Redhat 8 install problem

[289Mustang]

I am trying to install Redhat 8 on an old PII 400 system w/ 256MB of RAM that I have so I can try it out and learn a little.

I get through the install up until the point where it starts to format the hard drive. It will go through the formatting process if I look at the Ctrl + Alt + F4 console and hda is formatted and the partitions look to be done. Now I think it is trying to find the CD-ROM again because it says

<4>hdb: lost interrrupt

over and over.

I don't think it can find my CD-ROM drive after formatting the hard drive.

Is this because my CD-ROM is an old 12x pile of crap from 1997 or do I need to try a command at the install prompt?

[mdwatts]

It could be a bios or hardware problem.

Have a look through your bios settings for IDE, DMA etc. and see if there is anything you can adjust (enable/disable) that may help.

You can try passing 'nodma' to the installer at the initial boot/install prompt.

These G4L search results for 'hdb: lost interrupt' (http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=hdb%3A+lost+interrupt) may have something that pertains to a similar hardware configuration as you have. See if you can find other suggestions that could possibly help.

[kevinalm]

One thing to check. Many older cdrom drives can only read to 650 mb. Some of the rh 8 install disks are larger than that. The install will fail.

Another thought. Is the cdrom on a soundcard or other propriatary interface? You may need a to use a floppy made from one of the boot floppy images. Check the docs.