I've attempted to install Fedora Core 5 and have had multiple lockups during installation. I have tried to do a text install to know avail. Thinking the problem might be over come by using an older version of Fedora Core I attempted to install versions 2 and 3 again the same lock up. I was able to successfully install Suse 9.1 Personal but I'd like to put Fedora on my laptop. I'm very new to laptop based technologies and would greatly appreciate help.
Ron B.

Hi rbailey

Your problem may be with the way acer set things up. They normally place a 4Gb Fat16 (hidden) partition at the very beginning of HDD0. Make sure you download all, repeat all, the drivers from the acer site before you proceed. When installing Linux make sure you do not allow any changes to the MBR (do not allow grub or lilo to be written to the MBR). It is best to use a boot loader (the free bootpart program, or others that are available). You should also back up your MBR using the free mbrwiz program. It is also best to have some free unformatted space of at least 8 gb at the end of HDD0 to house your distro and swap file. I assume you are planning dual OS ie Windows & linux?

Good luck
olkar

Thank you olkar I'll give this a try. But no I'm actually trying to get away from windows on this machine. Thanks again for the advise.
Ron B

Hi rbailey
You probably can't do that: Reasons are that if you go to the acer website (driver download for your model) you will not find any linux drivers for the Aspire for your 3003 (and my 3610). These drivers are for chipset, touchpad, modem, VGA, LAN, modem, audio etc, etc. However, I suggest u download all the windows drivers while you are there as you may need them.

A work around is for you to dual (or multi) boot using your existing OS (XP??) and installing your desired distro. I have written a small tutorial (.pdf) plus the free small programs (MBRWiz & Bootpart) in a RAR file which you can download at:

http://members.dodo.com.au/~nmj/down...ystem_boot.rar

I presently boot into W98, XP pro, & 4 linux distros (all blisfully unaware of each other).It was 3 when the tutorial was written. There are other ways to do this but I found this to suit me best. My two other computers are set up in a similar manner. You will need a partition manager (not the inbuilt XP disk manager which is next 2 useless).

You will be able to set your acer up to auto boot into your distro. I particularly like Linux "Xandros" beats the rest with ease of install and use with some neat features that most others don't have.

Good luck
olkar

Thanks for all your help but after some dianostics it appears that my DVD-ROM is faulty which is why the media isn't installing. The unit is being sent in for repairs. But thanks again for all the help.
Ron