I don't think my laptop likes Linux?

[pointmeatthesky]

I got a new laptop on Friday. Here are the specs:

HP Pavilion dv6000
2.0GHz AMD Turion 64 X2
1 GB RAM
160 GB hard drive
nVidia graphic card (I'm not positive on the exact model, but I'm pretty sure it was 256mb and the best that HP offered)

So here's what I've been doing the last few days..

I have three Ubuntu CDs. One 32-bit 6.06, one 64-bit 6.06 Kubuntu, and one 32-bit 6.10 Kubuntu (this is the only downloaded one). At first, none of them would boot at all. I think I got the 6.10 Kubuntu and the 32-bit 6.06 Ubuntu to boot once. Each time, they froze during the install. Every other time I tried, they wouldn't boot whatsoever. During the boot up, though, each disc had the same "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" error, but by Googling, I found out that that has to do with the wireless card.

After that, I downloaded Ultimate Ubuntu and couldn't get that to boot either. Then I found out about the md5sum checker. Apparently, the Ultimate Ubuntu md5sum didn't match.

Then I tried downloading OpenSuSE 10.2 and Sabayon 3.26 and those md5sums didn't match.

Anyone know what the problem could be? Am I stuck with Windows? I just ordered an OpenSuSE 10.2 disc. Hopefully I didn't just waste $10..

[oz]

I don't own a laptop so can't offer any specific help, but I have heard lots of "success" stories from people installing OpenSuse on them. Maybe you could try to download another copy of suse while waiting for your ordered copy to arrive.

[antidrugue]

This is a very nice machine, which looks very much Linux compatible to me (provided that you use a recent Linux distribution).

Just make sure you downloaded and burned those Ubuntu CDs the right way :
http://psychocats.net/ubuntu/iso

Also, while this wireless card of yours (Broadcom) is not quite Linux friendly, you can get it to work without too much effort.

So you can try again Ubuntu/Kubuntu 6.10, or just wait for OpenSuse 10.2 to arrive at your door (as it will work on this laptop).

[pointmeatthesky]

What could have caused the md5sums to not match?

Also, I used WinMD5Sum and Infra Recorder, like suggested on the Ubuntu website: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto

[oz]

What could have caused the md5sums to not match?

maybe a bad iso file, or a bad download...