linux on an old p2

[ruiner_066]

i recently put together a p2 system out of spare parts, and was goign to install linux on it for experimental purposes. when i try to instal linux, it stops at the "formatting file system part" it doesnt completely lock up, because i can still move the mouse, but i have to reboot to do anything. i have left it for several hours, but it does not continue. i tried both redhad and mandrake linux, both did the same thing. i tried pulling the hdd out & putting it in a good comp, and it installed linux fine- back in the p2 rig, it restarts instead of booting to linux. any ideas, or suggestions?

p2 350mhz slot A
asus as97127f mobo
quantum bigfoot 6.4 gig hdd
64 megs pc100 ram
voodoo 3 agp card

 

[Zedric]

May be some bad and/or incompatible hardware in there. I had some really strange problems with a 166MMX that ran Win95 just fine both before and after. Can you install another OS? Like Windows? (Yes you can install XP on that one, I've done it on a 166 with 64MB RAM)

 

[ignipotentis]

Don't install it in one system, and put it back in another. Its not going to run very well... One guess would be to disable the ACPI in your bios. If your PII is getting close to 60 degees C, most distros will stall. Its kind of a saftey thing.

As a side note, i recommend not using Redhat or Mandrake (Personal Opinion, of course, use what you want).

 

[ruiner_066]

ignipotentis what do you prefer to redhat or mandrake & why? i've actualy never used linux, which is why i wanted to install it on this old system rather than my good comp =P

 

[sparti_kus]

How ya doin.

ruiner, that same problem happened to whilst I was installing Redhat 7.2 on my old Celeron. It got to a certain stage while installing "support for PCI cards" and would just lock up. I now run Redhat 8.0 and it works fine.

As for advice on which distro of Linux, if you are a first time user, I would go for Mandrake. Better still, go for a distro like desktop \lx, which behaves and looks very much like Windows XP. Not sure how easy that distro is to get; I once got it from the cover of a magazine.

This being said, I currently run Redhat 8.0 dual booting with Win XP and it runs very well. The setup process is easy, and everything is pretty much configurable. I would, however, read the documentation on the Redhat website and any HOWTO's/FAQS about partitioning, because that is where things can get really nasty if you haven't done it before. Trust me, I know from experience.

 

[jonifen]

ive found slackware to be a good distro - http://www.slackware.org