As i am new in LINUX, a few suggestions about solving the following problem would be most helpful. I try to install the debian version (floppy media) on an old Compaq Deskpro 386/20. I installed a non-standard harddisk (Conner, not recognized by the BIOS)so I boot from my rescue disk with the startup options : hd=683,16,38 to indicate the correct disk geometry. To create the partitions, I use CFDISK with the same parameters (-c, -h and -s) In-between the installation phases, when I get 'Installation program is determining the current state..... etc' an error message comes in-between: 'libfdisk error reading sector 311296. Operation not permitted' This sector must be the last sector in the first partition. Even when I changed the size of my 2 partitions (Ext Linux and Linux swap), the number changes and still seems to indicate the last sector of the first partition. I can continue the installation, file system creation and bad-track checking seems to work but at the installation of the base system, after copying the 6 'base'-floppies, uncompression of the zipped file doesn't work and I should copy the 6 floppies again and again. Is there a solution ????