rc2 and rc3 weird stuff

[tjm]

Hi all,

I have been using OOrc1 quite happily for a while, but I wanted to try out rc2 or rc3.

To cut a long story short they don't install.
Using ./install --prefix=/usr/local I get the whole unpacking files thing, then the system crashes, X-Server and all. No CTRL-ALT-BKSPC or anything
I have tried this a few times, and the process does *not* crash in the same place each time. Furthermore, the md5sums for both rc2 and rc3 are correct.

After doing this about 20 times, I rebooted to find that my MBR was corrupted!!!!!!
I fixed that, and tried fscking my computer thinking my HD has got issues, but it came up clean.

In case this is relevant:
P4M-1.7
40 Gig
2.4.21
Slack9
reiserfs ( 3.6.8 )
rc2 and rc3 same behaviour
rc1 -- perfect install
tried large scripted I/O to reproduce MBR fault -- nothing thus far