Can't get SUSE 12.1 or 11.4 to work on my new laptop help

[Gizmo007]

I got SUSE 12.1 - 64bit to work flawlessly on an older laptop I got about 3 years ago, but it will not work on my new laptop I just bought. Also Ubuntu will work on my old laptop but it will not work on my new laptop as well. I tried installing SUSE 11.4 - 64bit on the new laptop as well since I read it was more stable then 12.1, but still same issues I am running into.

SUSE will lock on the autoconfig install and only after restarting it over and over again does it sucessfully install. Once installed it is extremely buggy and often will freeze.

I have tried using the options acpi= off apm=off nolapci and have tried booting into failsafe only for the OS to freeze on me after using it for 10 minutes. I also tried adding to the boot options b43.blacklist=yes and that did not work either.

Any suggestions?

Here are my laptop specifications:

Toshiba - Satellite 15.6" laptop

Toshiba laptop model C655D

4GB memory

320GB hard disk - SATA 5400 rpm
HD Model: Toshiba MQ01ABD032 ATA Device

Energy Star Qualified

windows 7 home premium 64bit

AMD E-Series Processor

processor platform: VISION

processor speed : AMD E-300 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics 1.7 GHZ - Dual Core

cache memory: 1MB

Display: High definition TFT True Bright LED display 1366 x 768

Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6310 GPU

optical drive: double-layer DVD+-RW/CD-RW

Networking: Built in 10/100 Ethernet Lan; Wireless B+G+N

wired adapter: Atheros AR8152/8158 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20)

wireless adapter: Realek RTL8188CE Wireless LAN 802.11n PCI-E NIC

audio: Toshiba audio enhancement

Mice & Touchpad: ELAN PS/2 Port Touch-Pad

Printer: HP Deskjet 3520 series (NET)


Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Rubberman]

There are a number of BIOS-related issues that can affect how Linux works on current generation machines. Is this using a traditional PC BIOS, or is it using a UEFI BIOS? If UEFI, then you need to get a UEFI-capable system and boot-loader.

[Gizmo007]

Oh I was thinking it was a traditional BIOS, but your right it is an EFI one. I found a hidden EFI partion on my Hard Disk and a folder in my windows boot directory called EFI. It boots up fine ? It only locks up up once it gets in a GUI interface. It just seems to freeze in graphics mode when the operating system is trying to install on the hard disk.

My guess is it is an issue with the ATI video card, I read online there were issues with the new ATI video cards not working with linux ... it is just my guess I am really not sure. The one time I did get linux installed on my new laptop the linux operating system reverted back to a very low quality graphic setting and I got a message that a compatible video driver could not be found, 10 minutes later the system froze. So I unistalled it and tried reinstalling it and haven't been able to get linux reinstalled on the laptop since. I wonder if linux is compatible with my laptop's dualcore cpu that has an intergrated Graphics Processing Unit? I wonder if there is anyway I could insert a compatible driver into Suse's 12.1 disk image file? I have inserted compatible drivers into windows disk images I have created for backups before, but I am not sure If I could do the same thing for linux? I have another laptop that I have had for 3 years that works fine with linux. I could always download drivers onto there and try to make a custom linux disk image off of that laptop, is that something I could do in linux?

... However if it is an issue with the UEFI BIOS where can I find a compatible boot loader at? Can I download one from SUSE?

[Peconet009]

You have to switch off UEFI in your laptop BIOS to load on any Linux distro's.

[dono725]

I am no expert but with my PC when I go to change the boot order I am given the option of two hard-drives and the CD-ROM drive. One is labeled UEFI. if this is the case just make sure that is the last option. I just drag the icons to make CD-ROM first (this for install only), then standard HDD second and UEFI last. hope this helps you.