With the help of Google, I spent nearly a week to finally install Fedora 8 on my Compaq Presario V3414TX laptop. One thing in installation arouse my interest.

I install Fedora 8 from the ISO file in my hard disk (hd0,4). So when I rebooted to the grub console I typed the following commands:

grub> root (hd0,4)
grub> kernel /vmlinuz
grub> initrd /initrd.img
grub> boot

Then the machine started to run until it shows

running install...
running /sbin/loader

and stop working. I searched Google to solve the problem by adding acpi and apm configuring argument:

grub> root (hd0,4)
grub> kernel /vmlinuz acpi=off apm=off
grub> initrd /initrd.img
grub> boot

Then it worked and led me to the installation.

However, having installed the system, my wireless adapter (Intel PRO/3945ABG Wireless) no longer worked! No matter what driver I installed, when I modprobe the driver, it always shows

Radio Frequency Kill Switch is On
Kill Switch must be turned off for wireless networking to work

in dmesg. Moreover, I have to turn off the power manually after shutting down the system, which never happened when I used Fedora Core 5 on the same laptop.

One week after installation, I solved this problem accidentally by modifying /etc/grub.conf. In /etc/grub.conf I have

title Fedora 8 (2.6.23.1-42.fc8)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb acpi=off apm=off quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img

I modified the "kernel" line by removing acpi and apm argument:

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet

then reboot. Now all things are running well (except the wireless LED doesn't light ).

By searching about Google again, I come to know that acpi and apm are two things dealing with power and battery management. But can anyone tell me more about why I should disable them to install from hard disk and enable them to use wireless adapter and automatic shutdown?

Many thanks!

The install probably used a different kernel (or differently configured kernel) than the one installed to the hard disk.
Consider that the install kernel needs to be generic enough to run on as much systems as needed, before it finally copies a kernel specific to your system, eg SMP/i586/686/amd/..., support for specific h/w compiled into the kernel, etc.

So that's why I have to turn acpi and apm off before installation because some systems don't have these two things, and we must turn off anything that's specific?

Well, acpi and apm are specifications for power management (in addition for other thngs).
Unfortunately, not every hardware/Bios manufacturer implement them consistently (correctly??).
Some try to extend the standards with added features.
Seeing that you have a Compaq, I would not be surprised that they added their own features.
This is true not only for acpi/apm but for alot of other standards.

Thus some systems require different boot options.

Maybe it's more exactly to say that different installers have different boot options. Thank you, roy_lt_69, I now have the general idea.