Can't install 4.2 on AMD-K6 system

[tfolkers tuc nrao edu (Tom Folkers)]

This is a repost with more up to date info.

Sirs,
  I'm have been trying to install red-hat 4.2 on my new PC and have 
  had nothing but trouble. 

  First the particulars of my system:

    Vender:     CyberMax A64 Powermax
    bios:       Award bios: Dated 05/17/97 ver v4.51PG
    Main Board: Biostar 8500TUD TX Chipset
    cpu:        AMD-K6 PR200MMX
    Memory:     32 Megs EDO
    Video:      Diamond Stealth 3D 3000 w/4megs
    Disk:       Western Digital EIDE 4Gig - used only for Win95
    CD-ROM:     Toshiba EIDE XM-6002B
    SCSI:       Adaptec 2940u PCI SCSI Controller
    Disk:       Micropolis 1926-15MW1002001 2.6G - I'm installing here.
    Tape:       WANGTEK 5150ES SCSI ES41
    Modem:      ViVa CommCenter-56slm
    Sound:      ENSONIQ SoundscapeVIVO Sound Blaster Emulation
    Monitor:    Princeton Graphic Systems EO70
    Printer:    HP DeskJet 660C

    I am installing on the SCSI drive /dev/sda which I have partitioned into
    4 pieces. /     176 Megs, 
              swap  160 Megs, 
              /usr  700 Megs, 
              /home 900 Megs

  All seems to go well until the install starts to 'install' packages at 
  which time I get a kernel-panic. I've tried the install more then ten 
  times and each time I get the same thing, only each time it happens at 
  a different package in the install, but always after the packages begin 
  to install. 
  The error message always goes something like this:

  Kernel Panic" EXT2-fs panic (device 08:03): ext2_write_inode: unable to read
  i-node block inode=6169 block=24584

  Each time the inode and block numbers are different. Each time the install
  gets a different distance into the install. Sometimes a few megs, once it
  got 24 megs before the panic. I even tried installing no packages, just
  the bare system, and it still crashes. Once you hit kernel panic the 
  machine is hung until reset.
  Now I have seen in the hardware compatibility page of red-hat's home page
  that some people have had similar trouble install on the 'AMD-K6' processor
  based PC's. It mentions upgrading the bios might help, but I just got the
  computer. You would think it had a fairly new bios.

  I've tried different partitions sizes, including only one large one as
  Tom Burke had suggested. Nothing I do seems to help.

  My question: Has any one else had this problem, and if so what have you 
  done to fixed it? I'm at my wit's end. Any help would be greatly 
  appreciated. All I want to do is join the thousands of good people who
  have already discovered the pleasures of linux.

  Thanks in advance,
  Thomas

-- 

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     _/       _/   _/_/_/_/   _/_/_/_/  _/_/_/_/  Thomas W. Folkers
    _/_/     _/   _/    _/   _/    _/  _/    _/   Senior Scientific Programmer
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