Hello to all, I'm having problems when installing any linux OS into my computer, this is what I have:

- Intel Celeron 2.0
- Gigabyte Motherboard
- 1 gb of RAM

I really don't know what's happening, here it is what's happening when I am trying to reboot my system with the CD installation:

The RedHat logo appears with options and press enter for installation. Then I press enter and send a kill signal with output 11 and also says exited abnormally. It also appears error code 2: cpio: Bad Magic.

I once tried to install the linux in my pc but failed, and it remained with the partitions. I think this is causing the problem, but I really not sure, anyway, Whenever I try to install the linux I press enter and then it says exited abnormally =(, error code 11, you may safely reboot your system.

Please, need help! Thank you

PS. Will able to pay 20 dlls who can help me with the problem. Thank you.

I've only came across that sort of error when trying to install in really old system, which your's aint particularly. I put it down to the cd-rom drive others are probably more enlightened.

Someone can help? I now offer 50 dlls to help me install red hat 8.0 or mandrake 9.1

Hehehe... put your cash back in your wallet...

I'll take a stab, or at least offer some suggestions.

Did you burn this CD or buy it commercially? The complaint about "bad magic" kinda suggests to me that a file is corrupt. A bad burn or a scratch might do that.

Second, when the boot prompt comes up, instead of pressing Enter straight, read the screen and find out what other options you have. It's usually F1 to see a list. You can try the safe mode or whatever Red Hat calls it. If you still get the same error, then I'd check the CD in another machine (if you can), even if it's only to verify there are no damaged sectors.

Have you checked that the CDs you have burned are do not have errors? If you're getting a CPIO error, it means that it is having problems copying files out of what is effectively a kind of zip file. If the 'zip' file is corrupted, then it'll never work. You can check out whether your CDs (or rather, the ISO files) are any good by using something called MD5SUMS. If you're running Windows, then you can get a program from www.md5summer.org, or just use the md5sums package that comes with most Linux distros if you're in Linux already.

Also, could you give us a little more info on the system. Graphics, etc?

Is there any other operating system installed and working on your computer?

How big is your hardrive and is there an existing partition on it now?Which linux do you want to install?And how are you going about installing are you booting directly from the cdrom.

Thank you all for the support, I buyed the Mandrake 9.1 at an alternative store (burned cds), and the red hat got it at a book (publisher's edition). The problem is that I was installing mandrake and suddently it stopped at the middle of the installation of packages, then I was foced to shut down the computer and when trying to install it again I couldn't, it told me that it had exited abnormally.

It already has partitions, but when I tried to install red hat, everything went fine, until I was trying to set the partitions, again it stopped and this time it sent me a abnormal installation code.

OK, try installing Mandy again, but make sure you select the expert option (I think you have to press F1 when the CD boots and then type 'expert' or something). You should be able to do more things with the partitions. Do not worry about it being the 'expert' way of installing - it's not hard, but it does give you more control and flexibility.

Both of your media sources (burned CD and CD included with a book) are possible sources for a bad CD.
I was thinking you were correct about just needing to clean up the hard drive after a failed install. That is why I asked if there was anything working on your hard disk (or is it empty waiting for a sucessful Linux install?).
There are different options depending on the answer to this.

Im just wondering why he is having problems with both of them. If I were you i'm assuming that you have windows installed. Is i had the same problem with redhat I partioned with partion magic and the problem went away. Also try installing with a floppy your cdrom may not be compatible use rawwritewin and create a boot disk for either distro.Last but not least try a hard drive install if all else fails. That should work....

Ohh yeh post back when you get it working.

I had a similar problem with RH installation. I figured it was due to my Windows partition which was messing up the partitioning part of the RH install.

I solved the problem by installing Debian instead.

-rikkulinux

Thank you all for your great contribution, I think I want to erase all my partitions on the hard drive, but want to know how can I do this and where can I get that. Thank you

Most Installers have an option at the partition stage that lets you "remove all existing partitions". Just check that box. then procede.