I have tried and failed to install Redhat, Mandrake, Knoppix, and a number of other distributions on my Toshiba Satellite 1405-s151 (a laptop) running Windows XP. I've been to the laptop sites, none of which lists any of the 1405 machines as Linux-capable.

The machine *does* run Knoppix off CDRom, and even connects to my ISP via the ethernet card with Knoppix, but nothing else can.

There have been other stray reports of Linux users using the machine but unable to use the ethernet card.

I'm wondering if the 1405 line is Linux-proof? I'm about to give up on the machine and return it full-time to Windows XP.

Had a similar problem with an NEC laptop. Zipslack solved the problem for me.You might want to look into that. Hope this helps.

I realize that this post was from several years ago. I hope you found something that works. I was given the very same laptop and tried several distros which didn't work. The only one I had that loaded without problems was Mepis. More specifically, the disk says TaFusion featuring SimplyMepis. I've used several Linux distros over the last 12 years and Mepis is perhaps my favorite.

Hope this helps.

I gave up on Windows XP last week and tried Suse 10.1 on this laptop, which installed without difficulty. Now, of course, I'm having problems with YAST, but that's another story!

I'm generally happy with SuSE 10.1, although I'd prefer a little less of this dependency nonsense.

Downloaded and burnt a Mepis iso (checking the md5sum, of course), but it never even started on my Toshiba.

TAFusion seems to be some sort of loony Christian organisation (does one really need a Christian OS?).

A wasted morning, thanks to TAFusion and Mepis.

Yekim - are you sure that you started this OS on a Toshiba 1405-s151?

I should have known, of course, that this was a joke OS - there was a glaring typo on the Mepis website, suggesting right off the bat that they were careless.

Hmmmmm. I'm not aware of any Christian connection with Mepis TaFusion. None of the documentation or bookmarked websites I've seen that came with the OS refers to religion at all.

I picked up a CD of the OS at the Mepis booth at the San Francisco Linux World Conference earlier this year. I also picked up Red Hat, SuSE and several other *NIX distros (including FreeBSD which I really wanted to install). Mepis was the only one that didn't hang during the install. I've since done several upgrades that went very smoothly. The only thing that I haven't got working yet is the built-in wireless card. I'm still working on that.

IIRC, Mepis is Debian based. Have you tried loading Debian?

Yekim - just to confirm: you got Mepis to work without any difficulty on the Toshiba Satellite 1405-s151?

Yes. It's exactly the same model Toshiba Satellite 1405-s151 as yours.

I've occasionally burned .iso files to CD and DVD that have passed the md5sum test. Later, they have hung while loading. I'm not sure why this happens. Have you tried using this CD (or DVD) on another computer?

I have a satellite, though a different version. Mepis works great on it. As for wireless, mine worked. I don't rememeber if I had to do anything, you may have to install ndiswrapper or go into the mepis command center.

Just couldn't do it with Mepis. Gave Suse 10.1 a whirl. It installed, but was slower than a dead slug.

Somebody suggested Kanotix, and I tried that. A success. Goes on line and all is well.