Linux install on Compaq - Presario 631 Desktop SR2170NX

[hxwala]

I bought a new Compaq - Presario 631 Desktop SR2170NX
Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 631 with HT Technology; 1GB DDR2 SDRAM; DL DVD±RW/CD-RW drive; LightScribe labeling; 160GB hard drive; Windows Vista Home Basic

This machine has a Samsung HD160JJ SATA harddrive, and SimplyMepis Linux 6.0 does not see it. I burned a GParted cd and that is able to see the drive ok, and repartition as needed.

Has anyone loaded a version of Linux on this machine, if so what distro is it?

The bios indicates a PATA and SATA1 controllers, and the SATA1 controller mode can be IDE or AHCI. Any thoughts here - I've tried both modes and now trying with PATA disabled (just nothing else to do so far)...?

thank you

[rong]

This post is a bit old now so perhaps you have solved the problem?

I have found the Compaq Presarios to be troublesome with 'some' distros. In my case what I've seen are timer controller errors and then failure to mount the drive and no boot options were able to resolve this but switching to a different distro worked. This may be of no help but my suggestion is try a different distro if you havn't solved already.

[hxwala]

Thank you for the reply. I've tried mepis 6.04 beta with the same result. I'm going to need to pick up a rack of cd's I guess - I'm all out. Are there any other small distros? I see Fedora/RH is about 6 cd's worth... and it may be a throwaway. I'll probably try mepis release first if it comes out next week.

I created a GParted bootable cd - that is Linux - it can see the drive.. is it based on a known/available distro/kernel? I'm a noob - I may be off base on that.

[devils casper]

try Ubuntu Edgy Desktop CD. it will recognize your harddisk. its a LiveCD and has an option to install Ubuntu. if everything goes well, install it.
check www.distrowatch.com too.







Casper

[hxwala]

Thanks - no luck with this one either. It won't load - I tried safe mode, verify cd, and the Start or install Ubuntu. All stop somewhere during the load process - the bar that flops from side to side gives up the ghost after about 10 flops. I'll be away for a week, but thoughts welcomed. Any other small distros to try? :o)

[BlahBlah_X]

try KNOPPIX, its known for being hardware friendly.

If not, I can name a few good live-cds

PCLinuxOS

Fedora Core LiveCD

Dreamlinux

Vector Live

Zen Live

SLAX

KANOTIX

[devils casper]

Thanks - no luck with this one either. It won't load - I tried safe mode, verify cd, and the Start or install Ubuntu. All stop somewhere during the load process - the bar that flops from side to side gives up the ghost after about 10 flops. I'll be away for a week, but thoughts welcomed. Any other small distros to try? )

which graphics card do you have? it seems installers are not configuring your graphics card properly.





Casper