installation problems

i have just bought a second hand computer and was hoping to put linux on it. i am having troubles installing it. sometimes after i specify what kind installation i want eg text, expert, gui)it halts and says "in swapper task- not syncing. what does this mean and how do i fix it. also when it doesn't say this i can make my way through the installation untill i get to the part of installing the packages. when installing the packages it just freezes and i can't do anything else. what does this mean and how do i fix it.
systems specs:
amd k6/2 333
1.06 gig hd
3com network card
64 meg sdram.
help!!!

 

[ollie2]

What distribution are you using (Red Hat, Mandrake, SUSE, Slackware...)? And which version? How did you install it (over a network (NFS or FTP), from CD-ROM, from another partition)? Is the hardware OK (is there another OS installed on your computer)?

Are you using the original disks or did you get a copy (which is of course perfectly legal)? In the first case you might have a manual. If you do, read it thoroughly. I also screwed up a few installations by trying it without reading the manual. If you don't you might find some info on the distributions website. Otherwise check the Linux Installation How-to at

http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Installation-HOWTO/index.html

I must admit I haven't got a clue on your problem at the moment but if your hardware is ok and you're not using a VERY old distro, it should install without problems if you do everything as described in the documentation. Just make sure your installation disks (if you use them) are OK and contain the correct kernel. Except for some very new distro's, you will need to install a module to get your network card running.

greetings,

olivier

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