im trying to install linux on my new hp laptop, and it asks me to go to graphical installation press enter so i do, but then it asks me if i want to scan the cd, and i cant select yes or no or anything, PLEASE HELP I want linux really bad

First of all, read this thread that is a sticky in the Success Stories forum you posted in: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=81005

Secondly, as you can probably tell, you posted in the wrong forum, this is not a Success story you've posted but rather a question. This is being moved to Newbie where it seems suitable.

Regards.

what distro are you trying to install?

have you tried pressing any other keys or even try using a mouse?

yea i tried everything, it just basically locks up, and i cant do anything except hit the power button. Im almost thinking it might be drivers or something, because ive tried the same cd on a couple other laptops and computers and it worked fine. HELP

whats a distro, i want linux but dont know much yet

Distro or Distribution is the flavor or type of Linux your using, etc. Like example, are you using Redhat Linux or Mandrake, Suse, Slackware and so on. Its the name of the Linux your using. There isn't simply just "Linux" that is one company, etc.

k thnx, but i really want linux! and i have redhat running for the "distro" and as the problem i described i cannot fix, and i have been working all night to try to get it to work!, it just freezes up, like it doesn't have a driver for the keyboard or something, and the mouse doesn't work that early into the installation. PLEEASE
SOMEONE HELP ME!

well, you wouldn't happen to be trying to install onto a toshiba laptop, would ya? those things don't like linux very much...

if your redhat installer can work on other computers, it is probably the computer itself, but i don't have enough info/knowledge to diagnose the problem; if possible, you may want to try another distro (mandrake is downloadable, suse is buyable, and slackware is fun )

you may want to to do some background reading onl inux, and excuse the dogmatic tone, but you don't seem like you know much; this is said only so that you avoid frustration later on when you do get linux installed

i suggest, in this case, that you use a "live-cd" distro, such as slackware live or knoppix; this simply means that it is a flavor of linux that will run directly from the cdrom and won't install anything onto your harddrive

http://www.knoppix.com/ for knoppix
http://www.slax.org/ for slackware live

suse also has a live cd, so you may want to look into that

for reading, i started out by reading the redhat 9.0 faq and manual and that helped out quite a bit; you can try starting from www.linux.org and find some good sources there