can't boot linux
 

hello everybody
I'm a newbie and I just can't understand why I can't boot ANY linux distribution. I tried to boot many live distros such as ubuntu and sabayon, they start loading the system, everything seems to run fine, but at a certain point they suddendly stop, dividing the screen into hundreds and hundreds psychedelic multicoloured little squares. So, I tried to install other distros such as debian and fedora. In both cases, the installation goes fine, but when I try to boot the distributions I just installed, in fedora I have the same problem I have with live distros, in debian, everything stops, as the system gives me an incomprehensible kernel panic message. is my hardware incompatible with linux? I have an athlon 64 processor, and an m2n-mx motherboard, with integrated geforce 6100 and nforce 430. Has anybody had similar problems with my same hardware? Can somebody tell me how to solve this problem?
Thank you
blackzed

Maybe you have some bad memory - linux uses memory much more intensively than windows, and will certainly panic / freeze if there is a memory problem. Try running memtest86 (you can do it from a boot disk, and I think the (k)ubuntu install disk offers it as an option instead of "install linux"). Run it for several hours.

Other suggestions:
If you have an option for "PnP Bios" in your BIOS, turn it off.
Google for your MoBo and linux - maybe other people have had problems / found solutions.
And welcome to LQ!

I've never heard or thought this; what evidence do you have to support your claim? Not that I disagree; I don't know.

Is there--or was there---any other operating system on this computer?

Do you have any utility disks with some form of DOS--to see if they will boot.

try also getting something like the "ultimate Boot CD"

well, there is windows perfectly running...

sounds to me like an X issue. see if you can boot a text install, get it installed and running w/o X and then worry about that next if that is indeed the issue.

@jhwilliams
No evidence, but plenty of posts on LQ saying so. There have been PC's that would run windows, but not linux, where memtest eventually found a problem. Check the [Search] button if you are interested.

well, I can actually install some linux distribution, the matter is that I can't boot them. I installed debian, ubuntu(using the alternate cd, the standard one won't boot), and fedora, using the anaconda installer.

Sounds to me like a video driver issue.
Install a distro that boots in text mode the first time, such as Slackware.
Have the nvidia driver downloaded from nvidia.com and you can install it in text mode. Then it should work...
If you need step by step instructions, let me know, and I'll try to post them here.