Error installing Red Hat 6.2
 

After running through the installation and getting the message that its rebooting / ejecting CD. Things seemed fine.

It reboots. Gives the LILO prompt ... according to the instructions I follow, it says to press TAB, type in linux and enter.

So I do ... then I get a screen full of information ( I wish I could copy it somehow ) but I did manage to copy down the last few lines :

Call Trace:[<c0106000>] [<c01d7d0b>] [<c0100175>]
Code: 0f 32 0d 00 00 20 00 0f 30 68 21 78 1d c0 c8 27 fd ed ff 83
Kernal Panic: Attemptd to kill the idle task
In Swapper task - not syncing


I've tried to reinstall ... change a few settings, anything and keep getting same full screen message. Not quite sure what it is. :(

Can anyone explain? Or do i need to spend an hour writing down the entire evil screen??

Any particular reason for using Redhat 6.2

Redhat 6.2 was released March 2000 and since we have seen Redhat 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 8.0, 9, Fedora Core 1, 2, 3, 4

I suspect the kernel hasn't the code to support your hardware

It was the only copy of Linux that I had on CD currently. I got it from a friend. If that is the case ( which, I was wondering because the options didn't have my monitor, and other things ) ... I wondered if because of the wrong settings if that was what was causing the errors.

I am planning to order Fedora Core 4 - because I've tried to download it, and it doesn't seem to work very well.

So, if / when I get the newer linux - things should install better???

You can also try some other "Newbie" friendly distros (see distrowatch.com):

Ubuntu
Mandriva
PCLinuxOS
Mepis

Or try a live CD (doesn't touch your hard disk) like Mepis or Knoppix.

Try one of these tests to see which distro may be right for you:

http://eedok.voidofmind.com/linux/chooser.html
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

Things should go better with a more modern distro, however if you have exotic hardware you may still have a few problems that will need to be ironed out.


What was the problem with Fedora Core 4?

Dunno. Haven't tried it yet, because of problems trying to download it, I haven't been able to try it. I only have a copy of Red Hat 6.2 which seems to be causing problems.

I plan to order the Fedora CDs to give that a try.

Thank you. I will give those a look. I was going for a full install on the computer ( I can post the config of the computer, if that may help ) ... because I plan to use it to run a web host / MUD host in the near future. Also, I want to be able to offer e-mail with it.

But, if another Linux would be better suited, I would be interested in checking it out.

I would try both the tests listed in post 4. They may point you in a good direction so you won't have to try quite so many distros before you find one you like.