http://www.van-dijk.net/mailarchive/0002/0015.html. A search of the net on several occasions as well as my experience with 2 Proliant 2500's, has taught me that older Compaq servers are persnickety in accepting Linux installations. I would say that you need to find the proper boot arguments to give to the kernel (running from a text mode install). Please post more info on your particular hardware, especially the mainboard architecture, i.e. scsi type, raid type, does this machine have EISA? I would also recommend burning the Slackware 10.1 disk set and posting back. I have found Slack's installaiton to be more 'old Compaq' friendly. Nice variation of 'boot flavors', but may require some command line gymnastics.
nz