Ok...
I can usually figure most things out myself...but...
I've read many posts...all the docs...to no avail...
here goes...
extra old computer,gonna dedicate the entire thing to linux... vacation time,plenty of cigarettes...want to finally play around with linux...
so far...can't get the installation finished...
here's what I've got:
an ancient 486 dx2 66...ISA bus..8meg Ram...old paradise video card (oti 087x chipset)(yes...I'm that old)
Fujitsu mpb3032at IDE hard drive - 3gig capacity...
Wearnes cdd-120a cdrom (i know..but it works)...
3 cd set-Redhat 7...from all I've read...I should be fine.
I've got dos 6.22 installed on the hard drive just to access the cdrom and read the docs on the Redhat cd's...and run
autoboot.bat from the cd...(no..can't boot from cd...and I've tried booting from the Linux boot disk...same result as autoboot.bat)
...the install begins with a couple pages of text flying by.
I see as it scrolls by: my hard drive name...and cd rom name.. That means these devices are recognized? right?
...well...a rough ascii graphical screen appears and
i'm prompted for a driver disk...i insert the driver disk i made with rawrite and the /images/drivers.img file from the cd..
...the installation accepts it...it asks for language type(english)..then asks for keyboard type (US)asks me where the installation files reside...I choose "Local CD-Rom" ...then it tells me there are no special device drivers installed for my system and asks if I want to install any...
of course... I have none...so I hit the spacebar for "done"..
here's what i see after the system churns a while:
--------
"Running anaconda...this may take a while..."
"install exited abnormally- recieved signal 15
sending termination signals...done
sending kill signals...done
disabling swap...
unmounting file systems...
/mnt/runtime
/mnt/source unmount failed (16)
/dev/pts
/proc
you may safely reboot your system
--------
...and that's it. I can go no further. The install hasn't done a thing, has it?
Since I saw the names of my devices in the scrolling text, that means they were recognized, right? Should i scour the net for linux device drivers for all my components and place them on a single floppy? From all my reading...I thought I could get a barebones install with text only prompts, with the hardware I have.
Have I completely missed something? I'm old...but not senile yet. Really eager to get this install going so I can understand the jargon from these posts.
help an old man out, will ya?

Sounds like your using the expert mode off the boot disk. You can try just using the text mode install or maybe dont put in the driver disk when it asks you. The expert mode install brings up a gui install interface right where it seems yours is crashing. You video card my not handle it.

I suggest one-cd RedHat 6.2 set or - more preferably a disk-install version. I succesfully tried to install RH 6.2 on a similar PC some time ago ( with a smaller disk - 1.9 GB ) using disk installation ( not graphical actually, but satisfiable) and it worked without problems.

You don't need DOS. Boot to either the CDROM or the boot floppy you created from the CDROM.. Linux should detect your harddrive and begin the install. I recommend doing a text install with older systems and vid cards. also.. don't tell it to boot directly into Xwindows until you know it works.

Please someone light up my lantern...

I'm triyng to install REDhat6.0 on and old computer of mine (Cyrix x586 with 24mB ram, 1.6Gb and a CD_ROM, Etherxpress isa NIC).

When I first wanted to install Linux, I used a boot disk to get to the install prompt, then try expert install. But when I hit the enter, it start "initrtd...." then goes "BOOT FAILED, HIT ENTER TO CONTINUE" then it goes on and on with the same routine.

The second thing I tried was to boot with a windows bootdisk, then use the AUTOBOOT.BAT of the REDHAT cdrom to start the installation. Everything goes as I wanted to, but when it came to install LILO and produce a boot disk, the problems comes up. I cannot do either of the to operation. The result of this was to have a fully installed linux system, but without anything to boot the system.

Thank's to anyone that can give me anything!

As no two PC are alike, I can only suggest a few things-

1: After you create your linux partitiions,save the changes,and like dos fdisk,reboot and rename them as you did originally.This was a problem for me and I found that I needed to restart the system.
2:Question-What type of BIOS do you have?Go in there and poke around for anything that might affect the way linux boots.In any case you the system defaults in your BIOS first,then make gradual adjustments.

I recently went through the install of RH 7.0 on an old 486 DX2 66, originaly w/ 12 Meg of RAM, now 36 Meg. 420 Meg HD, 2 1.2 Gig HD's, 6x cd-rom drive. I hade to use/install EZ Drive for the 1.2 Gig HD's. I used a dos boot disk to originally access the Linux CD to create the Linux boot disks. Then booted system off the Linux boot disks and CD, and choose to install server command propmt only.

Originally w/ the 12 Meg of RAM the install took about 2 hours. I choose to manualy partion the HD's, but for the most part the install was pretty painless. The only differance I can see that duncan is doing differant than I is he is booting off a DOS boot disk instead of the Linux boot disks. I suspect this should not make a differance, but, I am new to Linux as well.......

Hope some of this helps someone.
INS aka Henry

I would just like to add,

I had a similar problem as Duncan, I recieved :

"install exited abnormally- recieved signal 15
sending termination signals...done
sending kill signals...done
disabling swap...
unmounting file systems...
/mnt/runtime
/mnt/source unmount failed (16)
/dev/pts
/proc
you may safely reboot your system "

and I was trying to install a 1 cd solution of RH6.2 on a Newish machine, K6 2 450 booting direct off the CD onto a brand new hard drive with no partitions or formats on it.

I got bored of the error message and boought an old version of Suse 6.4 and that was ok. Suse partitioned and formatted for me and everything was ok. I dont have a solution and my post wont really help you Duncan (sorry) but I just wanted to demonstrate that it may not be the fault of the Dos boot disc.

Ciao.

Jason

Whoa!

I'm having exactly the same problem. I think it's because I have low memory on this machine - only 8M.

The config is:

386, 8M, 1.2G Quantum Fireball, Generic 4x CDROM.

I am booting with a boot.img "undisker"ed to a floppy. I have CD 1 of the redhat 7.0 iinstaller in the CD drive.

I select the text option from the start screen, and after I start "anaconda" I wait for a long time, and I get the usual:

"install exited abnormally -- recieved signal 15
sending termination signals...done"

etcetera, as already covered.

I would love to know of a solution.

Again, I get the feeling this is a low memory problem.

I wouldnt be too worried about the RAM. I had the same problem and I Had 128 MB. I Personally have no idea why this happens but I am sure it is because Linux doesnt like something in my system. Never Mind,,,Have sinced moved onto Suse 7.1 and still no probs. I threw the Red Hat away :-) couldnt even be bothered to sell it in Ebay.

Jason

Just wanted to thank everyone for replying, and give an update on my situation. It's been a while since my first post, and I'm quite a bit more familiar with Linux now. Lord knows I've read tons of stuff since my first post.
I'm gonna ramble on here about what it took to get Linux on my old 486 dx2 66 w/8mb ram...
If you're interested....read on.
I initially tried Redhat 7.0 on my ancient 486, but could get nowhere. I did a little reading and tried out Slackware 7.1. Most of my reading warned against this, but I did it anyway. I'm glad I did. Slackware offered 15 or more custom bootdisk images (including one for low memory machines)plus a couple different root floppy images. This, coupled with the help from the 4 mb laptop Howto (linuxdoc.org), I got slackware installed on my ancient, low-memory machine.
The process involved was a bit tiring, but I had a blast learning, and my final success made it all worthwhile. It all basically came down to using a "mini-linux": namely "MuLinux", to boot the system...use fdisk to partition the drive and create a swap, root, and temporary partition.
The ramdisk created during an install was killing me in terms of memory, so the 4mb-laptop howto suggested uncompressing slackware's install root floppy and copying its contents into the temporary partition. Now...a reboot with the slackware boot floppy...designate no ramdisk and the temporary partition as "root=/dev/hda6 ro ramdisk=0" at the boot prompt...hit enter...voila!
I got to a point where I could actually begin the install. Since I had already partitioned the drive...I activated my swap partition...then completed the slackware install with no problems.
The only problem I haven't figured out...is how to get Lilo working. I tried everything under the sun and it still doesn't work. So...I scrapped it and made a 20 mb DOS partition with a batch file to automatically load linux via Loadlin. Everything runs fine. X is slow, but that's to be expected.
With this done...I plan now to start all over and try to get Redhat on this thing... wish me luck..and thanks again.