I'm trying to install SUSE 10.2 with an already installed MSDOS 6.2 (FAT16). I created a small FAT16 partition with Knoppix and installed MSDOS and checked that it booted into it. When I try to install SUSE and get to the partitioning section it errors out with a cryptic message like "error 1008" and the MSDOS partition (in this case hda1) disappears.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Try to use some standalone partitioning software, like Ranish Partition Manager, which you can run from an UltimateBootCD CD. Create all your partitions in there, format and toggle bootable "on" the MSDOS one, making sure it is the first primary partition. Afterwards, when you install Linux skip the partitioning stage, and just format the partitions you'll be using.

If this doesn't make a difference, maybe your looking at a hardware error. On the same UltimateBootCD you can find some diagnostic tools for your HD.

I am getting a friend to download and burn the Ranish CD for me. In the meantime I used a DOS diskette to boot from, and invoked fdisk /MBR thinking that might erase the MBR. That didn't seem to correct anything. Then I started a Windows XP installation from CD, thinking it might over-write whatever was causing the problem. It went along fine. I stopped it before it finished and booted the SUSE 10.2 installation disk. The error I got was...

"Failure occurred during the following action:
Setting disk label of disk /dev/hda to MSDOS

System code error was: -1008"

I find that strange since I expected the XP installation to re-write the MBR. Any thoughts on that?

I really doubt it's a hardware problem. XP would have detected that and crashed.

I found a similar bug report from someone else. It seems that the problem occurs when parted is invoked from the installation software. Using 10.2 GM solved the problem.

Thanks for your help.