ACK! Problems with it!

[PooingCavy]

I'm trying to get Linux Ubuntu 6.10 "Edgy Eft" running, but the live CD won't even work. Ive tried trouble shooting like downloading a new ISO, making a new copy, using a one hundred percent workable ISO recorder, and changing the BIOS.

The first issue was it didn't even attempt to start. I fixed it by changing the bios to boot up from a disk drive first. That worked, and I was able to get to the "root boot-up" screen.

The ther was a second issue. The disk defect thing worked perfect, detected no errors. However, even in safe graphics mode, something caused it to go massively wrong. I thought my laptop turned into an expensive paperweight! Turns out that it wasn't a linux or LCD screen problem, or linux, but rather the laptop itself. The CD works on all computers 'cept for mine.

Heres a link (WARNING: Takes a while at 3:14 mins [hey, thats pi!] and the good part is the last few seconds) http://youtube.com/watch?v=ADhc4VWkGFE

I haven't ran the memory check yet, but im sure thats not the problem

My Laptop is a 2002 or 2003 (dunno which one) Toshiba Tecra, the BIOS version is 1.20

The safe-graphics mode doesnt work either.
Also, My laptop has the infamous nvidea grpahics problem, that impedes the system by not displaying game graphics correctly. However, none of my games have actually done that to my computer, it just shows the games in a really weird resolution (like displaying a 512x512 graphic as a 12x1 graphic, where all ii get is like the corner pixels streched out and other weird stuff.)
I found the trouble with the problem may be the trident cyberblade xp4

Are there any big, popular linux distros like ubuntu or fedora core or mepis or suse or debain, etc, etc that wold work on this. I'd prefer one that is still supported, and best would be a distro that has a large user base (as in debain-large)

[wolfton]

Well, I can tell you from experience that not every distro works on every setup, but there are options you can pass to the kernel at boot time. For example, if you try:

ubuntu xserver=xorg vga=789

it may work.
Of course, you will have to try this live unless you already installed it. If you have it already installed to hard drive, try pressing "e" on your OS select at GRUB and add:

xserver=xorg vga=789

in there.

If THAT won't work, try adding a "3" at the end of your GRUB line.

If you still can't get it to work, try "XFree86" instead of "xorg" or "normal" instead of "789".

If none of this works, you may want to try PCLinuxOS, Knoppix, Mandriva, Fedora Core 6, or Mepis.
PCLinuxOS is for gaming and it may have better graphics support for your machine. Knoppix doesn't work for me unless I specify xserver and nodhcp so I couldn't connect to the internet. I use Mandriva 2007 (free). Fedora Core 6 gave me too much trouble with X, but it was the only distro that recognizes my built-in SD Card reader once I got into KDE, and I liked Mepis but I had some issue that prompted me to reinstall.

They all have extensive support communities, but you need to know where to look. The best supprt I found for PCLinuxOS is in Spanish so I gave up on that one.

Hope this helps...

[cheesecake42]

try doing some google searches with the distro you want to install and your laptop's model number. From what I've heard (and my experience) linux distro's almost never work as default on laptops. especially older models. But usually, a simple change to the boot string solves any problems that might arise.

good ol' google