For Fedora Core 1 and Debian, I install on my Sony VAIO PCG-SR33 notebook, which has a PCMCIA IDE CD-ROM, with the following argument given to the kernel at boot time. ide2=0x180,0x386 This is right from the kernel bootprompt howto, and it works fine. Mind you, with RedHat 8.0, it autodetected my CD-ROM, loaded the PCMCIA drivers, and it "just worked". Still, I could use this hack with FC1. Now, in FC2, this doesn't work. Anaconda claims that it can't find a driver for the CD-ROM install method, and the list of drivers doesn't seem to include anything I can use. So, I can't install FC2, it would seem.
From the release notes... o Some Sony VAIO(R) notebook systems may experience problems installing Fedora Core from CD-ROM. If this happens, restart the installation process and add the following option to the boot command line: pci=off ide1=0x180,0x386 This option allows the installation to proceed normally; any devices not detected due to the use of this option will be configured the first time Fedora Core is booted.