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From: Dystopia on 15 Dec 2009 11:47
I have a laptop that has been running XP, but slowly, and want to
install Linux.

It has had Suse installed previously but I am having trouble with it
now. I have want to install ubuntu but it will not take it. After
the language and then the installation screen there is plenty of CD
drive activity (the drive reads other discs OK) but little HD
activity. After a while I just get a blank screen with a flashing
cursor although once I got the yellow screen with a diagonal pattern.

I tried installing Debian but had no luck with that either. Anyone
any ideas please?
--

Dystopia
From: Geoffrey Clements on 15 Dec 2009 12:08
"Dystopia" <not(a)home.com> wrote in message
news:11ffi5pm4tusa52l8ggra9mv69ieimnd1g(a)4ax.com...
>I have a laptop that has been running XP, but slowly, and want to
> install Linux.
>
> It has had Suse installed previously but I am having trouble with it
> now. I have want to install ubuntu but it will not take it. After
> the language and then the installation screen there is plenty of CD
> drive activity (the drive reads other discs OK) but little HD
> activity. After a while I just get a blank screen with a flashing
> cursor although once I got the yellow screen with a diagonal pattern.
>
> I tried installing Debian but had no luck with that either. Anyone
> any ideas please?

It's a good idea to post your laptop type, that way someone may be able to
share their experiences with you. Also have you tried googling with the
phrase "linux <put your laptop type here>"?

--
Geoff


From: Tony Houghton on 15 Dec 2009 12:33
In <11ffi5pm4tusa52l8ggra9mv69ieimnd1g(a)4ax.com>,
Dystopia <not(a)home.com> wrote:

> I have a laptop that has been running XP, but slowly, and want to
> install Linux.
>
> It has had Suse installed previously but I am having trouble with it
> now. I have want to install ubuntu but it will not take it. After
> the language and then the installation screen there is plenty of CD
> drive activity (the drive reads other discs OK) but little HD
> activity. After a while I just get a blank screen with a flashing
> cursor although once I got the yellow screen with a diagonal pattern.
>
> I tried installing Debian but had no luck with that either. Anyone
> any ideas please?

Which versions? Did you use a graphical or text mode installer with
Debian? If it was a "stable" version try a "testing" snapshot instead.
The yellow screen sounds like it might be a graphics driver problem.

--
TH * http://www.realh.co.uk
From: Martin Gregorie on 15 Dec 2009 13:52
On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:33:47 +0000, Tony Houghton wrote:

> In <11ffi5pm4tusa52l8ggra9mv69ieimnd1g(a)4ax.com>, Dystopia <not(a)home.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I have a laptop that has been running XP, but slowly, and want to
>> install Linux.
>>
>> It has had Suse installed previously but I am having trouble with it
>> now. I have want to install ubuntu but it will not take it. After
>> the language and then the installation screen there is plenty of CD
>> drive activity (the drive reads other discs OK) but little HD activity.
>> After a while I just get a blank screen with a flashing cursor although
>> once I got the yellow screen with a diagonal pattern.
>>
>> I tried installing Debian but had no luck with that either. Anyone
>> any ideas please?
>
> Which versions? Did you use a graphical or text mode installer with
> Debian? If it was a "stable" version try a "testing" snapshot instead.
> The yellow screen sounds like it might be a graphics driver problem.

Get a Live CD and try running off that before you try an install. That
will pick up hardware incompatibilities without affecting the hard disk
contents in any way. Be aware that running off a live CD is slow because
a CD is a MUCH slower device that a hard disk and also everything on it
is compressed to hell and gone, so anything read from CD must be
decompressed before it can be used.

Knoppix used to be the definitive live CD, but many distros now have
them. For instance there's a RedHat Fedora one. You can usually install
off the Live CD, but because modern distros run to 3 GB+ it may take
longer that you'd like to suck down all the packages that were omitted
from the Live CD. IOW, if you get on with that distro it may be better to
download the DVD ISO, burn it and install from the DVD.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |
From: unruh on 15 Dec 2009 13:53
On 2009-12-15, Dystopia <not(a)home.com> wrote:
> I have a laptop that has been running XP, but slowly, and want to
> install Linux.
>
> It has had Suse installed previously but I am having trouble with it
> now. I have want to install ubuntu but it will not take it. After
> the language and then the installation screen there is plenty of CD
> drive activity (the drive reads other discs OK) but little HD
> activity. After a while I just get a blank screen with a flashing
> cursor although once I got the yellow screen with a diagonal pattern.
>
> I tried installing Debian but had no luck with that either. Anyone
> any ideas please?

It sounds to me like video card problems-- the default video mode does
not work on your video card. It do not know how in Ubuntu/Debian to tell it to
use another mode.
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