Eva Myers said...

...
|Searching the archives suggested typing "linux all-generic-ide
|pci=nommconf" at the boot prompt, though I am not clear what these
|options mean.  This got past the freeze, but it seems that there is
|also some kind of trouble with networking.  If the onboard network
|socket is connected up, networking does not appear to work at all (the
|machine is not pingable).  If the network card is connected up, the
|machine is pingable but won't get past the "FTP Setup" screen in the
|install process.  Using the http install option instead gave an error
|message: "Unable to retrieve... stage2.img".
|
|I also tried installing SL305 on this machine as I have installed it
|on several Dell Optiplex GX620s with no trouble in the past.  There
|was no freeze early on (and no need for special options) but I had
|much the same networking problems - not pingable using the onboard
|networking, "Failed to connect to FTP server" using the PCI network
|card.
|
|Any clues on what is happening here?  Also, can anyone explain why it
|seems that there are so many hardware pitfalls one can encounter while
|attempting to install Linux?

Typically this means your network adapter is newer than the
driver supplied with the install image.  But in that case,
it ought to prompt you for a chance to use a driver disk.  I
take it that's not happening?