Error: Anaconda hangs during/after /sbin/loader

[m2bruce at ryerson.ca]

Hi, 

I'm having a problem with an installation on a Compaq 1211CA laptop.  The laptop has 192 MB of memory, and is using a 1GHz Athalon processor.  Ide Hard drive.

The problem occurs in graphical and text mode after the kernel is loaded.  Here are the last few lines that i see on the terminal.

Greetings.
anaconda installer init version 9.2 starting
mounting /proc filesystem... done
mounting /dev/pts (unix98 pty) filesystem... done
trying to remount root filesystem read write... done
mounting /tmp as ramfs... done
running install...
running /sbin/loader

at this point, the screen will flash and switch resolution then all disks spin down after 10-15 seconds.  Keyboard interrupts do not work.  The 'nofb' option stops the screen from changing resolutions, but the halt occurs at the same place.  i've tried disabling apm, acpi, and using ide=nodma. The install has been run with defaults, and with mem=192M.

Any help would be appreciated,

Matt