I downloaded VectorLinux as suggested by emetib, verified the md5sum of the ISO, and it passed just like RH. However, upon running the install, it started out fine, and I was able to set up partitions, but when it came time to verify the installation media, it gave me the following:

ERROR! There's something wrong with the veclinux.bz2 package.
bzip2 -tv veclinux.bz2 (returned error)
Please press Enter to activate this console.

If I ignore this and continue the install, perhaps not surprisingly, after selecting the filesystem to format with, it craps out with a kernel panic, beginning with the following:

Making a linux ext2 filesystem on the target partition: /dev/hda1
kernel BUG at sched.c: 564!
invalid operand: 0000
CPU: 0
EIP: 0010:[c0117584>] Not tainted
...etc....
<0> Kernel panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!
In interrupt handler - not syncing

So I got further into the install with VL than I ever did with RH9, but I am stymied once again. I still think there's a hardware problem somewhere, but I have not had a chance to experiment with the RAM yet, which remains the primary suspect, I would guess. Unless someone has another idea...

Thanks for the ongoing help/advice... you guys are great!

That could be a chance (RAM ages too, so some settings may get problematical as time goes by). Perhaps just try it: disable autoconfigure and modify all values by incrementing with 1: i.e. x222 to x 333, x 333 to x444 etc. If that doesn't change the situation, it's probably not the timing.

If this is the remedy you might want to sequentially decrease the values one at a time to get a little better performance -- though I wouldn't.

As a test, I tried removing two of the four SIMMs, thereby reducing RAM to 32 MB. This eliminated all problems I was having (i.e. mediacheck now passes) and I was able to successfully install VectorLinux. So obviously one or more of the SIMMs I removed were bad. I have sourced additional EDO memory on eBay, and will soon have an additional 128 MB RAM in that machine. Pretty good for $20!

Anyways, after a few false starts, I was able to configure networking to find my DSL connection, and the only major thing left is to figure out how to get out of 640x480 mode in X. Not that I really need it, but I enjoy a challenge. Should be possible, since I run my command prompt at 1024x768 with no problem. Perhaps I'll need to start another thread...

Thanks again for all the help, everybody!

I got it to boot just fine from an old Lindows installation CD.
(Lindows 4) It was a CD-R, normal CD length (700Mb).
The drive I am using is very new - CD-RW combo DVD R,
but it doesn't seem to matter much how new/old the drive is.

I don't know anything about the actual image on the CD,
if there is anything special about it. It uses LILO - I know
that much.

If your computer is networked, you can dowload three Debian
Sarge installation floppies, enough to start a CD installation
or network installation. Once Linux is loaded, it should be
able to at least use the CD drive, even if it doesn't boot from it.

Link to the sarge floppies:

ftp://ftp.fi.debian.org/debian/dists...images/floppy/
(mirror for Finland)

William




Same bios, 200MHz Pentium, 128 MB RAM.

I was hoping to make a good box out of it, but
it won't boot from a CD. The CDs I try are ones that other
computers will boot from.

The bios is quite apparently the problem here.

I tried three different CD drives, it makes no difference.
Right now I am looking for one of the following solutions:

1. A boot diskette that will start an installation from a CD.

2. a bios update

3. a diskette that will mount the CD, from which I could figure out how to install a boot sector, kernel, base system, etc, by copying.

Ekkume

You can verify the correct burning of a CD by running md5sum on the device name of the CD drive, for example "/dev/cdrom" or "/dev/hdc". The md5sum result should be the same as that of the downloaded iso image. You might also try running the laser lens cleaner disk. You might have a lot of marginal CD media, or your CD drive could be having read problems. Stay at 4x speed at least until you get this sorted out.

Have a look at this:

http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/coasterless.htm