multiple distros won't run on my laptop
 

hi all - am trying to run a dual boot on laptop w/ W XP Pro but have failed miserably to this point...

Have a Dell Inspiron 1526, AMD 64 cpu, 2 Gigs ram w/ XP Pro....i've tried Mint 12 and Ububuntu 10 via Windows Installer with basically the same result: i get to the splash screen, maybe even the desktop (once i saw the taskbar!) and then nothing beyond that. i see my mouse pointer but there is nothing to click on...any suggestions would be greatly appreciate!

hanna

I don't understand how your trying to install Mint or Ubuntu but you should burn the media to cd/dvd, set your BIOS to boot the cd/dvd drive and reboot your system. Don't install the distro from within Windows.

You can install linux in windows
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide

Kind regards

i've done it both ways, actually...Mint was installed from the CD and Ubuntu was installed via the Wubi installer. same results...

Are you able to switch to a text session with Ctrl-Alt-f1 and log in there. If so this might be an issue with X graphics drivers not loaded properly. Also, how did the live dvd run, were there any notable problems or glitches in it. The other possible issue is that I know that the 64 bit version of Ubuntu is not very reliable and that since mint is based on ubuntu it follows that the 64 bit version of mint might have some problems as well. If you are trying the 64 bit versions maybe try 32 bit and see if this works.

thanks for taking the time to reply...

yes i can switch to a text session from the splashscreen - it asks for my Ubuntu log-in, but does not accept the user name and password i established at set-up (i assume that's the log-in it wants, no? if not, what other log-in is there?).

with Ubuntu, i used the Wubi Windows Installer - which (i assume) phones home and chooses the appropriate version to install based on my laptop specs (32 bit, btw). with Mint, i chose the 32 bit version and downloaded the ISO and burned the cd etc.

i did notice some errors during the Mint install but they didn't stay on the screen long enough for me to take note of them. whatever they were, they did not stop the install from proceeding...the Ubuntu install was smooth, from all that i could see. but the end result has been the same.

btw, my Mint LiveCd seems to function normally in another computer - think it's safe to conclude the problem is the laptop. any idea what the issue might be?

btw, i did update DirectX on this laptop with no improvement. anyone have any other suggestions? anyone? anyone? Beuhler?

This is probably a graphics issue if the text mode session is loading but not xorg. What graphics does this machine have and what driver are you using.

Have you checked the md5sum of your CD's to verify their integrity?

Have you tried a non-Ubuntu distro such Debian, Fedora, Slackware, etc.? It would be an interesting experiment. :)

the laptop has an ATI Radeon® X1270 Graphics Controller (AMD) and the driver is an ATI X1200 driver.

i can run the LiveCD in another pc and it loads successfully - this and the fact that Ubuntu loaded via the Windows installer has the same problem on this laptop has led me to eliminate the CD as the cause.

have not tried a non-Ubuntu distro - can you recommend one for newbs that i can load on top of a Windows XP os for dual boot?

Here are easy instructions to verify the integrity of your CD:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM

Here's a brief comparison of the Top 10 distros:

http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

ATI graphics will require special consideration, unfortunately I am not personally familiar with the steps.

First: I'd go with Linux Mint for being user friendly or PC-BSD. It is strange that more people actually use Free BSD then PC-BSD (which is 100% Free BSD + a custom user friendly interface)

I also must point out that Isotope 9.0 is far better then Hubble 8.2 even though it is still a release candidate if you choose to go with PC-BSD.

Second: ATI Radeon graphics has the reputation for being troublesome with Linux. Typically, if I'm building a computer for someone else with Linux or PC-BSD, I'll have them get an NVidia graphics card (desktop) or a Laptop with Nvidia graphics. Of course, a discrete graphics card is better, but even intergrated NVidia graphics cards works fairly well.

With a laptop, I doubt that you can switch from ATI Radeon graphics cards to NVidia cards. It may be better in the long run to go to Walmart or Best Buy and get any basic laptop that has Nvidia graphics, AMD CPU (best) Intel (same but more expensive). I'd also try to get a dual core CPU and at least 2 gigs of RAM unless you go with a netbook. Technical specs are more important then any brand name. Compaq, which is basically last year's HP model is a decent buy.

I looked into drivers for this card and I did find one in the legacy section of the ATI site. The link is here. However this will require building the driver from source and there may still be issues. Since you are new to linux compiling this from source could be a bit of a pain. ATI graphics can be a bit of a pain at times but mdlinuxwolf is probably right in that you cannot change out the graphics of your laptop. It is possible that this could help you get this working.