicated Core and not a hybrid (it doesn't even handle KDE very well, it is built as a server so the Graphics Card is crap);
- Formatting my current hard drives that are full of media. I think I should have them in ext3 (they're currently in NTFS);
I'll keep posting.