Linux woes!

[chaos]

Okay I have been trying to get linux onto my
computer for well over probably 2 years now
but I always ALWAYS have some kind of problem,
be it errors on boot, or trying to install the
Kernal, and more. I will now attempt to show
all the distros I have tried along with the problem
I had with thaty specific distro, here it goes:


Slackware- It reads the CD I press enter and I get this error,"kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel" I have tried diffrent variations at the start and get the enevitable error.

Debian-it works It begins installing, it picks everything up, Joy!, but then when it goes to install the kernel I get an error telling me I am missing rescue.bin file, but if I run the CD in windows the file is infact on there.

Red hat- It tells me to insert the CD I do the loop continues.

Slax- I get a CRC error I think it was a <6>

College linux- Read slax.

mandrake- It also read the CD, then the error,"Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 01:03" I have tried typing linux mem=120M but to not avail.

Knoppix- Knoppiz even gives me a damn kernal panic as well.

My computer specs are as followed:
AMD duron 1200
Raedon 7500
Aopen CD-RW
Generic DVD-RW 4xmax
maxtor 2b02H1
maxtor 6Y080L0

My goal is to get linux running on my smaller HDD and XP on the other,
I use partionmagic prior to attempting to install anything, the smaller HDDs
filesystem is ext2. IF THERE IS ANYONE WHO CAN HELP ME IT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!

[bAdWaYz]

First off I'm sorry to hear you have had so much trouble with installing nix to your puter. Its not "that" hard to do if you are willing to put in some reading beforehand. I mean you should read up for a few days before you even try to install but thats just me I'm anal. Anyhow here are some things to do to maybe improve your chances of a good install.....

First make sure all your cd's are burned correctily. Sometimes something as small as bad media can cause headaches. Burn them at the slowest speed you can. As far as what distro you use thats totally up to you but as a newbie you might want to start with something nice and GUI. Mandrake could be the way to go. There are tons of readme's and FAQ's online about how to install and what can go wrong. Slackware is nice and it sounds like to me you are just missing a step in the install. Instead of just hitting the entery key try typing "bare.i" then hit enter. This tends to work but read read read. Thats the main thing with nix its user friendly but picky about who its friends are. I wish you luck with your install and hope you enjoy nix as much as the rest of us.