Installation problems --- memory error messages

[Charles Blair <ceblair@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>]

   I have had trouble with the installation.  My machine is a compaq 486
Aero laptop that is supposed to have 4MB of RAM.

   I put in the 1440_boot diskette and start the machine.  Nothing
suspicious happens, with the possible exception of the message

   eata_dma: No BIOS32 extensions present.  This driver still depends on it.

   I choose novice mode and put in the 1440_root diskette when asked.
I choose ``first non-SCSI'' as option for where to install the system.

   Then the screen displays     Preparing /dev/hda

  and at the lower left appear the messages

cut: virtual memory exhausted
sed: couldn't allocate meomry
expr: syntax error
cut: virtual memory exhausted
sed: Couldn't allocate memory

and the machine comes to a standstill.

   I have also tried doing the installation in custom mode.  I think
I have done the steps without getting warning messages up to and including
creation of a boot disk.  Then, when I try to reboot, I get a series
of ``out of memory'' messages, along with

   cannot run fsck because root is not read-only!

and complaints about a non-existent utmp file.

   Thanks for any help.  I hope what's involved is something simple.

Charles Blair