A friend of mine who knows very little about Linux discovered his laptop Gateway Wifi computer, his source to the internet, has a BIOS program rigged so it's nearly impossible to wipe the hard drive and install another operating system, other than the Vista OEM, (I'm guessing).

I could only recommend that he finds some kind of BIOS flash program or tweak online or pull out and put back the CMOS battery.

I've never owned a laptop with a Wifi in my entire life, but was planning to buy one real soon.

He raised some very important questions about a situation that any rational person wants to avoid.

I'm sorry that I don't know the make and model and specs of his Gateway laptop. I'm linking this post to an email which is entirely up to him to read and volunteer any other information.

So my questions are as follows:

What can he do to modify the BIOS firmware so he can install either some better version of Windows or Ubuntu or some other distribution if anything?

What are some better laptop shopping recommendations?

Personally, I'd prefer a laptop with at least 2 hard dirves, where I wipe the Vista clean like the baby's dirty diaper that it is and clean install Ubuntu & a modified Windows XP, or dual boot the single hard drive with Ubuntu & a modified Windows XP.

sincerely,

studpenguin

Does his BIOS allow him to boot from a CD?

If not, what are his BIOS options?

I don't know yet. I'll see if he cares to show me someday or he'll reply. In the meantime I'd appreciate information how to avoid buying such a computer.

To avoid it, build your own desktop and buy laptops with OS optional or Linux installed such as:

http://www.system76.com/
http://www.xtremenotebooks.com/

and I think Fujitsu-Siemens sells laptops with Linux pre-installed.

http://www.mail-archive.com/euglug@e.../msg12639.html

That's what I always suspected all along.

Yeah. So buddy if you're reading this. I suggest these articles to experiment with linux live didstros.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knoppix#Variations

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LiveDistros

To wipe your drive. Use this:

http://www.dban.org/

I agree with other posters that no manufacturer is really trying to block the linux community. It is either accidental or from lack of knowledge.

I know for a fact that BIOS vendors are NOT trying to cause troubles for the linux community. They go to a lot of effort to make their code correct.

Best ways to avoid buying a notebook with Linux issues (from easiest to hardest):

1) Buy a notebook with linux pre-installed.

2) Check manufacturers web site for linux drivers.

3) Buy a notebook with 1 year old Intel chipsets. In my experience, Intel chipsets are popular with notebook manufacturers, so they are popular with linux programmers, so they end up getting good support. At this point, anything with Intel Core 2 Duo, 965M chipset (Santa Rosa), Intel's GMA X3100 graphics, and Intel wireless is a good bet. I'm still having problems with my 45 series (Montevina based) notebook and Ubuntu.

4) Become a coding contributor to the linux community. Of course, this is for programmers, but if your notebook has troubles, you can work on the drivers yourself and make them work.

Good luck.

There is definitely some unfriendly hardware out there that seems to have been designed for Vista.

I have a friend that has spent a week now trying to reload a Sony VAIO Laptop with Windows XP Pro. The laptop originally came with Vista. He may get through the install of XP but when he restarts the system it simply shows him the Blue Screen of Death and fails. We even slipstreamed SP3 into a XP Pro Disc to see if that would help.. but still a total failure. can't even boot into safe mode after a seemingly successful install.

I was rather amazed that a manufacturer would use devices that only seemed happy with Vista (from all initial appearances). I'd love to get my hands on that laptop just to see if Linux would install and work.

so to the OP, Yes theres others out there that feel your pain, but it's more likely from new and unsupported hardware than any direct attempt at blocking you from installing Linux.

I have run into this problem a few times on newer devices. Customers don't like Vista and want to get back to XP. I find that if you change a setting with the SATA settings in the BIOS the problem goes away. Unfortunately not all BIOS are equal and some companies don't include the setting. Forgive me for getting the wrong order, but I believe the setting is ACHI. If you switch that to IDE it seems to run windows fine. Without it... BSOD!! Linux seems to have problems with the setting too. Though Linux will probably get around that if is hasn't already. Been a while since I installed Linux on a newer machine. XP forget about if you can't switch that setting.

I prefer to test run Linux on live CD's or USB drives (Ubuntu live, Knoppix or Puppy).

I really despise Vista with a passion and I'd like to retain the option of a Windows XP clean install from the modified versions of Windows XP I keep discovering. The Black Friday offers at Best Buy and other major retail vendors seem to all want to demand the Vista home edition every chance they get. F--- THAT ! IT SUCKS!

Thanks for your tips.

I tend to doubt it's a BIOS problem other than changing the boot order to boot from the CD/DVD drive to install the new Linux OS (I recommend Ubuntu 8.10 or Ultimate Edition 2.0 (a tweaked ... basically rebuilt, actually ... Ubuntu 8.10 in hyper-drive.) You can then change the boot order back to original configuration ...

I know it's not a bios problem. Definitely not for Ubuntu 8.10. I read enough about it being a hardware problem for Windows XP to Vista.

It looks like open source is prevailing over bootleg windows XP developers and that's Microsoft's own undoing all along and bullet in it's foot all along.

I still kind of resent having to go out of my way to find out what I need more than I abolutely-F'n have to.

According to this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance...ller_Interface
AHCI and XP are not compatable. XP and earlier versions of Linux came before SATA. ACHI and RAID settings are things that can be changed in a BIOS if there's a problem with an installation. Sometimes a BIOS update is advised.