Installation Problem - kernel panc

Let me say to start with that I think CAELinux is a great product and look forward to being able to use it.

The live DVD works perfectly when used in LiveCD mode. The problem is in trying to install to a hard drive.

Problem:
First, it takes 3 hours to copy from DVD to HD. This seems excessive and may be indicative of other problems. Second, it does not appear that Grub is being written to the MBR. I already have Grub installed on the MBR and it is not being overridden. After some hand configuring, I am able to get PCLinuxOS to start booting. Last and most seriously, I keep getting kernel panics during the boot process. The boot process is pretty far along, X is started, I have the PCLinuxOS splash screen and have pressed esc and am viewing the boot process. The kernel panics when attempting to mount /dev/root. Here is where I am a little confused. In the PCLinuxOS installation there is no /dev in the / partition. Seems reasonable that the kernel would be unhappy trying to mount a nonexistent device. I have not been able to locate a log file that shows this sequence or I would attach it.

Configuration:
P4 3.2 gigherzt, 2 gig ram, two 120 gig Samsung HDs, Sony 16x DVD. Dual boot with Windows 2000 on disc1 (or sda-hda-hd0... or whatever the kernel calls them these days), Fedora8 on disc2 with Grub on the MBR of disc1, the boot disc.

Efforts:
MD5 checksum is correct. I have installed CAELinux on both HDs with the same results. I used gparted to shrink my FAT32 partition and to create a swap and a / ext3 (sda5) on disc1. Used gparted to create a / partition on disc2 (sdb6). I have used both gparted and the built in partitioning tool (DiscDrake?) to format the newly created partitions. The partitions are mountable and working correctly.

Funny thing is, everything works perfectly in LiveCD mode. CAELinux is a great effort. Hoping to be able use really get started using it.
Oh, by the way, is there any way to install CAELinux without booting from DVD?
Thanks
Kevin

Found the problem, sort of. Was successful on my 4th installation attempt. Took 4 hours and some odd minutes. Perhaps something was corrupted during the excessively long transfer? The only thing that occurs to me is that maybe DMA was off. Is there an install boot time option to test this?

Kevin