Just wanted to say thank you to everyone that replied to my problem not being able to mount the cdrom, it never did compile iso9660 support into the kernel. This pc was built using HCL from several dists. It has worked with openlinux, mandrake, rh 5.2, 6, 7.1 suse 6.4 and turbolinux. Never had any problems installing.
I used both 2.1 and when that didn't work I got the 2.2 pre 19 iso's and tried it again without success. A suggestion to those who are new, or want to learn linux. Use another distribution. Debian uses their own packaging, is problematic in installation, I can't comment on how well it works since I never got it installed. Regards, Mel