hello and HELP!

in a rush a week ago i bought a laptop to take on a month long trip. am on the trip now and have been forced into running windows. uggh. i am unable to run any easy install version of linux on the machine in queston, a compaq presario v2000 (tried to post link, but am still too new... 1.5G Pentium M with centrino, 60G hd, 512M ram, 802.11g, dvd rw drive, wxga 14" screen) and do not have knowledge or experience (i am a newbie of sorts who has run a knoppix hd install, debian, and currently ubuntu 4.10 on my home pc - mostly self configuring distros) to figure out how to solve my current issues.
would like to run ubuntu 4.10 Warty on the laptop but failing that any linux distro that will work on the machine as xp is killing me.
i have the machine partitioned for dual boot. am running xp on the first partition 6G, will run linux distro on second part ~25G, have a crossover partition (fat 32) , and a 1G swap.
now to the specifics:
1 -initially tried to run knopix 3.7 live cd to partition drive. the self config hangs indefinitly every time it tries to load network drivers or configure dhcp (unfortunatly this was a few days ago and i can't remember the driver's name).
2 - try to run ubuntu warty 4.10 install. the install hangs on network driver as well. if i run the install as "expert", i can avoid installing the troublesome driver by not configuring the network. i can then make it all the way through the install but on reboot the warty self config first fails hotplug configuraton then hangs completely further on. (did not write the failure down - but will this to the post if it will help).

please help!

thank you,
andrew.
.

Shot in the dark here, but do you have an onboard wifi? If so can you disable it in the bios before you try and load ubantu? See if that works, if it does will deal with getting it to work later

thanks jprobs. damn that was quick!

i do and haven't even looked at the bios yet, but am guessing that i can disable it. will try to install with it disabled later today when i get some time. maybe my brain will even start working sometime later today too.

Glad to help. Hope it works.
Post back the results.

well...to my surprise...the bios is extrememly limited and contains no mention of onboard wireless any hardware at all for that matter. compaq sucks. so it would seem there is no possibility of disabling the wireless via the bios.

back to the drawing board.

I am not sure if this will help any. But is there an option for a "Safeboot" on either of the distros you are trying. I am strictly a MEPIS user and SimplyMEPIS has an option for safeboot. It got me past the hang-up I had with my Laptop.
Just be aware that ProMEPIS for some reason does not contain this option, it is only in SimplyMEPIS.

Also tried Debian Sarge, but another no go.

Travels have been over for a bit...the only time this laptop gets used...so the issue has not been that pressing

BUT

downloaded and installed Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog with NO PROBLEMS! HECK YEA. Right "out of the box".
Will not be traveling for another week or so, so will not get to play with the system and discover bugs and such for a bit, but still, just the knowledge that I don't have to use XP anymore makes me smile.

I have the same problem when i tried to install Ubuntu 5.04

it couldn't config successfully at the network config step. I skipped that step and finish all the other steps. When it reboot, it hangs at the hotplug line.

I tried install it again with acpi=off as the argument, but it hangs at the network configuration step.

sorry, just asking to get a starting point:

are you running it on a compaq presario v2140US?

which version of 5.04 are you installing?

do you have the network plugged in when you are installing?

does it see both the realtek and wireless on install (it should... 4.10 did not, but 5.04 did right away)?

oh uh, mine has: 1.6GHz Pentium M, 60G hd, 512M ram, dvd rw drive


Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog) Intel x86 install CD

I only use wireless and my wireless card was on when i installed.
When i install w/out any arguments, the network config fails. I finish the rest of the installation then reboot. It freeses @ the hotplug config
When i install with acpi=off, the installation freezes @ the network config step

my laptop has the same specs.

i am not very knowledgable about all of the options when installing but my install worked right off the bat with no options after so many failures with other distros and earlier ubuntu verisions. i know how frustruated you are.

right off the bat i used the hoary preview install (hoary-preview-install-i386.iso) so i am not certain how much changed before the final install cd (ubuntu-5.04-install-i386.iso). i have the preview iso and if you are interested maybe i can send it you way or make it available. i wish everthing wasnt working so well becuase then i would have reason to try a reinstall with the released distro you are having problems with, but i am loath to rock the boat at the moment.

next, if possible i would install with a hard ethernet cable attached as it recognized my main internet connection was the realtek port right away and used the wireless as secondary (does script come up saying that it recognized both network ports? -- actually in the end there are 3). this will also speed up the 'post installation' process when all of the packages are updated.

sorry for the time lapsed reply.

yeah, i want to check that out, just wanna see of the preview install version work on mine. Do you know where i can download it?