Kernel Panic!

Me and my sister need a bit of help. We have an iBook G4 and we were trying to install Xandros Linux as we had no other installation CD lying around. We didn't get the repair CD with it as it was received from a friend.

It was having trouble beforehand as well, wasn't loading things properly, was slowing down, couldn't even run Firefox without freezing half of the time.
We haven't done anything with the actual hardware other than inserting that CD. It started the error, so it seems. It's the usual Kernel Panic: "panic: We are hanging here..."

We can't seem to type anything in single-user mode, thus preventing us from using any commands to repair things.
We've tried to zap the PRAM as well, let it chime variable numbers of times.
We've tried simply restarting, keep getting the "You need to restart your computer" message.
Safeboot doesn't work, it doesn't even load. Gave the same message.
We don't have another Mac so we can't attempt the Firewire solution.
Doesn't seem to be able to boot from anything either.

Don't really want to send this thing to Apple, but if it's needed we might just do it. Any other last resort solutions?

With the money and time taken to go to Apple I would suggest getting a new HD - is the HD making any signs of noise/failure ? From the past month's experience I've had with a couple of Apple laptops it's the drive that's at fault. And you can follow the HD install instructions at www.ifixit.com/guide

I found that sometimes is the OS, not only the drive so make sure it's not the drive before changing it