I got the same error (and still am) - segfaulting with "seems like memory is missing as installation crashes."

I have tried to install with all sorts of variables - slower CD-ROM drive, different memory sizes/configs, different partitions, different filesystems, etc.

I tried to reinstall 8.1 AND GOT THE SAME ERROR.

I used the 8.2 disks on 2 different machines and everything worked perfectly.

Trying the original machine, i tried the scan for bad blocks option at partition stage - three times. The machine hung at every attempt. Argh!

I also noticed once that even when selecting /var and/or /home as ext3, i would sometimes get an error "ext2 format of /whatever failed!" At which point i tried using plain ol' ext2.

But it still segfaults and dies, always at some part of the package install.

I now have a doorstop. I have a windows partition on the first physical drive i cannot access (yee hah, wife wants to get to ebay, she's gonna hurt me now ). Second phys drive has a windoze partition for data, and the rest is linux.

8.1 worked okay. Shoulda left it alone... i had no floppies on me so foolishly skipped all rescue- and boot-disk options. let that be a lesson to you, kids...

Another post elsewhere mentioned this same issue, and that swapping in a new hard drive didn't help.

I wish i had access to all the errors. Major screenscroll was the segfault. Of note was a series of "hey that should be closed and it's open still" messages when installing the packages (which is why i used a slower CD-Rom, oh well heh).

I am at an utter loss.

Last errors were "trying to write beyonfd address" that seemed to indicate it was lookin' for memory that ain't there.

These CDs were used successfully in 2 other machines, and the first machine has had 2 other distros of Mandrake on it (8.1 and 8.0).

I am out of variables.

HEEEEEEELLLLLP!!!!!!

I am having the same problem with Mandrake 8.2 and Redhat 7.3. I downloaded and installed Mandrake 8.2 on one computer that is a:

233Mhz PII
128Mb RAM
Intel 440BX Motherboard
Matrox Millenium II 4MB video
FA310 and FA311 Network cards

The install went fine and I use that computer daily. Then I tried to install Mandrake 8.2 using the same disks on my computer at work which is a:

733Mhz PIII
128Mb RAM
Asus CUV4X motherboard
Matrox G-400 32MB video
FA310 NIC

The install just kept segfaulting but at totally random times. The most often occured after the hardware probing and right as the GUI for the install initialized. I tried to do a text install which seemed to get farther but then segfaulted when installing packages.

I thought the downloads were corrupted or the burning was problematic. So I got Redhat 7.3 recently and installed it on my:

700Mhz PIII
256Mb RAM
Asus (sorry cant remember) motherboard
ATI Rage 128 32MB video
FA310 NIC
Soundblaster live soundcard

and Redhat works perfectly. So I tried to install Redhat 7.3 on the 733Mhz machine and it segfaults just the same as when I tried to install Mandrake 8.2.

Any ideas? Is it a hardware issue. I swapped out video cards between first and second machines but same problem. Is it a Matrox specific problem? Or is it because both distributions are similar? Any help would be appreciated.

I had the same error on my system:

Mandrake 8.1 (which like the other 2 posts installed fine on a different system)
ECS K7S5A
1.4 ghz TBird
256mb ddr
Voodoo3 3000

I too figured it had something to do with the memory so I swapped out the ddr and popped in a stick of sdram (the k7s5a can use either type--just not at the same time). I got the same error again. Just going on a hunch (actually it was the only other idea I had) I decided to try my ddr module in slot 2 as opposed to slot 1 and I reformatted to ext2 with partition magic--guess what......It doesn't give me that segmentation fault smogush anymore, now I get a different error (ahhh!). Now it says;

an error occurred
Invalid File '' (one beginning quote and one end quote)
pkgs::packageFile() called from /usr/bin/perl-install/pkgs.pm:1331
:and about 20 more lines of other various programs here--it is always the same programs too even when I don't choose to install them:

this always happens about halfway into installing all of the packages no matter what type of install I do. Recommended or expert makes no difference (in expert I even tried deselecting everything but kde and still get the error halfway through).

Anyone hear of this before?

Try using the text install. I have seen many people coming and going to #mandrake on openprojects asking the same thing. when you get the screen that says "Press F1 for pother options" blah blah... Press F1 and at the prompt type "text". Try that it may help it may not.

I gave that a shot as well but didn't fair any better--I get the same message in text mode

I think the next thing I'll try is putting the linux partition right after my windows c: partition...right now it is the third one in the list and starts at about 6.5gbs and continues to the end at 8.4gbs (as I understand as long as it is in the first 8gb your safe, right?).

I ended up throwing in the towel with mandrake and gave Peanut Linux a try...Which is what I'm using to post this message with so it can't be too bad...the install looks like the text version of mandrake but the iso is only 160mb's and it includes everything you need to get started--and they had just about every popular package (that didn't come with the install) available for download at their site http://www.ibiblio.org/peanut/
It's a pretty cool little package worth a look.