Strange failure of FC4 installation - kernel panic

[pjbk at macs.hw.ac.uk]

I hope someone can help me here

I am trying to install Fedora Core 4 on a P4 with 512Meg memory

I boot from the first CD, and the initial Fedora installation screen
appears.  Whatever option I choose, it loads VMlinux, something else I
don't remember, and goes through a number of standards or tof start up
messages before exiting with a kernel panic.  Unfortunately the messages
disappear before I can note the full text, but it seems to be something to
do with being unable to find a system with label NULL or (8,3)

If I try to boot specifying an explicit root= parameter then the same
message occurs with the device name replace NULL and (0,0) instead of
(8,3)

Any clues as to what I might be doing wrong?

I have installed FC4 on other systems before with no problem

Peter King