Kernal panic -- not syncing: attempting to kill init!

[kilmargames]

I know people have posted this before... Okay. Well i got the latest stable version of openSuSE which is v11.11. I downloaded, checked the checksum (md5), burned, verifid the cd and everything.
I put it into my ol' Compaq Presario 7478 and fire it up. It has 192MBs of RAM, all open slots filled. I run it up and got the error message in the title of this topic... I read somewhere else that it could be bad ram, so checked it with one out and one in and then vice versa... I dont know what to do... I need this bad, and one little last note to add Ubuntu will not run either. It just loads and loads and loads... I dont know if this has anything to do about this...

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !


192 MB RAM is much less than recommended 512MB RAM. You should try any lightweight distro like Xubuntu, Zenwalk or Damn Small Linux.

[D-cat]

With 192MB RAM, you MIGHT get SuSE11 to load (if you prepartition your hard drive incl. swap), but it will be slow as all heck. Debian based distros (like Ubuntu) will probably all fail at the hardware detection or hotplug load on your machine, so if you try Xubuntu, you'd probably have better luck with the text only (Alternate) install.

I think a real lightweight is in order though. I'm personally impressed with Vector lately, but Puppy, ZenWalk, and DSL (as Casper suggested) should all run for you as well. It's a matter of preference, so just check out the pages for each distro and decide for yourself which you think will best fit your wants and needs.

[kilmargames]

Yeah. I was trying to use Dreamlinux. I really love it, but apparently my cpu does not support cmov? Is there a way i can like recompile the iso with another kernal? Or anyother distro and i can get a MacOSx look like Dream?

[kilmargames]

Wait... Should i ask this else where?

[gogalthorp]

I think your asking too much from that very old hardware. You may certainly run a light weight Linux on it like Puppy or DSL but to get a Mac like interface is asking way too much.

[kilmargames]

well i also asked for help on Techguy.com and someone said that Dreamlinux would work. But my cpu doesnt support cmov. is there another kernal that i can use with Dream? And is Puppy anything like dsl? cause i really am not a fan of DSL

[gogalthorp]

Well cmov is a new addition so I guess you could find an older distribution. I feel that simply dropping a older kernel into a newer distortion is probably not a good idea. It may be possible to compile the newest kernel with option to not include the instruction but that might also eliminate function the distro depends on. Catch 22

Try Puppy. But I will warn you not to expect a super duper Apple class GUI. Your hardware simply will not support that in any case.

[kilmargames]

I was just hoping for the dock. anyways. thanks. if there was a kernal that my cpu supported and make Dream work where would i find it?

[gogalthorp]

Well all the kernels are on kernel.org. But that is source and you would need a system to build a working binary on. You just are very unlikely to find a pre-compiled kernel that would work. You can't just drop a kernel into a distro and expect things to function properly. It must be built to the specs of the distro This is done by setting options when the source is compiled to binary. In general the light distros mentioned before are built with older hardware in mind.

good luck