9650 workgroup server

[James Applebaum]

I am having fits trying to install Linux on my 9650 server.
I got the system installed on it "successfully" weeks ago and decided 
after fooling around a bit... to reinstall the system.
Since then it has been a nightmare.
After reformatting the drive (SCSI)
The box would not boot on my Mac OS 9 CD and perform a minimal 
install... (system tome errors).

In an desperate effort to isolate the problem I pulled all the hardware 
out of the box (raid card, extra video, ide card, fast net card), 
swapped out for a different cd-rom drive etc.... Finally in an act of 
total desperation I pulled out the ram "save for 2 32mb dimms) and the 
system finally would install. ((( My guess is that it really had 
nothing to do with the ram... but it did cause the CPU to re-poll the 
hardware.)))

Now I have a virgin system with min boot volume as detailed in the 
install doc on the yellowdog site.
I install the boot loader (BootX) from the hqx file on the yellowdog 
2.3 cd-rom.
(sometimes it installs fine... sometimes I get an error)
  "note that I reformat after each failed install attempt"
When it does work the system reboots... and I progress through the 
system install (Text image) because my video card is not supported.
After running the dependency check (which is taking way to long) the 
system progresses to the copying files (however  I am not getting the 
individual packages progress bar feedback that I got the first time.... 
it seems to just stall for a time... after hours of waiting it final 
gives me an error that it can't find a file some .py  to install and 
the fatal error message comes back. (like I said... the operating 
system had installed correctly before from my CD-ROM)

Has anyone else seen this type of a problem before?



James