Unable to install FC3, Isolinux problem

[juha_teuvonnen]

When I am trying to boot from the FC3 disc 1 I get the following:
ISOLINUX 2.11 2004-08-16 Isolinux: loading spec packet failed, trying to wing it
...
after these 2 lines the system prints 2 weird symbols and hangs.

I have verified that the CD is not the problem:
- MD5 is correct
- I have burned it as an image, not as a file, so the proper directory structure exists on the CD
- I was able to boot another PC from this CD

Configuration of the PC having a problem:
Asus P2B-D bios 1013
Dual PIII-750
LSI 53c1010 U160 SCSI controller, dual-channel
- NEC SCSI CD-ROM on one channel
- 3 U160 SCSI hard drives on the other channel (Red Hat, Windows 2000 and Solaris 9 x86)

I have verified that the SCSI CD-ROM drive in this box is working properly, I was able to boot this box from both Windows and Solaris installation CDs.

I know for a fact that FC3 can boot from at least some SCSI CD-ROMs. I was able to boot my other PC from the same exact "FC3 disc1". This other PC also has a SCSI CD-ROM (Sanyo CDR-BP5 with Adaptec controller). Therefore I suspect that the SCSI CD-ROM alone is not a problem.

I'm thinking this is a bug in Isolinux, or some sort of incompatibility between Isolinux and my hardware. May be it's the combination of SMP and SCSI or my BIOS that causes it to crash.

I have the following questions:
1. Is there a workaround? Is it possible to install FC3 from floppy?
2. How do I debug this isolinux thing? I am a reasonably proficient C programmer, I wrote a couple of drivers for commercial Unixes. I am a complete beginner when it comes to Linux, though. I have no clue when it comes to things in Linux that are different from SVR4 (Solaris, SCO, HP-UX and such).

P.S. It's been a while since I installed Linux on this box. If memory serves, there was some common well-known issue with booting RH installation CD. I found a RH bootable floppy that I made, so I may have used it in the install3. I just don't remember.

[juha_teuvonnen]

OK, here'sthe workaround for the isolinux bug:
1. Read this document: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~colohan/doc...a_upgrade.html
2. cp -r /mnt/cdrom/isolinux /boot/isolinux
3. Add the following to grub.conf:

title Upgrade to Fedora
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/isolinux/vmlinuz root=LABEL=/
initrd /boot/isolinux/initrd.img

4. Rebooot the box and choose "Upgrade to Fedora"

I'm able to get to the installer now, and the darn thing hangs while locating the 53c8XX SCSI driver. Looks like it's another well known issue, that has been known since RH 9, nobody ever bothered to fix. Gosh, I always knew that Linux was buggy, I just never expected it to be so bad. Once I find a workaround for this one I'll post it too. One of my colleagues suggested that we evaluate Linux as an option for our production databases. Given my experience with this pathetic excuse of an OS so far, It won't be anywhere near our production boxes. Solaris X86 is a piece of crap too, but at least it works.