[oclug] Installing Linux

[strange man]

 Greetings, I am a software developer in Ottawa. I am
sort of new and old to Linux/Unix. My schooling was on
a Unix platform but my work has mostly taken me
elsewhere.

 I am trying to get back on track with Linux. However
I am having an acute problem installing it on my
machine. If someone could recognize the problem below
I would be so greatful for their comment. 

 I am installing Manderake 8.2 and tried Redhat 7.2 on
an AMD 1000. There is nothing wrong with Manderake as
I can readily install it on my Pentium 200MMX (which
has windows on it). I stop XDrake short of
reformatting that computer's drive.

 On my AMD machine, I boot from the Manderake CD which
is fine. But after hitting return or even specifying a
text install it  halts after few seconds with these
comments:
 "Kernel panic: VFS: unable to mount root fs on 01:03"

 When I use the Red hat CD I get additional errors:
     "Ex2-fs: Unable to read super block"
     "cromfs: wrong magic"
     "Fat: unable to read boot sector"
     "Kernal panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on
0:9:00"
 
 My AMD machine has only one fat32 partition at this
point (just like the one on my 200MMX) and it is
formatted fine. I tried all kind of combinations like
removing the partition, or creating the partition
without formatting ... same thing.

 One piece of important info: On this AMD machine I
had installed windows 2000 server before and removed
it. I did repartition and reformat with fat. I can
still install windows 98 or windwos 2000 server no
problem. But I removed them (actually right now I have
windows 98). It is only the Linux that halts.

 I did disable the PNP Aware OS too but to no avail.

 Can someone help me with this. My ideal setup in the
future is to have windows 2000 server on one partition
and Linux on a second with lilo allowing me to switch.
My reall goal is to have two hard disks one for each.
But for now I am content having one hard disk with
only linux on it. If I can do that or remove the
obstacle there then the rest is easy. 

Thanks for your help.


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