Okieday, lemme see here, where to start???
for 2 years, I've had various troubles installing Linux on
various machines. I managed my way around each of them
(cheap external modems, custom install to remove problem causers, you know the bit).
The latest one has cost me sleep for the past WEEK!
At first, I was having a traceback error with my network card installed (Kingston 10/100 ethernet). I pulled it.
Next, I had massive fits over IOerrors in my root partition
(IOerror, file doesn't exist). I downloaded the installer update in hopes that it would remedy the situation. I'm not that lucky! Now, the traceback is generated from an IOerror from my $%^&*#!@% cdrom drive!!!
I guess my system specs wold be nice, eh?
(kinda an old machine. . .networking project w/ some friends)
--Attempting to install Redhat 6.2 from and Official Redhat CD distro --
Pentium 150
48mb RAM (in 6 SIMM slots. I have two extra DIMMs free)
3 IDE hdd's (1.08gb, 120mb, and 117mb) (got a 230watt power supply, so juice ain't the problem)
1 IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM (Samsung 40x)
Ensoniq SoundscapeVIVO
33.6 generic external modem on com2
serial mouse on com1
SIIG technologies (or something like that) SVGA ISA video
Audio output adapter card (reroutes soundcard to RCA jacks, not connected yet, and install attempted w/o card in muthaboard. . .same danged thing happens!)

what can ya tell me? I'll send the exact traceback error
if needed, main thing i remember as of now is that this one was an IOerror for the CDrom (mounting problem), and the previous one involved "file does not exist" probs w/ the hard drives (multiple partition styles attempted!!!)
thank ya much for reading my rambles and taking a stab at this!

My guess is that there is a problem with the hardware. Could be a problem with the drives (120, 170MB? - very retro). How are they attached. Did you hang one of the old drives off the IDE chain as a slave of the 1 gigger?

Could also be a 'buggy' IDE controller - one of the ones mentioned in the kernel source. Are you comfortable playing with the kernel builds?

Is your RAM matched (paired and grouped) properly?

retro indeed! they were snagged from a couple of 486s that used to be in my parents' office.
They've been low-level formatted and checked for physical errors, so i know that's not an issue.
hmmm. . .lemme look at this. I have the 120mb as my primary slave off of the 1.08gb, the cdrom as 2ndary master, and the
117 as 2ndary slave labor. The RAM is all nicely paired and matched. . .IDE controllers are onboard. I can't find the motherboard's model offhand (would that help in finding a possible controller issue?) I do know that it took damn near forever to get the bios harddrive autodetect to find the S.o.B.'s (stupid unlabeled jumpers!!! oh yeah, AMIBios dates from '96, any pertinence?
As for toying with the kernel, i'm a trial-and-error kind of guy, but have done very little playing with kernel editing/hacking/tweaking. but if you've got a suggestion, send it this way!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the opening input. getting this monster running will be a great relief to me (ever wake up in the middle of the night , thinking "why don't i try. . .?" even though the idea makes about as much sense as Louisiana government's organizational skills? that's me!) sorry, had to diss my home state a bit!

Mmmkayyy.

If it was me I'd lose the old HDDs. Really. Keep them for the firewall you will build later do you don't have to boot from a floppy on it and you'll get some rudimentary logging.

Really, man. I'd put them on the shelf.

Mobo manufacturer would help fer sure. Have a look at the mobo and see what the chips on it say. If it's SiS - be afraid (IMHO), if it's Intel u shoudl be OK.

Have U had a look around in the BIOS setup? Anything wrong in there?

Find the specs for your MOBO re: RAM. Speed? EDO? Tin or Gold tips?

Really. Send the old drives to the museum. Show 'em to the grandkids one day. Just get 'em off.

well, considering massive hardware work would wake my parents/siblings, can't pull em 2nite, but I'll give that a definite shot... moterboard chips are of questionable manufacture.
(TX-Pro II with a Video Inside stamp, plus a couple of other tell-tale chips). My RAM chips are 60ns EDOs w/
tin pins (am i bowling them over? sorry, bad pun, i know!) the BIOS has the RAM timing on auto-detect and
has them set at 60ns. would jumping that to 70 help (not
like that's a big timing difference!!!
There's a setting in there for "Plug and Play Aware OS?"
I've got it set to No. Be this correct?

wait a minute!!! OK, after a little bit of simultaneous
reserch with this post, I am indeed in possession of an SiS chipset! "And the TX Pro II is just an alias for the 5598 chipset by SiS. This chipset has an integrated video controller and, in general, comes with a marking which reads "Video Inside", emulating the Intel logo, "Intel Inside"...In other words, the Super TX and the TX Pro II are just another name for the SiS 5598. "
(http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/txpro)
A little more digging tells me that a motherboard company called Eaglemax uses this particular setup, creating a pseudo-AGP wannabe setup. Further verification of the MB manufacturer is the onboard SoundPro 3D chip that eaglemax uses a good bit.(which I disabled, since I don't like onboard sound in general in the first place, should I change this?)
"Others, like Eaglemax, name the chip TX Pro-II and give it the attribute 'Advanced Graphics Port' - knowing very well that this phrase is not protected and open to everybody for their own definition of 'AGP'. To top the whole thing off, the Eaglemax product is labeled with a pretty logo saying 'video inside' that suspiciously looks like the Intel squiggle. It probably will not be long before Intels lawyers put an end to this fun."
(http://www.heise.de/ct/english/98/02/044/)

*growl!*
ok, what kinda jam does that place me in? and where might i step from here? I seem to have a knack for placing myself in despicable hardware condidtions, I guess!
thanks for previous and any further input!

(sorry if i seem to be ranting. this is just starting to flick me off a bit!

Rant on. Just stay on the funny side of libellous and you'll be writing for theregister.co.uk in no time.

OK so SiS it is. What did you want your machine to do? A pentium 150 would make a decent server to learn on. 48MB RAM is a little thin to be running a window manager. I/O transfer rates are gonna... well they won't do much with the old dirves, but IIRC your version of the SiS chipset should support Bus Mastering and I hope your drive will support it so you might be able to see transfers of up to 10-12MB/s cached and maybe 6 or 7 sustained (although it's been a few years since I've had one like that).

If it was me I'd huck a modem and a NIC in it and make something useful like a Hylafax server or firewall or somehting that doesn't require a huge amount of I/O thru the storage subsystem and is yet to prove 'reliable'. Learn as much as you can from the problems it throws at you and you'll be that much better when you hit the land of stable hardware. I would christen it "Apollo XIII" and get some duct tape.

Reality check - the autodetect RAM settings should be fine. 60ns RAM is faster than 70 but you should be able to run them as rated. Most of the speed instability I've seen has been in PC133 SDRAM. Your settings for "Plug and Pray OS" is what I would use. Check to see if there is a PCI bus speed and if there is set it to the default.

Find a manual. Rad and learn. The worst that could happen is that you could break it and there would be a cheap lesson in that.

Cheers,
D.

Your logic holds well I guess I'll take these steps into account and just hope the poor thing doesn't go
Chernobyl on me I wish I could dig up a couple of old
SIMMs that I used to have, but have no clue where they
may have walked off to (probably various computers
in about 3 different towns!).

I think I'll slap a sticker on the side that says
"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
Fitting, yesno? And since duct tape is a commonplace
utility tool in my area of Louisiana, I'll probably just
take off the outer shell and wrap the whole casing frame
in it. A bit of bailing wire and some chainlink fencing, and I'd be all set! (think of what that would look like!)
So I guess I'll have a new toy of a troubleshooter
machine, Murphy's Law style!
One more quick question for you - this motherboard's jumpers are overclocking friendly. I had the 150mhz jumped up to 190mhz while still getting the hard drives to find each other,
but the derned CMOS memory kept erasing itself every other
time I booted up. So, I dropped it back down to standard settings. If I did manage to get it o/c'ed without
frying my BIOS settings, what would you call a safe
speed to run it at? (and would this help or just add insult to fatal wound?

thanks much for your help! I'll let you know what becomes
of Apollo XIII !
theregister.co.uk, huh? dang, I didn't know rambling as such was worthy of such grace!
Get back to you later!

I wouldn't o/c that rig.