Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4: Installation Guide for the IBM® POWER Architecture
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# Appendix B. Troubleshooting Your Installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux

This appendix discusses some common installation problems and their solutions.

# B.1. You are Unable to Boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux

## B.1.1. Is Your System Displaying Signal 11 Errors?

A signal 11 error, commonly know as a segmentation fault, means that the program accessed a memory location that was not assigned.

If you receive a fatal signal 11 error during your installation, it is probably due to a hardware error in memory on your system's bus. A hardware error in memory can be caused by problems in executables or with the system's hardware. On non-iSeries systems, running the hardware diagnostics that were supplied with your system should help pinpoint any hardware problems (such as CPU cache or memory errors).

Ensure that you have the latest installation updates and images from Red Hat. Review the online errata to see if newer versions are available. If the latest images still fail, it may be due to a problem with your hardware. Commonly, these errors are in your memory or CPU-cache. A possible solution for this error is turning off the CPU-cache in the firmware. You could also try to swap your memory around in the motherboard slots to check if the problem is either slot or memory related.

You can also try running the installation with only 256 MB of memory. This can be done by booting the installation program with the `mem=256M` boot option. To try this option, at the installation boot prompt, type:

    mem=xxxM

where xxx should be replaced with the amount of memory in megabytes.

Note, iSeries system users must remember to add boot options, as are listed in this manual for other operating systems, by first logging into the hosting OS/400 partition as an iSeries user and then setting any IPL Parameters within the NWSD for their partition.

Another option is to perform a media check on your installation CD-ROMs. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation program has the ability to test the integrity of the installation media. It works with the CD, DVD, hard drive ISO, and NFS ISO installation methods. Red Hat recommends that you test all installation media before starting the installation process, and before reporting any installation-related bugs (many of the bugs reported are actually due to improperly-burned CDs). To use this test, type the following command at the `boot:` prompt:

    linux mediacheck

For more information concerning signal 11 errors, refer to:

    http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11/

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