No linux

kenshi3000 · 02-03-2009, 07:28 PM

Hey all,

I am a little new to linux and BSD. I am running a sony vaio pcg-fx140 PIII 700MHz 256MB of ram. I have tried Ubuntu 7.10-8.10, Xubuntu 7.10-8.10, Tiny Me Linux, Linux Mint, Dreamlinux, PCBSD, and Puppylinux. All need for me to turn off acpi in order to install or run LiveCD. When ACPI is turned off that also turns off wireless cards that I want to use. Is there any work around that anyone has found? I am about to give up all hope and re-install crappy Ol'WinXP. WinXP for some reason has no problems with acpi. WHY???? Linux should go on any computer with no problems.

Thank you.

alan_ri · 02-03-2009, 08:02 PM

Hi!
What were the errors when ACPI was on?Have you tried to update the BIOS or maybe ACPI compliant driver for your laptop?You could try APM.Here's a good info to check out.

jschiwal · 02-03-2009, 08:31 PM

Is noacpi needed just to install or also to boot up. There are some more fine tuned acpi related kernel boot options. Also if you can't boot without "noacpi", try using "nolapic" instead. I've had that work instead.

Here is a fragment from the kernel documentation "kernel-parameters.txt".

Code:

        acpi_irq_balance [HW,ACPI]
                        ACPI will balance active IRQs
                        default in APIC mode

        acpi_irq_nobalance [HW,ACPI]
                        ACPI will not move active IRQs (default)
                        default in PIC mode

Using "acpi_irq_nobalance" might help and cause fewer problems.

Also check if Sony has a bios upgrade which might fix the problem.

Microsoft came up with their own ACPI standard (adopt, expand, exterminate) and some board manufactures will release their boards after debugging the MS acpi functions and have a lot of bugs in the industry standard version. FoxCon is the worst in this respect.

kenshi3000 · 02-03-2009, 09:16 PM

I have tried to update bios but the one that i have is the only one that is out for my laptop. And I have also tried the acpi_irq_balance but nothing works. I have researched many different ways and tried everything that I googled and just about every linux forums. The only close unix type that works is the PCBSD but too many problems. Linux these days are not for old computers. Or the kernel no longer supports acpi. It kinda sucks that winxp works better than any distro I have tried. I have no idea why.

kenshi3000 · 02-03-2009, 09:37 PM

Some of the errors were like Ubuntu would not load up, same for Xubuntu, fluxbuntu, Dreamlinux, and now gOS. Freebsd orPCBSD on the other hand does work the acpi but many problems come up and I am not an expert in BSD arena. I did choose acpi on pcbsd but irq mess up constantly. No one has messed with really old computers so getting a workaround is really difficult to find. Even for Freebsd not enough info is out there. So I am getting frustrated and might move back to the dreaded xp.

kenshi3000 · 02-04-2009, 01:01 AM

Ok! I reinstalled xp and then downloaded an updated driver for sony vaio pcg-fx140. I downloaded the driver for xp since mine came with winme version. after the update everything loads fine! Cool beans!

Thanks all!