> > Funny, I've never had this much trouble installing linux.  Any more good advice
> > (and yes the advice I've gotten so far has been helpful, didn't know things like
> > being able to switch consoles during the install of the OS), seems I'm still
> > doing something wrong.

> I don't think this is a linux problem - I think that this is a hardware
> issue - probably having IRQ conflicts or something like that.
> 
> IIRC - you took that DAC controller out of a different box and that
> would cause me to suspect something like that - or memory problems or
> some other hardware issue.

Nope, both boxes just happened to have the same internal config (two Adaptec
AIC-78xx controllers and a Mylex Dac960P).  I haven't moved any cards out from
one system to another.  The one I'm currently having a headache with installs
and boots Windows without any hiccups.

> See if you can disable all plug & play and legacy bios stuff in cmos -
> and I don't know if there is a ROM configuration tool on the DAC card -
> but if there is (the Adaptec stuff has you press control-A) - you might
> find that disabling BIOS states - resetting it - making sure that
> termination is proper (remember SCSI must be terminated and the internal
> controllers typically can provide active termination) and you are more
> likely to find the problem than to keep fooling with distros.

Guess I could try ctrl-M and disabling the Dac960's bios, wonder if doing that
will cause it to lose the current RAID config (Drive 1: RAID 5, 3 9GB drives;
Drive 2: RAID 5, 3 4GB drives).