Install Problem: Can't access tty; job control turned off

[ncwalker]

Help! i hope someone can help with my problem.

Installed Fiesty Server to a P3. Seems good, so I want to create a workstation. Here are the specs:

Compaq Presario 5000 (Model 5BW137)
Chipset Intel i810e (Celeron 664.5 MHz)
256 MB RAM

When I boot with the Desktop install disk the words

Loading please wait ...

appear for a second (and change font for a split second)

Then the splash screen appears for 10 seconds or so and then it says

bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
(initramfs)

It says this if I try to install, if I try to install in safe mode, or if I try to check the CD (I have checked it on another machine; O.K.)

If I try to boot with the splash screen out of the way text flies by but then I see:

FDC 0 is a post 1991 82077

end request: I/O error, dev fd(), sector 0
end request: I/O error, dev fd(), sector 0
end request: I/O error, dev fd(), sector 0
end request: I/O error, dev fd(), sector 0

(18 times)

and then

bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
(initramfs)

Did the memory test: no errors
Tried two different 20 Gig HD no change

This machine was running windows XP (very slowly) before I tried this.

I h ave searched the forums and found a few posts with this problem but nothing that would help. Any suggestions about what I can try? Many thanks!!

BTW: I confess I was desperate and tried to install SUSE 10.2 . YaST runs into trouble and a text screen shows up saying, "Your computer doesn't fulfill all the requirments for a graphical installation. There is less than 96 MB of memory or the X server could not be started" Does this explain anything?

Noel Walker
Ubuntu Noob (but I like it so far)