kernel panic--can't install

[darker eyes]

I tried installing hardy heron on my hp pavilion entertainment laptop
It starts booting when I get this message,

"kernel panic--not syncing--attempted to kill init!"

My computer freezes. I have to pull the pull the plug and drop out
the battery.

What the heck is going on?

[dstew]

I assume you are trying to boot a Live CD. Maybe the CD has errors on it. Have you tried to boot that same CD in other computers?

If the CD is bad, but you think the .iso it came from is good, I would suggest burning another, but at a very slow speed, no more than 4x. This is because software image CD's need every single bit to be perfect, where music CDs or video DVD's are very tolerant of bit drop-out.