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Hi, Came into possession of my dad's old hp notebook (HP520) and want to install some linux distro on it to use it for basic web browsing and word processing. ...
  1. 03-21-2011 #1
    ptilinux
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    Problem installing opensuse 11.4

    Hi,

    Came into possession of my dad's old hp notebook (HP520) and want to install some linux distro on it to use it for basic web browsing and word processing. After a bit of research decided to begin with opensuse.

    Only problem i cant seem to install it on the notebook. The dvd drive is dead and hence i wanted to install suse through a usb drive (2GB). Downloaded the appropriate live CD and used it to make a bootable usb disk as per instructions on opensuse.org. The drive boots up fine but no matter what i do i the next screen is always a black screen with a blinking underscore and nothing seems to happen. However compatibility reports indicate that suse should install hassle free and everything should work!

    Can't make head or tail of this situation please help...

    System specs from cpu-z report are attached...
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  2. 03-21-2011 #2
    oz
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    Quote Originally Posted by ptilinux View Post
    The dvd drive is dead and hence i wanted to install suse through a usb drive (2GB).
    Hello and welcome!

    Take a look at installing OpenSuse using UNetbootin to see if it will work for you:

    UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads

    No cd/dvd drive is needed.
    oz

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  3. 03-22-2011 #3
    ptilinux
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    I've already tried installing from opensuse and ubuntu live USB's but to no avail. There appears to be some VGA issue because nothing shows up on loading the kernel ...

    Any ideas?
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  4. 03-22-2011 #4
    devils casper
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    Have you tried text mode installation?
    It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
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  5. 03-22-2011 #5
    ptilinux
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    Yes attempted a text mode install with safe settings same darn screen and nothing happens for hours. XP however runs perfectly fine. I dont get it...
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  6. 03-23-2011 #6
    yancek
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    If I read your report.txt file correctly, you have 512MB of RAM? Not enough for opensuse. I've tried installing 11.3 several times on machines with less than 1GB and get errors indicating the install might not work because of there being less than 1GB of RAM. Some of the installs worked but there were always problems.
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  7. 03-23-2011 #7
    ptilinux
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    OK then. Whats a lighter distro that i can use without upgrading to more ram?
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  8. 03-23-2011 #8
    oz
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    Quote Originally Posted by ptilinux View Post
    Whats a lighter distro that i can use without upgrading to more ram?
    Xubuntu and Lubuntu are considered good lightweight options. So are minimal base installs of distros like Arch, Debian, and Gentoo. Then you add only those apps that you really want or need on top of that.
    oz

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  9. 03-23-2011 #9
    devils casper
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    My test machine has 512MB RAM and Xubuntu works fine in it. Ubuntu work fine until I try to run more than 3 applications.
    Xubuntu is a good option, imho.
    It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
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  10. 03-25-2011 #10
    ptilinux
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    All right gonna give Xubuntu a try since im afraid of Arch and Gentoo.
    Its ironic that windows XP is lighter than most linux distros now.

    Update: threw in another gb of ram and gonna see if that helps
    Last edited by ptilinux; 03-25-2011 at 11:11 AM.
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