I can get many distros' Live CDs to boot on my Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop, but cannot get the GUI to work correctly. CLI works. GUIs (Gnome, KDE3, KDE4) give me a blank screen except for the mouse cursor, which moves around but does not present a context menu.

Live CDs tried so far: CentOS, Kubuntu, Mandriva, OpenSUSE.

I do have the latest BIOS version (A32), which is supposed to correct video problems with my Intel 82845G series graphics adapter. Research into this problem has, so far, only produced recommendations to update the BIOS to A32 - which (as I said) has already been done.

Thanks!

Try booting with Vesa enabled. Linux Puppy cd support vesa as an boot option.

When you boot the Ubuntu live CD, hit F4 for other modes.
You can then try "safe graphics mode".
If that does not work, you can boot the CD and hit F6 for other boot options. Then hit Esc key to get rid of the pop up window. Then try any of these options:
i915.modeset=0
i915.modeset=1
xforcevesa ###This one should work if everything else fails. See this:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions
And for info on this intel driver problem:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/KernelModeSetting
Unfortunately, this seems to be a common problem with your intel graphics card.
You could also install from the Ubuntu alternate CD. This is a text based install CD that should bypass the graphics problems. You would then follow the info in the second link after Ubuntu is installed.

And welcome to the LQ forums!

I have the same problem on my 1100 laptop. I will also try what Tommcd said and hopefully it will cure my problem. I really hate having to run Windows on my laptop. Thanks for the post!

Are you running the current version of Ubuntu, which is Ubuntu Lucid 10.04?
Does your laptop also have intel graphics?
If it does, see this link for a comprehensive list of fixes for booting Ubuntu 10.04 with problematic intel 8xxx graphics cards:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Bugs/Lucidi8xxFreezes

Write back if you need more help with this.

And welcome to the LQ forums!!!