redhat install error "excited abnormally"

[rooster168]

Hello all.
I am a relative newbie to Linux.

When attempting to install redhat 7.0 in either workstation or sever mode, the install fails.
I am installing off the cd.
The first message I can see in the error thread states,

"install excited abnormally- recieved signal 11".

In another instance the message was the same except signal 7 was recieved. After the above message, there is a series of shutdown and dismount messages.
I did formerly have RH installed and working on this system.

any idea's what will cause this?
my system is a p233-mmx, 32meg ram, 2 gig nec Hd, 6 spd cdrom.

Thanks for all assistance.
Mike R
roster42@hotmail.com

 

[pcunix]

I know the side of the box says 32MB is sufficient, but memory is so cheap nowadays and particularly if you are trying to do a graphical install this may indeed be your problem.

Tony Lawrence
SCO Unix/Linux Resources

http://pcunix.com

tony@pcunix.com

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

Well signal 7 is probably a SIGBUS which is either a hardware timeout or a hardware bus alignment error. Signal 11 (SIGSEGV) is (ostensibly) just a memory violation aka segmenatition fault. However, as shown here (

http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11/)

it is often indicative of a hardware problem, especially if you get sig 7's as well.

Redhat install's have given quite a few people these errors often on fairly simple hardware. I seem to remember that 7.0 in particular was prone to this - however that seems to suggest it could be bugs in the installer rather than real hardware problems on the target machine. If its not too difficult to get hold of, I'd suggest trying 7.1 or 7.2 instead to see if it makes a difference. You can see redhat's comments on this here -->

http://www.redhat.com/support/resources/gotchas/7.0/gotchas-7-4.html#ss4.5

Hope this helps

 

[bgarlock]

I usually always do a text based install with RedHat machines. I've seen too many problems with the graphical install, and they almost always go away when you install in text mode. I've seen these especially on 6.2 installs. Bruce Garlock
bruceg@tiac.net

http://bruceg.dyndns.org

 

[rooster168]

Problem is solved!

The difficulty appears to indeed be caused by lack of memory. A trip to my used computer equipment store to obtain an additional 32Mb, which now gives me 64Mb.

Works like a charm now. By the way, it always was "text" install, it must have failed a dozen times. Now with the 64Mb the auto default is graphical which i've never seen before! Worked perfect first try.

Thanks all for the assistance.