Which distro should I get?

[jarmas]

Hello all.

I am looking at using Linux as my OS for quite some time. I downloaded a couple of LiveCD distros to find the distro that I would eventually choose. I have downloaded the different versions of Fedora's LiveCD and a version of Linpus and burned them onto DVDs or CD. but I seem to be having problems bootong them up on an AMD Turion 64 laptop.

My first question is which version of the distros should I get that will be compatible with my CPU, the x86_64, the i686 or the i386?

I am having problems with the x86_64 and i686 versions because everytime I try to boot up with them, I will get through the initial splash screen and then when the command line says "uncompressing...", command-lines will just continuesly scroll through the screen or it will at some point stop and say that "Kernel Panic - not syncing - attempting to kill init!"

I have also tried booting up with the Linpus LiveCD but it just freezez up in the spash screen.

All sha1sums are correct with the downloads. In fact, the Linpus LiveCD boots up perfectly well on a Pentium 4 desktop.

My second question is: Is it possible to extract the iso fils of the LiveCD onto a USB drive? If not, are there any extra step that should be taken (which can be sone on a Windows PC) and what are they?

I am hoping that some of you will be able to help me out with this. Thanks to all of you!

[ypankaj]

I think you can install fedora x86 on your machine with no issue, just see this link as release notes, it supports for AMD.
Fedora Project, sponsored by Red Hat

also, you can extract .iso on your USB, install any opensource tool that you can get it from simple search on google, or try for this "Alchool 120"

Thanks,
Pankaj.

[jarmas]

Thanks, Pankaj.

Will check and try these out. Will post an update on results as soon as I am able to try everything out.

[geese]

I see you have a AMD Turion 64 laptop, therefore you will need to install a 64 bit OS. If you are going with Fedora you will need the x86_64 version.

[techieMoe]

I see you have a AMD Turion 64 laptop, therefore you will need to install a 64 bit OS. If you are going with Fedora you will need the x86_64 version.

That is incorrect. AMD64 chips can run either X86_64 or regular X86 operating systems at native speeds.

[geese]

That is incorrect. AMD64 chips can run either X86_64 or regular X86 operating systems at native speeds.

Oh, i forgot about that.

[techieMoe]

...an AMD Turion 64 laptop.

My first question is which version of the distros should I get that will be compatible with my CPU, the x86_64, the i686 or the i386?

All three will work just fine.

I am having problems with the x86_64 and i686 versions because everytime I try to boot up with them, I will get through the initial splash screen and then when the command line says "uncompressing...", command-lines will just continuesly scroll through the screen or it will at some point stop and say that "Kernel Panic - not syncing - attempting to kill init!"

I doubt it's a problem with the version you're using. More likely it's a bad download or a badly burned disc. However if you could post more details on your hardware there may be some other device that's causing the issues, such as a display card or hard disk controller.

[jarmas]

Thanks, grrse and techiemoe.

I have just downloaded all possible distros and will try each and everyone. I do not believe that the problem I encounter is due to a bad burn because sha1sum were all correct and also because I have burned more than 1 copy of the distros. Moreover, a Linpus CD works fine on a desktop while it doesn't on the laptop. So I am starting from the beginning and downloaded fresh new copies as you have suggested. I will even try to extract to a USB stick using LiveCD-iso-to-disk just to try out all forms of possible media. Hope that something works. Will advise all of you what happens.

Anyways, here are the laptop's specs"
Acer Aspire 5052
AMD Turion 64 2.2GHz
2GB RAM
ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 GPU (with shared 256MB RAM)
80GB HD (Intel 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 24DB)

[jarmas]

OOps...sorry about the typo geese.

[techieMoe]

My best guess would be that your ATI card is what's giving these distributions fits. You might try downloading the "Alternate Install" version of Ubuntu, which uses a non-graphical installer and is useful for systems with peculiar graphics issues.