I cannot install linux on my laptop

[evil_ninja]

Hi,
I just bought a Toshiba Qosmio F45 AV411 which go with Vista Ultimate. I updated to 4GB Ram. After shrinking 40GB of hardriver, I tried to install difference versions of Linux on my laptop but it still cannot work. I did try with Suse 11, Ubuntu 8.10, Fedora 9 but all of them have problems. With Ubuntu, I cannot boot after installing. It's a problem with Ram. With Suse and Fedora both of them have problem with package fault. I did burn these DVD with the slowest speed and test the DVD before installing. But I get fault at the middle of installing process. The messages are "unhandled exception in anaconda..." for Fedora and "Some Packages Failed" for Suse. There are a list of message so I don't know should I post it here, and because I cannot copy these messages. I did try to select custom and uncheck all of the items of the Fedora which is the latest linux distribution I tried with. This made me think there is maybe some problem with the laptop hardware itself. I would like to know if anyone has this experience before? And is there anyway I can solve this issue?

Best regards,

[Daan]

Here there are several people that got Linux to work on their Qosmio laptop:

Linux on Toshiba Laptops & Notebooks

Here's a Slackware install on your specific model:

Getting to Data: Slackware on Toshiba Qosmio F45-AV411

So it is possible.

You could try a Debian netinstall if you are think there might be problem with your CD drive. (Try Debian Lenny, not Etch).

[evil_ninja]

Daan,
From what you say, I did try to reinstall with the iso file of the Fedora on USB hardrive and it works. It means there is something wrong with the Optical Driver. But now I have another issue with the geometry table. I cannot boot after the GRUB is loaded and I got hang at this message:
"grub loading stage2.."
Do you have any suggestion?
I have Vista Ultimate on the first partition and Fedora on the second one.
Best regards,

[rokytnji]

I am not a expert on grub but I did fix a grub error and got my system to boot using supergrubdisk. Super Grub Disk Webpage

[evil_ninja]

Hi,
I don't know the reason why but I finally can boot to Linux.
One of the weird thing is if I let the system start as default which is boot from HDD, GRUB cannot boot and just give the message "grub loading stage2..". But if I press on the key to display the boot menu and select the HDD, the GRUB can boot the linux. I don't understand what the difference is.
I fix it by instruction on some website:
Go to rescue linux
type GRUB
GRUB> root (hd0, 2)
GRUB> setup (hd0)
restart
Now I can boot by GRUB from default boot process.