Hello. I have been wanting to switch over to Linux for quite some time. I am having extreme difficulty getting past the first boot!! I have downloaded several different versions from various sources. All are ISO files and are correctly burned to disc. I have Yoper, Debian, Arch Linux, Ubuntu, and Gentoo. I have attempted to boot each of these on two different machines. One is a HP Vectra VE with a PII. The other is an IBM Thinkpad 600x. Now out of all of these versions you'd think that at least one of them would boot correctly to get me to install right? The most common error I'm getting to says "Kernel panic: attempted to kill init!" I have searched and searched and can't find an answer to my question. What am I doing wrong? What is it going to take to get Linux running on either machine? Is there some kind of test application that can let you know what version is the right one for my machine? If anyone could please help I would sure appreciate it!!! I even own a book on Linux and it doesnt have the answer I need!

OK, those were burned correctly... But did you check their md5sums? Did you use a reliable cd burner?

The burner is very reliable. What is a md5sum?

That's not the error, that's a consequence. Let's see some error messages prior to that.
Make sure you have minimum requirements - memory, that sort of thing, although gentoo should be o.k. on just about anything if it's the minimal CD. I don't recommend gentoo to a new user BTW, but it should boot.
Forget Arch on that PII - should work on the other though.

md5sum is a little application that checks whether your isos were not damaged while they were being downloaded. It does happen from time to time; and sometimes isos go bad because of a piece of bad hardware. I had a faulty RAM stick some time ago which corrupted anything I saved.

If you are downloading to windows, look on the internet for md5sum.exe. It's a very small file that should be put in the same folder as your iso(s) - I recommend making a folder right under C:

then type this into the run box on the menu:
cmd
it brings up a dark window; here you type:
cd \
cd name-of-the-folder-you-made
if you now type
dir
it should show the iso(s) in the folder as well as md5sum.exe
now calculate the md5sum for your iso by typing:
md5sum name-of-the-iso.iso
your system will do some calculations and then it returns a string of numbers and letters. Go to the site where you downloaded the iso from; it should have a file "md5sum". Consult the file for the md5sum that matches your iso; if it diverges ever so slightly from the result of your md5sum exercise, you know for sure that your iso is not identical to the original one, in other words that it somehow got corrupted.

btw, some isos use sha1sum.exe instead of md5sum.exe - this should be evident from the site where got your iso; it's basically the same approach, only you would have to dowload sha1sum.exe to do this sort of calculation.

so I just tried the ArchLinux again on the Thinkpad. True it does want to load very easily I can see. But at one point the screen goes to this ugly plaid pattern and stays that way until I turn it off. I just can't get lucky! Would getting a LiveCD maybe like Knopix help or would I encounter the same resistance? It was to my understanding that Linux would want to install itself, maybe just wishful thinking? Its so frustrating to me because I know so little about this. All I know is when I was in college in 2004 I went to one class about Linux. I even answered some question right and got a free copy of Running Linux 4th Edition By O'reilly (still right in front of me). I especially thought that it should run right on these machines.

Shouldn't you verify the md5sum for one iso at least before you start downloading more? Who knows what is on those disks of yours. As pointed out above, most of those distros should install fine on at least the Thinkpad.

I know I should do this but I do not have the ISOs on the PC anymore. All of them were burned and the downloads deleted. Part of the reason I want to switch is because the PC I'm using has got a lot of problems and Windows crashes a lot on me so I try to "get in and get out" a lot, but it has a burner and the thinkpad does not.

Obviously if everything you download and burn doesn't work you're doing something wrong. You claim that they are "burned correctly" but are they really?

Thousands upon thousands of people download and burn these same distros without problem so you are obviously doing something wrong.

How about posting EXACTLY what you are doing, step by step.

By you description of your windows problems it could very well be that you have a faulty RAM stick. I had a computer a few years ago that would crash no matter how many times we reinstalled windows. It would run fine from 50 seconds to 5 hours then crash, I took it to get tested, turned out all the ram we hade in there was broke. If this is the case with you computer, your downloads might have been broken even before you finished downloading them.

Might want to post how you are doing the lilo or grub bootloader installation.

Oh.. It's always so despondently to see if somebody have problems installing Linux. Many of these unlucky'es turn down the idea to install Linux on their machines. I hope Czar420 won't give up! Cause if you'll sucseed, firstly you'll be happy you've made that what you wanted, and else you'll be rewarded with a really good OS.
So I've got to advices:
1)Maybe you will ask your friends to download and burn you an *.iso?
2)Test your RAM. http://www.hcidesign.com/memtest/MemTest.zip http://hcidesign.com/ ftp://abis-gw.paco.odessa.ua/pub/tools/spd_tool.rar