Hi all,

I have built a new computer using a MCI k7n2 delta motherboard and I am using a seagate 120 GB hard drive.
I have been trying to install linux/unix on this system an every time the system completely freezes at about the midway point of the installation when it is installing the packages.
I have tried Redhat9, Mandrake 9.1, Debian, freeBSD, and all of them do the same thing. I have checked my installation media since I am using ISO's I downloaded off the internet, I have used the same media to perform other installs in the Lab I work at and all the installs in the Lab were successfull.
I have also tried installing Windows on this machine and I needed 3 attempts at the install before I would be successfull. However once windows was installed and all drivers were updated the system worked fine. I am saying this because in a previous post to anouther newsgroup it was mentioned that it might be RAM. If my windows configuration ran for 1 week with no problems then my RAM "should" be fine.
I really need to install Linux/Unix since this is the platform that I like/need to use to do my development on.
At this point I am inclined to think that it is a component on the motherboard that is causing the system to freeze.

Questions:
1. Why does the system freeze at the package install phase and not during system init. ?

2. Help if anyone out there has seen this before please let me know what I can do to fix this.

PS: I thought it could be the harddrive but I got a few other drives from the Lab and the same situation occured.

I am using onboard sound, my video card is a geforce2 mx440, this card I used on a previous Linux system so I know it is good.
I am using onboard lan which is gigabite ethernet I think. I am not at home so I am guessing.

Once again any insights would be greatly appreciated!

I have the same exact problem. Tried to install two different versions of Mandrake and one of Suse. All hang during the package installation. I have an AMD K-6 450 processor, a Soyo 5EMA motherboard and a WD 40gig HD. Two of the installation CDs are "factory made" and one is burned. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

i cant guarantee anything but i have RH 8.0 on my computer but it would the same thing initially.....after many failed attempts i finally decided to try an use my other CDROM Drive......and for some strange reason it worked and it all runs now.....don't know if that will help or if it's even relevant but t\i just had to add my two cents.

more than likely since you have tried many different media it is a hardware conflict. I would check the distro HCL and then try to figure out what is causing the chocke...I too have had difficulty with one of my cd rom drives...a quick flip to another drive resolved the issue...except with gentoo, which apparently hates me and all my hardware

Actually I'm not sure if that is accurate, I'm having the problem with Redhat 8. Using a burned DVD, I tried to install it on 2 of the same types of pcs, Compaq Ipaqs which are our company standard, and one of the Ipaqs installed just fine. The other however took me about 5 tries, just to load the OS and then I tried adding packages later and it just kept crashing. I will look into what you suggested, I'm still a newb to Linux and would like to learn to use it more in a corporate setting.