Dell Latitude E5410

[ricomoss]

I wouldn't consider myself a newbie (too much anyway) but I didn't know where else to ask such a general question.

I have a new Dell Latitude E5410 with Intel Core i5-540M with Intel HD integrated video. Apparently there are some known issues with this CPU/GPU.

I've tried installing the following distros:
Kubuntu 10.10 - get's about 80% through the install after about 6-8 hours.
Kubuntu 10.04 - can't get the install to properly start
openSUSE 11.3 - seemed promising for about 10 minutes...then nothing.
Fedora 14 - worst one...just a black screen.

I'm at a total loss. I've tried installs with noacpi, nolacpi, nomodeset, etc, etc, etc. Nothing works.

Does anyone here know a distro that will work? I need wireless and KDE - it's for my wife so it has to be very user friendly.

I need suggestions, please.

[reginaldperrin]

It is possible that your hard drive has sector errors.
If you can get o copy of Spinrite and run it at boot, it will check for and mark as unusable any sectors which are damaged. This will ensure that the installation does not attempt to use the otherwise undetectable damaged sectors, if that is the problem.
Naturally, if you have an solid state hard drive, or if you simply get a brand new hard drive (and they are so relatively cheap these days), this will eliminate the physical hard drive as the source of errors.

[clowenstein]

Have you tried booting a Live CD rather than starting off immediately with an installation?

[Mudgen]

You might give the Dell 10.04 iso a try:
Index of /files/ubuntu/lucid/iso-images

[MikeTbob]

You might give the Dell 10.04 iso a try:
Index of /files/ubuntu/lucid/iso-images

Is that what I think it is? Dude, that's an awesome find!! A made for Dell Distro?? Anyone tried it on a Dell yet?

[Mudgen]

Is that what I think it is? Dude, that's an awesome find!! A made for Dell Distro?? Anyone tried it on a Dell yet?

Yep, that's what it is. I have a bunch of Poweredges in my stable and monitor the Dell Linux mailing lists. One of Dell's Linux engineers just pointed out the link this week. I've not seen any feedback on this iso on the list yet.

[lastguy]

DELL 10.04 still not work for me. Looks like Win7 100MBb partition problem