Hi, I previously posted on the 7.10 forum to ask whether I should go for Gibbon or Fawn for my new HP notebook, with the following specs:
HP Pavilion dv6500t CTO NB
- Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)
- Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T7500 (2.20 GHz, 4 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
- 15.4" WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
- 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)!
- 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
- Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection and Bluetooth(TM)
- 250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
- SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
Feisty was recommended as being the best option because many people are having troubles with the Gibbon.
However, I have been having immense troubles getting the Feisty LiveCD to work. My travails started when I tried to create partitions on the hard drive using Vista's partition tool. Just wouldn't let me shrink the disk down enough, even after moving the pagefile and (supposedly) deleting the shadow copies. So, I tried the Gparted livecd, and somehow cocked things up with that (it also couldn't get the partition with Vista to shrink more than the Vista software, and I got out of it incorrectly. When I rebooted, the Vista O/S was not detected). Long story short, I killed everything on the hard drive, set up partitions using the favored choice posted here: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/partitioning.
My reasoning at this point was that I would get Feisty Fawn running, and then instal XP on an NTFS partition made after I got Linux up and running.
However, I have now spent several days trying to get the Live CD to work for me, and it is fruitless. I have gathered from several different posts that the Feisty Live CD has problems. e.g. http://www.livecdnews.com/2007/04/19...fawn-released/.
I have also found that this particular notebook of mine might be problematic for Ubuntu/Kubuntu. e.g. http://www.codingforums.com/showthread.php?t=123930 (although this suggests that the AMD64 chipset is the problem, even though my Core-2 duo seems isn't giving any joy).
So, to summarize my main problems:
1) Initially, I found that the screen would go dead just after I started running the LiveCD. This is apparently because the NVidia drivers are incompatible with Kubuntu. I seemed to be able to fix this by changing the screen settings (f4 option at the Kubuntu start-up prompt) to 1280X800X32, in that I could then at least see what was going on, which was....
2)...not much else. Inevitably, I get to the same screen after a brief period of activity:
BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-2ubuntu3) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
(initramfs)
I even got this screen when I tried to check the CD for defects.
This problem is widely reported, but there are many variants of it (e.g. occurs during LiveCD boots, following installed O/S upgrades, etc.), and the possible fixes are also diverse.
I find myself at a tipping point. I really want to use a Linux system. I would love to be able to use it exclusively. However, I need to finish a PhD by May, and I can't afford to spend too many days simply trying to get a taste of Kubuntu. Forum hunting for bits and pieces of solutions to a problem that is very likely specific to my hardware (and possibly related to my inexpert tampering thus far) is thus starting to become too costly of a time investment.
Therefore, if anyone has experienced a problem similar to mine, with a similar machine, and has managed to fix it, I would very much appreciate hearing how it was overcome.
Failing that, could someone point me to a good supported version of Linux that I could try. I am willing to spend a bit of money to get away from MS, provided the solution is not actually more expensive than MS. E.g. Is Dapper a good way to go?
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. I am trying hard to resist Bill Gates' siren song to rejoin the herd; I hear the recovery DVDs calling to me as we speak.
By the way, as you may have gathered, complete Linux neophyte. Moderately competent user of Windows.
Thanks!
HP Pavilion dv6500t CTO NB
- Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)
- Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor T7500 (2.20 GHz, 4 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
- 15.4" WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
- 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)!
- 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
- Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection and Bluetooth(TM)
- 250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
- SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
Feisty was recommended as being the best option because many people are having troubles with the Gibbon.
However, I have been having immense troubles getting the Feisty LiveCD to work. My travails started when I tried to create partitions on the hard drive using Vista's partition tool. Just wouldn't let me shrink the disk down enough, even after moving the pagefile and (supposedly) deleting the shadow copies. So, I tried the Gparted livecd, and somehow cocked things up with that (it also couldn't get the partition with Vista to shrink more than the Vista software, and I got out of it incorrectly. When I rebooted, the Vista O/S was not detected). Long story short, I killed everything on the hard drive, set up partitions using the favored choice posted here: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/partitioning.
My reasoning at this point was that I would get Feisty Fawn running, and then instal XP on an NTFS partition made after I got Linux up and running.
However, I have now spent several days trying to get the Live CD to work for me, and it is fruitless. I have gathered from several different posts that the Feisty Live CD has problems. e.g. http://www.livecdnews.com/2007/04/19...fawn-released/.
I have also found that this particular notebook of mine might be problematic for Ubuntu/Kubuntu. e.g. http://www.codingforums.com/showthread.php?t=123930 (although this suggests that the AMD64 chipset is the problem, even though my Core-2 duo seems isn't giving any joy).
So, to summarize my main problems:
1) Initially, I found that the screen would go dead just after I started running the LiveCD. This is apparently because the NVidia drivers are incompatible with Kubuntu. I seemed to be able to fix this by changing the screen settings (f4 option at the Kubuntu start-up prompt) to 1280X800X32, in that I could then at least see what was going on, which was....
2)...not much else. Inevitably, I get to the same screen after a brief period of activity:
BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-2ubuntu3) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
(initramfs)
I even got this screen when I tried to check the CD for defects.
This problem is widely reported, but there are many variants of it (e.g. occurs during LiveCD boots, following installed O/S upgrades, etc.), and the possible fixes are also diverse.
I find myself at a tipping point. I really want to use a Linux system. I would love to be able to use it exclusively. However, I need to finish a PhD by May, and I can't afford to spend too many days simply trying to get a taste of Kubuntu. Forum hunting for bits and pieces of solutions to a problem that is very likely specific to my hardware (and possibly related to my inexpert tampering thus far) is thus starting to become too costly of a time investment.
Therefore, if anyone has experienced a problem similar to mine, with a similar machine, and has managed to fix it, I would very much appreciate hearing how it was overcome.
Failing that, could someone point me to a good supported version of Linux that I could try. I am willing to spend a bit of money to get away from MS, provided the solution is not actually more expensive than MS. E.g. Is Dapper a good way to go?
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. I am trying hard to resist Bill Gates' siren song to rejoin the herd; I hear the recovery DVDs calling to me as we speak.
By the way, as you may have gathered, complete Linux neophyte. Moderately competent user of Windows.
Thanks!
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