i'm trying to install 2005 on a old P3 vaio laptop that currently has XP pro and 2 hd's. It has a dvd/cdrw drive so I put my dvd version in on startup and all it does is act like it cant read the disc and eventually boot into XP. Is there anythign special you have to do with a vaio to let it install linux?

Thanks,
Zach

Check that the .iso is burned properly and that your bios is set to boot from the CDR.

KC

I know the iso is right because its the same install disk I used for my desktop. And yes it boots from cdrom first.

I saw in another post where the DVD takes longer to read at boot with some DVD roms drives and then it defaults to XP. The solution was to create a floppy or CD rom boot disk and then put the DVD in when it's time to select your data source for the install.

Thanks amdrake, that's what it was, just a boot disk and everything was okay.

On another note, the screen is jumpy, it has lines go through it when the cdrom drive spins of I move the mouse. Will an updated video card driver fix this and what X windows system runs best with laptops?

After I installed it, now it won't boot. After choosing linux at the bootloader it runs through a few lines of stuff realy fast and stops on an error message:

"apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16ac)"

Now it does boot into windows without problems and I updated the BIOS through windows but all to no avail.

I added the line apm=off to the linux boot and that lets it boot, sort of. After going through all of the OK things at the point where it should start loading gnome, the screen is blank and stays blank. The LCD doens't shut off, just blank.

So is apm something with video or is something else screwed up?

I had the same issue, today actually - What i found to work is go into your bios and disable APM , now you will be able to boot

Hm, where in the BIOS is the APM? I can't find it. I also may have a limited bios since this is a vaio. Do you have a vaio that you had this problem with?

Unfortunately no, Mine is an IBM - Look in power management
thats where it was for mine ,

Yeah the bios for this computer is very locked down. I can't even select boot options. Does anyone know hoe to open up the bios for a sony so I can use my computer.
I just hate these bought computers, locking me out of my own property.