RedHat 9 Installation trouble

[Antwelm]

I heard Linux (RedHat) was supposed to have become so easy to install and run now that I finally decided to give it a go (in other words, I don't know much about it and it workings).

Acuired RedHat 9 and set out to install on either of my two boxes.

I can't say Im happy, and Im honestly 3 minutes away from dumping the 3 CD's on really deep water... (At least then I could get a sail and calm my nervs.. and get back to my beloved, easy to install and rock stable Windows XP)..

Heres the s**t:

box 1:
mobo: BioStar M6VCG [http://cl.no/83] (VIA Tech VT82C devices)
CPU: Celeron 800 MHz
Mem: 384 MB 133MHz RAM
BIOS: Award 6x
Modem: internal SwannSmart w/Connexant chip.
Video: nVidia Riva TNT2 64M
Screen: Samsung SyncMaster 3Ne 15"
HD: 8 Gig Fujitsu w/Win 98 SE
CD: Pioneer DVD-ROM
Mouse: Ritmo optical USB
Generic MS-keyboard

Whack in RH9 CD, boot, get RH welcome screen and press something for install.
For each and every option specified on this screen (no-/text, noprope etc) all proceed to where I can check the CD media. If I choose skip or test here, the screen blips out and the box crashes hard, have to plug cord to try again as PwOn button doesn't work. Tried ripping out the modem, reset BIOS (no plug n' play features) and start from Win98 boot disk. All getting same 'result'.

Now, I cant even boot up the machine (HD spin, no bios etc. dead as a 300 year old rusty doornail).

box 2:
Before box 1 died completely (I wouldn't have done it now) I gave it a go on my main box.
mobo: MSI MS-6547 [http://cl.no/84]
CPU: Celeron 1.8 GHz
Mem: 512 MB DRAM (233MHz)
BIOS: AmericanMegatrends 7
Vid: nVidia GeForce 4 MX 440
Screen CTX 17"
modem: internal Softk56 something or other
HD: 3, one w/WinXP [NTFS] and data partition [FAT32], one FAT32 and one formatted (8 GB) FAT32 ready for RH9.
CD: CyberDrive CW 038D CD-R/RW
Mouse: Logitech Wheel USB
Generi Norwegian keyboard

Boot on same CD as box 1. Let me perform Media check, turns out OK. Starts 'Anaconda', gives me '<0>Kernel panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler! In interrupt handler - not syncing'
Boot back to XP, get online, find a msg containing the above msg; use 'noapic' parameter to resolve. Try again, w/noapic, to no avail (stop on same place)...

I gotta say, this seem like real ****e to me...

[ven0m]

Have you checked that all your hardware is compatible at http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/
But by looking at your specs it looks like there's nothing out of the ordinary.
Try downloading CD1 again and see if that helps, if not, try Knoppix and see if that has any problems. Knoppix runs from the cd so you won't have to install anything. http://www.knoppix.org/

[Antwelm]

Originally posted by ven0m
Have you checked that all your hardware is compatible at http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/
But by looking at your specs it looks like there's nothing out of the ordinary.

All I could find was that everything, on each of the boxes should work...

Try downloading CD1 again and see if that helps

I will try to get a hold of a new CD1, but I don't see why to bother as the two machines stopped and crashed on two consistantly different points of the installation..

try Knoppix and see if that has any problems. Knoppix runs from the cd so you won't have to install anything. http://www.knoppix.org/

This thing is Debian based, not RH?
Also as I stated in post1, Im on a 56K dialup.............
In addition, Im on a monthly limit of 400MB, so no, that is not an option...

[ven0m]

Also as I stated in post1, Im on a 56K dialup.............
In addition, Im on a monthly limit of 400MB, so no, that is not an option...
I bet that's a pain, when I first started using Linux I downloaded redhat 7.2 on a 56K modem and it took age's
I will try to get a hold of a new CD1, but I don't see why to bother as the two machines stopped and crashed on two consistantly different points of the installation..
That's what make's me think that CD1 is corrupt, it shouldn't stop in the same place on both machines.
Where did you get the CDs from?
If you bought them boxed you should have tech support.

[Antwelm]

Originally posted by ven0m
That's what make's me think that CD1 is corrupt, it shouldn't stop in the same place on both machines.
Where did you get the CDs from?
If you bought them boxed you should have tech support.

I said that it stopped on _different_ places on the two machine, over and over again back and forth...

[ven0m]

Sorry, I should have read the question better (I'm at work at the moment so I'm having to do other things)
killing interrupt handler! In interrupt handler - not syncing'
What other hardware do you have on your machines (eg printers etc), you may have hardware conflicting on the same IRQ port?
Other than that I haven't got a clue as to why it won't work, as you said, you tried all the options.

[Antwelm]

Originally posted by ven0m
What other hardware do you have on your machines (eg printers etc), you may have hardware conflicting on the same IRQ port?
Other than that I haven't got a clue as to why it won't work, as you said, you tried all the options.

No printers, no scanners, nothing else than stated in initial msg.

Pretty frustrating...

Even more frustrating that no-one can see the problem (thanx to ven0m for trying....)