Im attempting to install linux on my laptop and keep getting nothing but lockups. I've tried multiple diferent flavors. Red Hat, Mandrake, College, etc.... and some versions lockup while installing and others lockup after the install bu while booting. I an't figure out why. Any ideas?


Thanks,
Logan

Pick one and fight through the errors. That sounds flip, but it's very likely that any or all of them will work and are choking for different reasons. There will be bread crumbs to follow - evidence of what went wrong - if you know where to look.

Using the latest version of your preferred distro, start over and make exact notes about what errors you get. A kernel panic on boot after installing is a common one and is usually due to a foible in the way the power management stuff plays. The "error message" for that is usually a complete lockup with the shift, scroll and num lock LEDs blinking. There are usually ways around these things such as turning off those features at the time of boot. There will also be a log of any boot errors which you may be able to check with a rescue or failsafe mode. Finally, you can often get beyond the GUI to look at the real system (not with a kernel panic) by getting into a console window.

My point is (finally) that it's not hopeless, but you may have to do some detective work and post some specific errors or observations to get past the ugly stuff.

Well it locks ompletely with no errors. I just cant do anything and its stopped mid-boot. I cant get into failsafe or anything either because it locks there too. I cant do interactive startup because it locks there at the first prompt. Im not sure why but Im getting the feeling almost that its my keyboard lockking it up. :/ very frustrating. Thanks for your help


Logan

Details help:
Distro/version, laptop make/model, locks when trying to install from first CD, first boot after install, etc. Blinking lights? New hard drive, newly partitioned, not partitioned, other O/S?

The more you tell us, the more likely it is that someone will say, "Oh yeah, just boot with kernel=noacpi" or something similar to get you going.

Hey I finally got it over the weekend or one distro.... I stopped it from loading pcmcia when it booted and it seems to do fine now... weird. Mandrake 9.2 running on it now. Thanks for the help. By the way, its an HP with an amd athlon 2500+ and 256 meg of RAM. Brand new, formatted the drive and partitioned for linux. 40 gig drive. Anyway, thanks for the help. Im not sure why its locking up on that but when I figure it out I'll post why.


Logan