Installing Red Hat Linux v7.1 in VMWare
 

I was trying to install Red Hat Linux v7.1 under VMWare Workstation for Windows, and during bootup time from the CD, it hung. The line that showed last was "running /sbin/loader". There was no activity after that point.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks,

i tried for kicks to do that at work, on my NT station here, it did the same thing in VMware. Not sure if its compatible or what, but I couldn't get it to do anything to get past that point. Older versions did fine.

Just received an answer from VMWare on this one
 

Lockups During the Install of Red Hat Linux 7.1 in a virtual machine.
SYMPTOM: Client tries to load Red Hat 7.1 in a virtual machine, after
running other virtual machines successfully. Red Hat 7.1 locks up the
virtual machine during the install at "running sbin/loader" and will
continue no further.
PROBLEM: VMware has identified and confirmed that there is a bug
in Linux Kernel 2.4.2 (which is used for the install of RH 7.1) which
causes lockups due to timing problems. VMware(TM) Workstation virtual
machines are affected by this bug. This occurs on both Windows and
Linux host machines. Extensive testing and work have been done on
this problem, and the kernel bug has been confirmed with Linux kernel
developers.
SOLUTION: We've empirically determined that the lock-up occurs much
less frequently with a setting change in the virtual machine
configuration file. As a convenience to our customers, we have
confirmed that the following workaround will allow you to get RH 7.1
installed.
PLEASE FOLLOW ALL STEPS in these instructions; the configuration
change SHOULD NOT be left in your virtual machine's configuration
permanently, or other problems may occur. Here is the workaround:
1. Before starting the RH 7.1 installer, add the following line
anywhere in your virtual machine's configuration (CFG or VMX) file:
cdrom.synchronous=TRUE
2. Start the RH install, confirm that you get past the lockup point,
and install RH the rest of the way.
3. After RH 7.1 is installed correctly, and networking configured,
download and install the latest Linux kernel (2.4.3-12) from Red
Hat Update, or from Red Hat's web site:
http://www.redhat.com
4. Power off the VM
5. FIND AND REMOVE the following line from your virtual machine's
configuration (CFG or VMX):
cdrom.synchronous=TRUE
6. Save changes to the configuration file, and reboot your VM with
the new kernel. Red hat 7.1 should work fine within the virtual
machine now.

Cool tip and info for others.

The only thing I don't understand is why it will install on one of my Win2000 boxes and not the other. It actually started installing, but I picked more packages then my virtual disk would allow. Anyway, I tried to start over and bam! it stuck on /sbin/loader. I added the line given below and it is installing as I type this. Anyway the main point to this post was to say:

"Thank you. Without this info I would have surely been stuck."