3 different distros, same outcome

I'm fairly new to linux, so I've been trying out several different distros.
I have run into same problem during installation for 3 of these (out of 8).
Slackware 13, Arch, and most recently KNOPPIX 6.0.1.
I am running a dell inspiron 2500 laptop, w/ 900 MHz, and 128 RAM.

I have been booting off the hard drive (by using grub, setting location for kernel and initrd) as i have no internet or working cd drive. The problem must be in kernel or initrd (because the system "stops" before a menu for the distro ever comes up.
I have typed up the output (what I can see on my screen at least)

ioport range 0x4d1 has been reserved
ioport range xxxxxx-xxxxxx has been reserved
iomem range 0ff8xxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx could not be reserved

CardBus bridge, secondary bus 0000:03
IO window: 0x001400-0x0014ff
IO window: 0x001400-0x0014ff
PREFETCH window: 0x0000000-0x13fffff
MEM window: 0x1c00000-0x1ffffff
CardBus bridge, secondary bus 0000:07
IO window: 0x003400-0x0034ff
IO window: 0x003400-0x0034ff
PREFETCH window: 0x1400000-0x13fffff
MEM window: 0x1c00000-0x1ffffff
PCI bridge, secondary bus 0000:02
IO window: 0x2000-0x2fff
MEM window: 0xf4100000-0xf42fffff
PREFETCH window: 0x0000001800000-0x0000000180fffff
PCI bridge, secondary bus 0000:01
IO window: 0x2000-0x2fff
MEM window: 0xf4100000-0xf42fffff
PREFETCH window: 0x00000100000-0x000000019ffffff


also before each line is several other numbers like
[ 0.623051] pci 0000:01:03.0----
for example the first line looks like
[ 0.586211] system 00:01: ioport range 0x4d1 has been reserved

fourth line looks like-----
[ 0.623051] pci 0000:01:03.0: CardBus bridge, secondary bus 0000:03
etc.... for every line.

note: long numbers are not exactly as they appear, as i could not(or dont know) how to save this to a log.

looks like it may be problem with memory, although i could easily be wrong.

I would appreciate any help.

I am not sure about those 3 distros (I don't run them) but I know with Antix with 128mb of ram that I need to format hardrive first with gparted and make like a 256mb swap partition for it to boot up so I can Install.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jettlagg

I have run into same problem during installation for 3 of these (out of 8).
Slackware 13, Arch, and most recently KNOPPIX 6.0.1.
I am running a dell inspiron 2500 laptop, w/ 900 MHz, and 128 RAM.

I have been booting off the hard drive (by using grub, setting location for kernel and initrd) as i have no internet or working cd drive.

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Slackware is source based (I think it will be slow to compile given RAM), Arch really requires internet and knoppix is a live CD rather than being intended for hard drive install. I suggest you try a different distro ...

you can consider fedora in text mode. it works well with 128 MB RAM.
Fedora Project
you can also consider Ubuntu.
Download Ubuntu | Ubuntu
you can install them all without a internet connection or working CD Drive.

Welcome to the forums! :)

I'm not certain about what the problem is, but thinking along the same lines as the others, I'd recommend upgrading to 512 MB of RAM if possible so that any distro you try will have a better chance of working. The 128 megs of RAM will work for a text only setup, but most GUI desktops are very likely going to bog down.

well theres no chance of upgrading RAM right now. But I've decided to just play around in linux without a gui. i got zenwalk core installed and working, I figure it'll help me learn more anyways.:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jettlagg

well theres no chance of upgrading RAM right now. But I've decided to just play around in linux without a gui. i got zenwalk core installed and working, I figure it'll help me learn more anyways.:)

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Yes, if you work to learn the Linux command line in text only mode, you'll quickly get a very good understanding of the way Linux works, and that information should be very helpful to you when and if you return to the GUI environment.

Zenwalk is based on Slackware, so it's generally very stable.

Hope it all works out well for you, and that you'll report back on your progress.

128m is plenty to run a GUI, you just need to run a light-weight window manager such as fvwm-crystal which I find to be pretty slick considering its tiny memory footprint.

hi, thought I'd post back here on my status. I have been using zenwalk core for awhile now, and occasionally Puppy when I need to partition or format things.

As for the errors i ran into which i posted here up there, I still don't know for sure, but I think its a problem with the kernel and the hardware. I have shuffling around a couple kernel articles/guides. One of them was way above my comprehension, and didnt have any practicality exercises with it, and another one I found was too simple (just explained how to compile one from source). I'm looking for something inbetween these two that will help me get a better vision of the kernel, which I would like to understand (even if it doesn't solve my problem). So if anyone knows of some good info to point me to i would aprreciate it. Or if you have any tidbits of info that'd be good too.

I just tried to install the newest zenwalk standard (6.2 i believe) and ended up at the same position as descriped in the post, note: zenwalk 5.2 works fine.

Is it memory problems or kernel problems?
It looks like its because only 128 MB RAM.

Though still not sure and looking into it.