Slack8.1 install corrupts file system :(
 

I'm hoping someone run into that before and can give me some pointers.

Here are my specs:
mobo: ECS K7S5A , Socket A, SiS735 Chipset, 266Mhz FSB
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1700+ @ 266Mhz FSB
RAM: 512 SDRAM (PC133)
HD: Western Digital 10.2GB WD102AA

I was running on slack 8.0 fine, and decided to do a fresh install of slack 8.1.
But whenever I try to install slack 8.1, when using the "setup" ... during the install of packeages I get plenty of ext2fs errors, or ext3fs or the ofther jurnaling file system .. I tried all 3 already ... also I tried both fast and slow format options, ... sometimes the format is successfull and sometimes it's not, I get ext2fs, or ext3fs file system errors (I wish I could post them in more detail but they disapear to fast for me to read through)
Now when I don't get any errors during the format and continue with the installation of packages I'll get more of the ext2fs (invalid inode value 8 instead of 0 .. I think the error is) ... but in all cases the partition is badly corrupted, and even running fsck -aC doesn't help ... fsck tells me to run fsck without -a or -p, which I do next, but the fsck is unable to repair my partition .. runs in to more trouble.

Note: I tried installing from 2 different CDs and have checked the iso file with md5sum, also tried installing from a mounted directory, ... all results were identical.
But installing slack 8.0 is successfull with no coruptions to my file system .. ext2fs, and then upgrading to slack 8.1. .. now this is interesting because all seems to be well .. all packages (that I checked .. he he) seem to work fine) ... but as soon as I boot with the new kernel /boot/vmlinuz ... my ext2fs partition is corupted again ... and fsdk is of no help :(

Question:
is the kernal bare.i of the new slack 8.1 causing all the coruptions to my ext2fs partition?

Solution ?
If so perhaps simply using the good old 2.4.5 kernal from 8.0 and later recompiling the 2.4.18 or the newest 2.4.?? would solve the misterious coruptions of my linux partition.
... he he ... I gues I've came up with a solution to my own problem ... :)

I hope that will work ... but other sugestions are welcome too, and I'm still curious what compile portion of the kernal can be causing this, or perhaps it's something else?

Sorry for my bad spelling ... I'm in a hurry to get my system up and runing ... for the last 3 days now :(
I'll be back in a few hours, and post if my solution worked or not ... perhaps this will help someone else too :)

compiling kernel 2.4.20, and booting with it worked just fine :)

... too bad I can't use the 8.1 CD to boot and install ... not that it matters now since I've installed all 8.1 packages (from that same CD) by following the upgrade procedures :)

Hope this will save some time, if anyone else runs into this problem :)

ahhh ... just as a reminder
... I keept booting on my old 8.0 install kernal, including after I made the upgrade of all packages to 8.1 ... by simply making a backup copy of /vmlinuz which was REMOVED during the upgrade procedure, so be carefull
here.

here's what I did:
cp /vmlinuz /vmlinuz.old
removepkg $SLACKWARE8.0/a/*.tgz
# /vmlinuz is no more
# but /vmlinuz.old is still here :)
# next do not FORGET to vim /etc/lilo.conf and change vmlinuz to vmlinuz.old
# and run
lilo

the next time I booted a diferent kernel, was after I compiled it myself :)

As a matter of fact, I had a K7S5A installed with Slack 8.1 no problem. Turn off PnP OS in BIOS. No cable select jumper on HD. Set it as master. The IDE cable has both ends inserted, leaving the middle end untouched. BTW, if your HD isn't ATA-100, use a regular IDE cable, not the 80-conductor one. I'm suspecting your HD. Boot order should be FLOPPY, CD, HD, Network.

As a last resort, install another OS, scandisk thorough.

Thanks for the reply ... but did you read all of my posts?
I fixed the problem, by using a different kernal compile ... there was nothing wrong with the hardware.