Fedora 3 installation failure
 

I decided to install Fedora 3 on a spare computer. I formatted the c-drive and tried the graphical install using a CD I got with the book "Fedora 3 Unleashed". When that failed I tried the text installation process. When that failed I typed in 'linux mediacheck' at the command prompt. After some time the process stopped with the message: "kernel panic - not syncing: CPU context corrupt". Can someone please help me?

Thanking you in anticipation.

Could you be more specific about what happens when you try to carry out an installation ?

The computer hardware may be relevent as well.

Further to my original post, I note that I originally started the graphical instal and that got blocked at some stage with a message "Assertion (sectors >0) at disk_dos.c:489 in function probe_partition_for geom() failed". I tried several times and it always failed but with different numbers in the message. I know nothing about Linux other than that it was originally text-based, so I decided to try and use the Fedora installer in text mode. It was then that I received the message "kernel panic - not syncing: CPU context corrupt". Since posting the message I have run both the 'linux mediacheck'and 'memtest86'. I got the same message from the mediacheck as I got from trying to run the text instal. I got references to memory errors from the memory test. Consequently I believe I may have a hardware problem. I intend to remove half the memory and carry out the test again. I will then try the other half to see what happens. Any advice would be most welcome.

I would suspect that it's hardware as well - possibly multiple hardware issues.

Memory problems can cause very strange behaviour, but I think that you should also check that the internal temperature is OK (all fans spinning), and also do a full disk check before trusting this system with any data.

The easiest way to do the disk check is to boot the system with Knoppix or another bootable CD and run the "fsck" command-line utility.