PXE linux installs Options

[Rocky]

I got an old gateway laptop from a friend for free, and the only problem with it is that the OS was corrupt - so I need to just install an OS on it. So hell, why not slap on linux.


I have a tftp service running from my windows pc and over the network I plan to just do a PXE boot based installation, where my XP pc is hosting the files and services etc. I am able to get it started however I always have it lock up at the same point. After it actually goes into the initrd.gz it locks up and tells me as the last two messages :

EIP: [<c02c622a>] mutex_lock+0xa/0x20 SS;ESP 0068:c7901844
<0> Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

So we can only assume the mutex lock is causing the process to die. So fuck it maybe I should try a different distro than Ubuntu that will possibly better support older hardware ? (Old Gateway laptop with a 750mhz cpu and 128mb ram)

Suggestions for a distro ? Something I may be overlooking ? Advanced option in the install parameters ?. I like Debian based shit in my limited experience.

[Rocky]

PXE based installations aren't the most difficult. So your friend may have just been using a bad set of software. Plus doing it during beta can be funky.


The laptop in question has no cdrom drive, so thats why I just want to do it over PXE. PXE isn't perfect - but rather reliable once you understand it more.