Hey...anyone who can figure this one out...PLEASE feel free to email me...this is a brain digger...
...Anyways, I installed MANDRAKE 9.1 w/ all options and the install was a sucess no problems. Then I booted, tried all options just to get into the system and it freezes every single time at the init kernal. I tried a differ video card, tried pulling the sound card and so on. Nothing seems to work. I was leaning towerds hardware not allowing me to do so...but now I am open to any suggestions. The specs are below. And YES I have tried re-installing a few times now...

AMD Athelon thunderbird 750 Mhz (slot A)
Not too sure what board it is. Its an old gateway I want to use with LINUX. AMD is stamped all over the board.
542MB SDRAM
1 HP CDR-RW 12X24X4X CD WRITER
1 FIGITSU 48X CD-ROM DRIVE
WESTERN DIG. 15GIG HD (being used for LINUX)
FIGITSU 4GIG HD
USING CABLE MODEM VIA RJ45 W/KINGSTON ETHERFAST CARD
ENSONIQUE SOUND CARD
NIVIDIA CHIPSET VANTA TNT2 VIDEO CARD

Thanks...

BrandenS@adelphia.net

I don't know what you mean when you say it freezes at the "init kernel". init and the kernel are two different things.

Could you post the last few messages before it freezes.

Tim

It is when it is at initialization...actually is the same exact problem posted here http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...003/02/4/46640
...and their isn't a solution posted...I emailed this person to see if they resolved it or not...

Ya, you got a reply there....and it says, the guy installed Red Hat 9 and got rid of his problem!

Ok...at this point, let me give u one suggestion...

Install Red Hat 9 first....If it gets going, then play around for may be a couple of weeks....and if u get a hang of it, go in for a triple boot...( Windows, RedHat 9 and Mandrake 9.2)..

Do I sound positive? Yes I do....dont lose hope....keep trying...or, otherwise, wait till a Guru reads this issue and gives u the success mantra...

Regards,

amit

Well I doubt its a hardware problem because :

1) If the installation system worked you already had a kernel running on your machine.

2) If init was running, we know that the hard disk is being accessed.

3) Init itself doesn't have much to do with hardware.

My guess is that something is going wrong during the installation process and that some files are missing or corrupted.

Are you able to boot the system with a rescue disk ?

Tim

Yes I can...GENTOO Linux works great on the system. I really wanted mandrake on this unit...its the only LINUX that is giving me probs...maybe I will take the advise above and check out the newer REDHAT...If somebody knows anything though...let me know...

-Branden

Just a (silly) idea - try to unplug all USB devices...

Oxyd.

yeah Oxyd,...i tried that...

-Branden