Try text install or a lower res install. I have had Red Hat fail many times at cd 2 and 3 (mainly 2). The ways I got around it were:
stubbornly keep trying - after all, I had run the check cd on all disks
try the text and low res install.

Believe it or not , method 1 does work eventually. Although I have had success with method 2, too.

Lite on DVD/Rom 16x48 and the CD Rom itself is a Lit-on 48x24x48 RedHat won't even recognize the CD Rom DVD master the CD Rom is a slave.

What are the hard drives set to? and do they share cables with the cds or are they seperate?

Okay, I'm stepping in cause I see some posts sort of flaming and others trying to help with issue that the member is having.

Though, I myself am not here to persuade anyone from disgusted with Linux to keep them in using Linux, that's not what this forum is for. If you have questions or problems with Linux, ask your questions, but try not to post your frustration, threatening to go back to another OS. That's just uncalled for on a Linux help site, cause most here can care less what OS you use.

Okay, now on to the flaming bit that has been expressed in this thread.

1. If your going to flame this guy who started this thread, move on and don't waste your time.
2. If your not going to post any thing constructive, example: telling how Redhat sucks or saying anything else sucks, don't post at all and move on as well.
3. As this thread has moved to helping this member with his actual problem installing Linux, keep it on topic and clean. If you don't have anything valuable to add to help him out, move on to the next thread.

Regards.

Hey guys ease off alittle - he's just frustrated [mossy bites his tongue on the linux slander heh heh heh].

Anyway. I had quite a few problems with Mandrake 9.0 when I first installed it . Finally I got it running with a combo of different burned cd's [pain in the ass].
I really really liked it tho when I started geting used to it.

Then I decided to build another pc just for Linux. I gave up trying Mandrake after about 4 or 5 failed installs [I reckon it was a combo of cheapo cd's and bad downloads]. Red Hat went straight off the bat. I've been here since.

However I will purchase Mandrake eventually - to get a good copy as I really like it.

I have one older 500mhz cheapo pc that I have never been able to install linux on. I think it is because the processor is some crap brand that passes as ok when processing with windows [windows does not use true multitasking or the full capacity of a processor.

~ SO ~

It is possible you may have a bad cd OR a crappy cpu.

~ doubledragon5~ Do you know the brand and model of the cpu by any chance?

sure it could but if he is asking such questions i dont think he could figure the config fault out on his own so i think its much more easy for him to just try another distribution which one is his thing http://distrowatch.com is a good link for have an overview ...
yea but i dont think the original mandrake as well as the original red hat cds coul both be broken or however we could call it with our informations given from him.
but back to the point with the distro change, i for my own had some years ago also problems with installing debian it just wont work with my graphic card and i couldnt realy figure out what was the point it took me several weeks but finally after 2-3 months trying,asking,reading,searching ... i gave up and decided to change my distro it worked all other distros ive tested are working 100% ...
some days ago i tested the newest debian testing it still doesnt work with my graphic card but all others did .
this only to show you that sometimes trying another distro is a good way if you dont really need this special one...
now i have slack for some years running perfect and stable, but i would not recommen it for someone like our 1. poster here and his red hat , mandrake prob, he should maybe test college linux,suse...

hmm,the problem with your graphics card could have been solved by upgrading XFree.
almost everything inside every linux distro is same.only the configuration tools differ.and redhat is the most successfull and respected company among linux distros.
--arun

@ doubledragon5

I think you could unplug the slave CD-rom (or disable it on the bios) and make sure only either your CD-rom or DVD-Rom is set a master and give it a try. If fails, unplug the DVD, set the CD rom as master and try again. It's impossible to fail with both devices. If does, then some hardware is in conflict (hd's, most likely). From now, I can almost discard the possibility of a bad CD/Iso image.
I know, it's kinda boring to unplug this, unplug that... but hey, you've already invested on Redhat and it's a waste of money giving up. One thing is for sure, when Redhat is up and you find tools as apt-get/synaptic, you gonna love it. Keep on it..

again wrong, as the slack version and other distros i installed with success used to have the same XFree versions shipped ... it was just debian nothing bad about it but for me it wont work ....

Possibly Issues:

CD-Rom [should be tested individually as master as already mentioned]

CD/DVD-Rom [should be tested individually as master as already mentioned]

RAM - got any other sticks? different brands? Isolate each one and test individually -cheap ram without error control will cause problems.

IDE CABLING - try another other IDE cable - if possible take the ones from another KNOWN GOOD pc.

CPU - big bad cpu - got another? if not then that sucks. Another pc maybe??

This IS a H/W issue doubledragon5. It cannot be the cd's at this point.

Schtick in there man you WILL get it eventually even if you have to learn alot to do it - heh heh heh.

Also - I hesitated to say CHEAP ram earlier as I have had expensive ram not work and cheapo ram will! - go figure. I had to swap a 512mb stick of pc133 micron ram for some cheapo Fry's pc133 ram - because it works on linux - even tho both sticks run under windows.

Mandrake is the only distro i have used so far. I did have a problem with the install kept getting errors. Even though xp would install there was somethings that would not with out giving me errors finally i decied to put a different cdrom in my puter and mandrake installed with no problem. I would check ur cdroms. Maybe they need to be cleaned or some type of conflict.

I had similar problems a while ago on an install - also on CD 2. In my case it turned out to be a corrupt download (I downloaded the iso images and burned by own CD's) Maybe you should try download a fresh download of disk 2 (even though you bought your CD's) and give it a try. A good tip though is the choose the media test option during the install.

YES ~ the media test. Man Red HAT Failed on my original so we burned another and finally it passed. It required very high quality it looks like.

Pain in the ASS.

I can't wait until you can get these on DVD's. Hopefully the quality will be better as they will have more space ~ so less compression.

You can't jump into linux and expect to have everything setup perfectly within a day or so.There is problems when you figure out how to solve the problems and have a system that you can let run and allow it to do its thing and not have to wonder if it is working properly is why linux is great. I have had friends try linux and after a week or so they just give up. When i started 2 years ago i had 10000000000 issues most of which was because of ignorance but i worked at it and now have only a few problems that come up. I don't use linux for my workstation because no Adobe products but for servers its a must.

I loaded a 3 copy of linux and this time it worked fine. Just like I said bad lot of cds.