I am trying to install SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 (for x86) onto a Pentium 3 (600MHz) with 256 MB RAM and 16GB HD.

I insert the installation/boot disk and turn on my machine. The automatic installation starts just fine. However, the installation hangs after getting the following lines:

Searching for infofile......
Loading data into ramdisk (41150 kB)..................

If I press ctrl-alt-f3, I see the following lines:

going for automatic install
Loading image "/var/adm/mount/boot/root" ....

If I press ctrl-alt-f4, I see the following lines:

hdc: cdrom_decode_status: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdc: cdrom_decode_status: error=0x30
(these 2 lines repeat over and over)

The cdrom continues to turn, and the hard drive light is on, but nothing happens.

Does anyone know what is going on here?

FYI - The only way I can stop this is to eject the CD. I am then presented with an installation screen which allows me to start installation, which again hangs on "Loading data into ramdisk". The only way I can get past this is to put in disk 1 (of 3) when I get to the installation screen. However, I am then running the risk of skipping installation of a program from the boot disk. Again, please advise on this if you can ...

Sounds like the disk is corrupted. But what confuses me is the numering of disks: Isn't CD1 the same as the boot-disk? If not, can't you boot from cd1?

If you can get into the installation process with CD1, I would give it a try!

I have 4 disks in total:
- A boot disk
- 3 installation disks

I tried booting from Disk1 and that worked fine. I have successfully installed SLES 8 and have a KDE desktop in front of me.

Do you know what the boot disk is supposed to be for?

No idea! SuSE offers a boot.iso that you need to install over a network connection. But if you already have a bootable CD, I see no use for it.

But anyway: have a lot of fun