Boot floppy failure - Bad EIP value
 

Getting nowhere while trying to boot Damn Small Linux 1.2. It will start the kernal during the install, recognize the hd, then the cd-rom, then vapor locks with "Bad EIP value".

"Unable to handle kernal NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000
... Code: Bad EIP value."

System is an NEC Powermate v133e (Classic Pentium, 133 mHz) with a Polaroid BurnMax32 CD burner, 48 meg memory, and two hard drives, a 15 gig Maxtor and a 1 gig Western Digital.

Both are tied to a Promise Ultra ATA-66 controller card. Both have been checked and verified to be error-free. Both drives have been wiped clean, and a 5 gig primary FAT32 partition has been created.

The 15 gig Maxtor is primary master, the WDC is primary slave, the CD burner is secondary master.

I can get the system to boot from a Win98 floppy, and I can even run an install CD for Win98SE, but I can't get Linux to boot from a CD in the drive - BIOS is configured to check CD drive, floppy, then HD - nor from a floppy.

Clues appreciated.