Hi,

I recently bought a laptop - HP Pavillion DV5118TX with following major specs -

Intel Centrino Duo Core processor
100GB SATA HDD
1GB DDR2 RAM
nVidia GEforce Go graphics card

It came with Windows XP Home edition but I tried to install Ubuntu on it. After successful installation at that time (at least it seemed so) when i booted the system, it said BIOS Handoff failed, and though after a series of "memory cannot be allocated" errors, it goes to the linux login. I hoped to see the GUI (Gnome) but it never went to that. I logged in as root and did startx or init5 but they did not work either. It said no such command found.

I could not even find the X11 module. I tried installing it again and then again (total of three attempts) and the condition remained the same.

Then I tried to install Red Hat 9.0 and for some weird reason ended up crashing my HDD. So I had to int Windows XP again. During that installation I found out that I have SATA and I had to load RAID drivers from a third source. I had SATA drivers but I doubt that they are only for Windows.

I want to know, what should I do. I read other posts here and I found out that there are people with SATA drives who could install Ubuntu and run it successfully without any problem.

Also, I want to know, as in case of Windows XP you can press F6 to load third party drivers, is there any similar procedure with linux too? And if yes, the drivers I used for windows XP (for reading SATA), can they be used for linux too and how?

Please help me as I need linux on my machine. I have been getting good help everytime I have come on LQ for help and last time was the first time ever that no one bothered to even tell me about the problem. Please help...

Thanks,
AJ

Doesn't Sound as if ubuntu installed correctly. Try downloading GPARTED LIVE CD and change the partions on you HDD to keep a section for windows and a new RAW section that will become LINUX.
Then try to install LINUX on the new raw partition. You may need to find out who makes the drive and whether open source drivers for that drive/hDD controller are available first.

-CH

Please post your thread in only one forum. Posting a single thread in the most relevant forum will make it easier for members to help you and will keep the discussion in one place. This thread is being closed because it is a duplicate.

Closed per above.