Kernel panic early in install

[RogerThat]

Greetings, all!

I am trying to install FC4 on a Gateway E6100 desktop computer, and it fails early on. I have tried several options at the boot: prompt, but so far everything has failed. I have tried boot: by itself, and linux with the following options (one or more at a time):
nofb
pci=nosort
resolution=1024x768 nofb
noprobe
mem=2048m
acpi=off
rescue

I also tried the memtest86, and that works, because it doesn't try to load the kernel. Mediacheck tries to load the kernel, and locks up at the same place as trying to boot. I get:

initrd ..............
Ready
Uncompressing kernel
[<c01002b8>] init+0x18/0xf0
[<c01012b1>] kernel_thread_helper+0x5/0x14
Code: c8 fc ff 8b 45 4c 3d 3c 4b 24 1b (three lines of this)
<0> Kernel panic - not syncing: Attemped to kill init!
[<c01201eb>] panic +0x3b/0x1b0
plus several more lines before the computer stops hard.

The Gateway E6100 has an Intel (Wasp) Pentium 4 motherboard (I think that's an 875 chipset, but don't know for sure), a Prescott P4 3.2GHz CPU, 2GB DDR RAM, 1 Maxtor 80 GB hard drive on ATA (primary, master), one CW-RW/DVD combo drive, floppy, Nvidia NV34 (Monza) graphics card, Sound Blaster 5880.
Any ideas? I would like to load 3 or 4 distros on this computer, to show my supervisor various options. I was able to boot a Knoppix 3.9 cd, and write a partition table on the hard drive, and I have run the mediacheck on the FC4 disks (on another computer), and they all pass, so I know the disks are good, and the hardware appears to be good, so there must be some conflict as the kernel decompresses.
Thanks, Roger

[w5set]

could try turning off hyperthreading in the bios--
and try linux mem=512M
some memory handling problems with above 1G for some mobo's
or removing memory and leaving just 500M and put it back after install..

[steve941]

just a check: did you perform an (sha1 if FC4) checksum on your ISOs? Are you trying to dual boot with XP, or will you just have FC?

[RogerThat]

Sorry for the delay. I turned off the HyperThreading in the BIOS, and I tried the linux mem=512M boot option, but it still fails. It seems to go a little further, but still panics. I thought I saw something about the root image not found at 0 shortly before the panic.

I think my next step is to install on a different type of computer, to see how that goes.
Roger

[RogerThat]

I just loaded FC4 from the same CDR's, on a different computer (Gateway E6000), and it worked fine. I didn't even use any command line switches.
Roger

[RogerThat]

Greetings.
I hope this will still help someone. I just found out that there is a solution for this problem. When you get to the Boot: prompt, put in some random garbage (anything that is _not_ a valid boot name). This will fail, and bring you back to the Boot: prompt. At this point, put in whichever boot option you want, and it should boot up fine (worked for me, YMMV).
Roger

[mjdent]

I too have a Gateway 9210 Server with Sata drive and I had Kernel panic until I came across the solution of typing garbage at the boot prompt (I actually typed garbage) it errored out and then I just typed enter at the prompt and install went great after that. Do a search for FC 4 Kernel Panic and you will see numerous threads about this. just try it, it will work.