Went to major reputable book store last weekend and forked over $50 (ok, it's $CDN, but still) to buy "Red Hat Linux 9 in 24 hrs," one of those usually handy Sams books. It came with a couple of discs.

Popped in disc one and tried to install, but it just won't work.

I have tried

linux text
linux rescue
linux ide=nodma
linux mem=98M (my memory right now)
linux apm=off
linux failsafe
linux xdrvr=fbdev
linux noauto
linux nomce
linux acpi=off

(i realize now that i could have put em all on the same line, but me big fat nooby poopy/dumb head)

no matter what i tried, i get the same result (the following is a selection of the greek that displays on my screen):

"Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode...<1>Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address c0000000

Oops:003
CPU: 0
...

<0>Kernel panic: Attempted to kill the idle task!
In idle task - not syncing"

I have googled around for some ideas (the "manual" i bought is, of course, no help at all), but i'm at wit's end here. cheezed off and wincing about my $50 that could've been wasted on something else more gratifying.

Any ideas would be wholeheartedly appreciated.

'"Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode...<1>Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address c0000000

Oops:003
CPU: 0'

You may have a version of Red Hat that is not compiled for the CPU that you are running. Check to see if the distribution was compiled for i586, i686, or whatever and then see if your CPU is older than that. It is also possible that there is an Intel - AMD incompatibility.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

Thanks J,

my 'puter is old (circa 1997), but it's a cyrix (a cyrix media gxm, to be precise), 233mhz PII clone. last i checked at redhat, cyrix was on the list of supported processors. wot a bummer. the book ought to have more explicit warnings before you buy it (is cheating a few extra sales really worth it to them?).

nothing else i can do/try (besides go back to knoppix, morphix, vector or feather linux? i really did wanna try the "industry standard."

'nothing else i can do/try (besides go back to knoppix, morphix, vector or feather linux? i really did wanna try the "industry standard."'

See if you can find a free copy of Fedora Core 1 someplace (maybe the public library). Fedora is the free, unsupported, bleeding edge version of Red Hat. I think that Fedora will install on any CPU as long as there is enough memory ( 98M is enough ) but I wouldn't want to bet money on it. Fedora is so similar to Red Hat that the Sam's book would apply to Fedora.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

jailbait, thanks for your ideas. i decided in the end to go with vector linux + dropline and so far i'm near delirious with joy. i'll keep the book. i bought an old PIII last week and mebbe i will try RH9 on that.

Well thank goodness Google found your post about this for me or I would probably be bald in a short time. I too was trying to install Red Hat Linux on a PC with a Cyrix chip and got the same message. Gee, I wish it had just said something like, "Try a different chip ya dummy - RH doesn't support those cheapo chips "

Again, thanks a bunch for posting your problem - it helped me immensely!

Mona