[ltp] Problems installing RedHat 7.0 on 755CD

[Thomas Hood]

>From what you describe I'd suspect that you are running
out of memory during the install.

What I would do at this point is investigate the subject
of installing Linux on machines with limited memory.

Do a console-based install rather than an X-based install,
if you can.  Also, try to tell whether swap is turned on.

You might consider installing one of the smaller 
Linux distributions such as Peanut Linux.

If it's not an oom problem then it may be that one
of the drivers for your hardware is buggy.  Try to
do the most limited install you can, to begin with.
You can install additional components later.

Thomas


--- Mitchell Kirschner <mkirschn@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I'm trying to put my 755CD to good use as a personal Linux development
> server, and I'm growing bald as I tear my hair out.
> 
> *Problem: I can't get past basic Linux installation!
> The kernel starts loading into RAM disk, and teases me by getting quite far
> into the loading process. It recognizes the hard drive and so on, but then
> it stumbles for some reason. The final screen output reads:
> 
> "Kernel panic: Attempted to kill the idle task!"
> "In swapper task - not syncing"
> 
> Sometimes I'm even able to get through several installation screens
> (keyboard, native and swap partition initiatlization, etc) before I'm rudely
> interrupted by that message. Other times the failure occurs before I even
> get to the first (post-kernel-loading) setup screen.
> 
> I've tried a variety of boot methods with both Debian 2.2 and Redhat 7.0. I
> believe they both use the 2.2 series kernel.
> 
> -With a RedHat 7.0 boot floppy; suspend the machine just as kernel starts
> loading; switch to cd-rom drive; wake machine up (a technique I found
> described in this list's archives)
> -With a RedHat 7.0 boot floppy all by itself, no attempts to suspend machine
> -With an install.bat script launched from DOS (with CD-ROM drive & disk
> loaded)
> -I've also tried making different rescue disks from the various images
> (compact, safe, etc), all with the same end result
> 
> I'm guessing the problem is somehow related to memory allocation or
> configuration, or maybe it's a more endemic motherboard incompatibility. But
> I haven't a clue beyond that, and I wouldn't know how to mess around with
> changing memory settings, assuming that were even possible. Can anything be
> done? One thing I wanted to try was using an older kernel image file (2.0)
> but had difficulty finding one that was already compiled for an initial
> install.
> 
> *Machine info:
> - Processor is i486 DX4@100Mhz.
> - BIOS part number 91G2006 (the latest BIOS available as far as I can tell)
> - This thinkpad has a single internal bay for the hot-swappable CD-ROM and
> floppy drives
> - The CD-ROM drive is NOT bootable
> - 24 Mb memory total
> - 1.2 Gb hard drive, containing these partitions:
> 	About a 12 Mb DOS partition (PC-DOS 7.0)
> 	Approx 900 Mb Linux native partition
> 	Approx 125 Mb Linux swap partition
> 
> *Linux info:
> - Debian 2.2 or RedHat 7.0 (tried both with same results)
> 
> Sorry for the lengthy message, but I thought more info would be better than
> less. Any insight or pointers would be much appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> Mitch Kirschner


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