I recently had a pretty bad crash usin XP. I was lookin into installing linux, pretty new to it. I've downloaded the Red Hat version 9.0 iso's several times, but each time the md5sum is wrong and the cd wont work. I've tried it from several sources, including the redhat ftp server. Any suggestions what it might be? Also, i've read that red hat is pretty much dead development, anybody have any suggestions as to a good beginning distribution of linux? Thanx, James

I would say slackware is a good distro... But many people argue that the learning step curve is big.

The problem with the md5sum could be a defect hard disk drive (Once had this problem).

well.. just downloaded slackware from their website. heh.. the md5sum is showing up bad on that also. Any thoughts?
Thanx,
James

Maybe you're downloading via FTP in ASCII mode?

did you try a dload from an http server?

anyhow I reccomend MEPIS or PCLinuxOS over Redhat anyday

Fedora is the sequal to RedHat, if you're looking for that. I recommend Debian, Gentoo, or SuSE, though (because of their great package managers). I personally use Gentoo, but you may want to try one of the others if you're new to linux (I think there was a debate recently about whether Gentoo is suitable for beginners, no need to bring that up again).

I've tried downloading it from several ftp and http servers. Every copy of RH9 i've downloaded does not match up with the md5sum file. The ones I've tried to burn onto cd to test let me enter the setup and started the install. It would just give a fatal error and restart my pc.

Ok.. heh.. tried downloading gentoo. Same thing. Maybe I'm doing it wrong? I download the ISO... i use MD5SUM from the command prompt to check the iso... check to see if the number matches that in the md5 file?

This is messed up.. every version of linux i've downloaded is showin corrupted. Grr.. heh.

.:bangin head on keyboard:.

Post the command you're using to check the ISO.

I don't think it's the distro's, it's something wrong with your download utility or equipment.