When I boot from the cd-rom and try to install the Mandrake 10.1
the install gets hung up on something and eventually displays a dialog box saying:
" Error
Could not uncompress second stage ramdisk. This is probably an hardware error while reading the data. (this may be caused by a hardware failure or a Linux kernel bug)"
The only option it gives me is the select an "ok" button and then the installation closes down.

I tried to see what the log messages were and here they are until the dialog box appears.

* trying to load /sysroot/tmp/image/install/stage2/mdkinst_stage2.bz2 as a ramdisk
* reading compressed ramdisk: IO_ERROR
* unsetting automatic

Any help would be great,

Chad

please tell us if you read the min specs needed for a gui install or if you did it as text install.

2) if that is not a hint please post what your specs are

size of hard drives......are they raided.....are they SATA or scsi or ide
size of ram
speed of processor

3) here are some specs for MDK 10.2 can't help with 10.1
Mandrakelinux is built with CPU speed optimizations for Pentium-class
(Pentium(tm) and compatibles, AMD Athlon, Pentium 4...) so it WILL
NOT RUN on older i386 and i486 based computers.

Installation Instructions - Mandrakelinux 10.2

Required configuration
* Pentium processor or compatible
* CDROM drive
* At least 32 MB RAM, 64 MB recommended

I am trying to install on a slightly older machine.
From what I can see its specs are:

1.2GHz AMD Athlon
128MB SDRAM
40GB Hard Drive

The only thing I could think would be my problem would be the memory being at 128MB.
Can anyone tell me what the reqirenments are for 10.1?

Hello Chad

I have just recently installed Mandrake 10.1 Powerpack.
On the side of the sleeve it says that all Pentium, Pentium compatible processors and AMD processors are supported.

The minimum amount of ram that you need to use is 32Mb for a TEXT install and 64Mb for a GRAPHICAL install.

The minimum disk space required is 500Mb but 1Gb is recommended.

Good luck

There is one thing I have failed to mention.
There is currently installed on the machine Windows ME.
Would that make a difference?

no plenty have windows on it and dual boot until they go to the dark side, heh heh

I wonder if you could check your cdr with the md5sum signature again and tell us if the result is good.

if it is good, try running a knoppix or kanotix live cd to test your hardware as 128 megs is fine.

you RAM might be faulty
Windows will still run if your RAM is dodgey, but Linux is a lot more discerning
Run Memtest on your ram
http://www.memtest86.com/
or Tuff-test
http://www.tufftest.com/tt01-lite.htm
or slip in a copy of Knoppix or similar
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
and scan your HDD and RAM

floppy