I am currently trying to install red hat 8 on my main computer, but it doesnt want to let me, the machine i am trying to install it on has never worked with any distributions, they all just give different errors during installation, which i thought at first could be because it contained lots of modern hardware, and the distributions were quite old, and wouldnt support it.
Now i try installing red hat 8, and its failing with that too, i have tried every single installation option, and always get the same errors, the first occurs before the graphical installer runs, and says repeatedly that there is a

gzlib: stdin: invalid compressed data--crc error

Then the installer continues, and as i try to install, i get the following error coming up as it is installing the files

"the file /mnt/sysimage/var/tmp/open/ldap-2.0.25-1.i386.rpm cannot be opened. This is due to a missing file, a ba package, or bad media"

I know for a fact that it is none of those, as it has sucessfully installed on another computer, and passes the installers media test, so i dont know what the problem is, i have tried different hard discs, some already partitioned some not, tried 3 different cdrom drives, and all have failed with it, i just cant get round it, it is the same regardless of which packages i choose to install, anyone who has any suggestions, please let me know.

This is the spec of the computer if that makes any difference:
Jetway J867AS motherboard
Athlon XP 1600+ Processor
Mitsumi & HP Cd Rewriters
Matshita DVD Drive
Panasonic FDD
Fujitsu 20GB hard disk / 6GB seagate switched around
NVIDIA GF4 MX440 Graphics
512mb DDR266 RAM

Hi buddy !

Some professional consideration what about the hardware.
For reference I'm in charge for hardware components at a huge worldwide distribution company where 60% of the computer shops buy their stuff.

Jetway J867AS motherboard
--> I'm already afraid ... this is far from being a Rolls, no offense, just consideration.


Athlon XP 1600+ Processor
--> ... you should/might check the T° ... make the system VERY unstable sometimes.


Mitsumi & HP Cd Rewriters
--> should be OK. I also installed RH8.0 on a HP CDRW, works fine !



Matshita DVD Drive
--> produced on the official IDE ATA standards I guess, no fear.



Panasonic FDD
--> brand is good. FDD could not be an issue IMHO



Fujitsu 20GB hard disk / 6GB seagate switched around
--> humm hummm, sorry to ask pal, but you're sure those drives do not have any defect platter ... :-/ those 2 "brands" are the most concerned by Dead On Arrival issues or Technical RMA's ...



NVIDIA GF4 MX440 Graphics
--> could not be an issue IMHO



512mb DDR266 RAM
--> could also be a point ... which brand ?



Do not take it personally, those considerations are mainly to point out some "little details" which could at the end make the biggest issues.

Cheers,

Don't feel that you cant say that my motherboard is pants, i know that! The RAM is Kingston, the hard disks both work fine, the fujitsu has a fat32 partition on, which runs fine with windows on every day. and the other ran RH6.1 fine, as for the T° thing, well, i dont have a clue, the CPU isnt overclocked if that is what its about. I have given the seagate drive to a friend of mine to see if he can install red hat 8 on it, then we will put it in my machine, and re do the kernel for my configuration, hopefully that may work, but its doubtful!

Yeah !

for sure, your mobo seems already suspect to me as your Kingston memory (perfect choice by the way) can't be a defect one. Keep in mind that Kingston offers a lifetime warranty on their RAM (just in case...)

Besides, I did not meant your CPU was overclocked.
Even when running at "normal" frequency if the heat dussipation is ineffective the T° rises and the system can become unstable.
In some BIOSes you van monitor the T°.
I suggest you to try staying under 42°C (sorry dunno the °F conversion)

thanks, ill have a look at the temp thing, centigrade is best for me anyway. i have emailed jetway today, its not only linux it doesnt like, any NT based Windows os's - NT, 2000, XP, wont install either. Windows 98SE is the only OS to have ever worked on it, and noone i know in person or on the internet has any idea why that is, as all my hardware is compatiable other than the board, so it must be that.

I have checked on redhats website, and all my hardware is compatiable, but i can't find the motherboard. I have found the following board as a replacement : Click Here

I have always found Asus boards to be very good, and reliable, and have linux on a machine with one, would u reccomend this one, and can you see any reason why it may not work with linux.

How certain are you that the motherboard is the problem?
Here is a list of my other hardware, which i cant see being anything to do with it, but ill put it anyway, just in case

Intel Ham Modem

Reaktek RTL8139 Network Card

and thats the lot!

Answers to any of the many questions i have raised will be greatefully recieved!

OK right.

So in short we can say that the T° wasn't the key (lucky you).

Asus mainboard ?
This is the kind of product we (unfortunately) do not have currently in our portfolio, however I have to admit that it is THE reference when you need speed, flexibility, features, and so on. No hesitation, jump on it !

I suspect you current version of chipset to be the guilty one. 'Not-very-known' brand mobos usually get from VIA, or from SiS or someone else "cheaper" versions of chipsets (read worst versions, not fully compliant, not fully tested) to be "competitive" in price ...

I'm not a guru or God, so do not blame me if your mobo isn't the problem, but so far I easily suspect this element simply by elimination process.

You tell me about the modem ... already tried to install without it ?

About your NIC card I guess you mean "RealTek" instead of "Reaktek".
In this case, no worry, Realtek is one of the most recognized NIC chip worldwide.

Hope this opinion helps you to go further ...

Unfortunately i have had to return the RH8 discs to my friend who owns them, but i will be getting them again shortly.
Today i dug out an old copy of 6.1, i then did an error check on my linux partition for the 100th time, and it would appear that it has somehow got a bad sector which it didnt have when i was trying to install 8, so i repaired it, then removed the modem, and managed to install 6.1 with gnome, but alas, it wont boot it, it told me that there was an error, and it forced a check, it couldnt repair it, and allowed me to log in as root to corect it, but i dont know how to. So I decided to boot my windows partition, and used partition magic to check the linux ext2 partition, and this is what it says:

Critical error, number 1109, ext2 directory corrupted

Is there any way to fix that without losing the installation it has taken me a year to do?

To recover some data from HDD you'd have a check on the Ontrack website.
They're specialists in tools for that purpose.

After trying many different methods, i concluded that the partition wasn't repairable without losing all the data, so I formatted and securely erased the partition, then deleted it, and made a new one, which i somehow with lots of messing about managed to SUCESSFULY install RH6.1, now all i have to do is to get the X server working, as I chose not to configure it in installation, I need to set up my XF86Config file, which i think may be difficult with a modern graphics chip, and no servers in the list that are totally compatiable, i am now going to start a new thread to see if anyone knows how to set it up right for my graphics card and monitor, thankyou very much for your help.

You're welcome.

Last advice on VGA cards under Linux :
nVidia works well (mainly GeForce2 & GeForce3)