If anyone else has this laptop with linux running on it please let me know what hoops you had to jump through to get it going

I just got this laptop that came with Vista, I wanted to put linux on it, but I cant get past the live CD start up. I have tried several distributions (OpenSUSE 11(32-bit and 64-bit), PCLOS 2007 (MiniMe 2008 - freezes at "loading Linux Kernel 100%" progress bar, after both regular start and safeStart, can't even get to verbos mode), Mandriva 2008.1, Ubuntu 8.04) None of these live CD would load. They were all good copies I have ran them on my desktop and all md5sums match. They all will act like they are going to start up but freeze during the boot. Ubuntu made it the furtherest but the Human theme failed to load so all I had was a brown desktop but no menu bars and nothing would happen on mouse clicks or keyboard strokes just a brown screen (with noscsi in the boot options the wall paper is up I have 2 icons (examples folder and install) My right mouse clicks are bringing up a very minimal properties menu, but I still have no menu bars. I couldn't even get System Rescue cd to load so that I could partition my new Hard drive. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Here are the Specs. (Copied off HP's site)

Product Name dv9810us
Product Number KN869UA#ABA
Microprocessor 2.00 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-60
Microprocessor Cache 512KB+512KB L2 Cache
Memory 3072 MB
Memory Max Up to 4GB DDR2 (Up to 1 GB may not be available due to 32-bit operating system resource requirements)
Video Graphics NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M
Video Memory Up to 1071 MB
Hard Drive 160 GB (5400 rpm)
Multimedia Drive LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
Display 17.0" WXGA+ High-Definition BrightView Widescreen Display (1440 x 900)
Fax/Modem High speed 56K modem
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Ethernet LAN
Wireless Connectivity 802.11b/g WLAN
Sound Altec Lansing speakers
Keyboard 101-key compatible
Pointing Device Touch Pad with dedicated vertical and horizontal Scroll Up/Down pad
PC Card Slots

* One ExpressCard/54 slot (also supports ExpressCard/34)

External Ports

* 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
* 4 Universal Serial Bus USB 2.0
* 1 VGA (15-pin)
* 1 RJ-11 (modem)
* 1 TV-Out (S-video)
* 1 RJ -45 (LAN)
* 2 headphone-out
* 1 microphone-in
* 1 notebook expansion port 3
* 1 IEEE 1394 Firewire (4-pin)
* 1 Consumer IR

Thanks, Jason

try one (or a combination) of the following boot options:
noapic
nolapic
acpi=off

sycamorex thanks for the reply but I have tried all of those options and still no live cd/dvd that I have tried will finish booting. I am currently downloading the knoppix dvd to see if maybe it can give me some better idea of what is going on.

Here is what happened in OpenSUSE 11

I put nolapic in the failsafe (already has noapic and acpi=off) boot options here is a list of the failed items from the verbose mode

setting up clockSwitch.... (moving too fast could get it all)
Starting Hal daemonCreating X ConfigStarting mail Service (post fix) Can't load '/usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.10.0/x86_64-linux-thread-multi/Dyna Loader.pm line 203.
at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.10.0/x86_64-linux-thread-multi/SaX.pm line 11
Compilation failed in required at /etc/langset-xkb.pl Line 1.
Begin failed--Compilation aborted at /etc/langset-xkb.pl Line 1.
(at the end of line) failed
(blank Line) done

Start Powersave: /usr/bin/powersave: error while loading shared libraries: /usr/lib64/liblazy.so.1: invalid ELF header
(blank Line) done


Starting Service kdm (at the end of line) failed
Starting Service kdm (at the end of line) failed
(blank Line) done

master resource Control: run level 5 has been (at the end of line in white)reached

Failed services in runlevel 5: create_xconf earlyxdm xdm

skipped services in runlevel 5: acpid irq_balancer microcode.ctl


Welcome to OpenSUSE 11.0 (x86-64) - kernel ... default

linux login: (here I typed root)
login timed out after 60 seconds

Well I was able to get Knoppix Live DVD to load from there I partitioned my hard drive and then I downloaded the OpenSUSE 11 install DVD, I don't know why but I didn't have any problems with the DVD's only LiveCD's. All is well now, Except WIFI but that's another story.

Hi. Sorry, I just saw your note.

First, the LiveCds will work on the HP, but you need one that has the latest nVidia driver release on it. The FOSS nv driver shipped with most distributions does not support the newer nVidia GPU. What I did to get a working system was to install the distribution in "text mode," and then use the nVidia shell script to get the more recent driver.

Second, the Atheos 5007 wireless device works quite well in Linux, but you need the patched madwifi driver for the 64bit OS. From what I understand, the patches will not be added to the main madwifi trunk for some time because of the extensive modification needed.

FYI: I have 64-bit Kubuntu (Hardy) on my HP using the nVidia driver (see my thread for needed settings) and the madwifi driver, and it all seems to be working quite well.

<edit>
The only "problem" is that Adobe has not yet released a "Flash" player to 64-bit OSs so, if you really want to view "Flash" stuff in FireFox, you need to install the 32-bit version of FF. (Personally, I have not felt and need to do so, but your needs may differ.)
</edit>

Thanks for the reply. I finally was able to get it going. Knoppix live dvd booted right up and allowed me to partition my HD. Initially I installed OpenSUSE but could not get everyting to work right so from there I downloaded another copy of Mandriva 2008.1, 32bit (it is the only os that I had heard would run the wifi out of the box), apparently there was a problem with my disk, the live cd would load on my desktop but would not install. So, with the new copy burned at 16x instead of 24x, it booted right up, I only had to put "noscsi" in the boot options. Everything else works great. The wireless as advertised was working right off the bat without a single config other than picking which available network that I wanted to use. My wireless light on the front is still orange istead of blue and the mandriva calls it ar5006 instead of ar5007 but for all I care it can call it a hamburger as long as it works. 64bit vs. 32bit sure it would have been nice to be able to use all of the capabilities of the laptop but I need functionality right now. I can always reformat and start over when more updated OS's become available.

Thanks again
Jason

Good to hear. Re the light, I believe that the position of the light indicates WiFi activity, not the color. On my unit there's a switch next to the light that can, I think, be used to turn the Athreos device on or off. Anyhow, my light, too, is orange all the time.

As you may have gathered from my prior comment above, I'm using 64-bit OSs (Fedora 9 and Kubuntu Hardy), although so far F9 is only on a USB drive.