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Christopher Shanahan wrote:
>
> Hello all.
>
> I recently purchased a Toshiba Satellite laptop, model 2435-s255.
> A really great machine! (Sorry, couldn't go the route of the MAC
> yet.) Anyway, I knew before I bought it that I was going to have
> problems installing Linux on the machine, but it was too good of
> a deal to pass up. I figured with a bit of reading and help from
> others--that's here--I'd be able to get it done.
>
> Here's what I've found so far...
> The newer Toshiba laptops--and many others as well--are now using
> the new standard acpi for power management, instead of apm. My
> problem is that Redhat--the distro I prefer--uses a stock kernel
> in their ISOs that conflicts with acpi causing the install to
> freeze at "Uncompressing Linux...OK. Booting the kernel". Passing
> parameters to the kernel doesn't seem to work either (Linux acpi
> or linux apm). I read that I could install RH 7.1 on the machine
> since it uses an older kernel--one that doesn't conflict with
> acpi--then recompile a newer 2.4 kernel including the acpi patch.
> But then I'd have to upgrade package by package till I had the
> system I wanted. WOW!
>
> I tried it anyway. Computer booted just fine, install went well,
> but I wasn't given the option to install LILO so when the machine
> rebooted it automatically booted WinXP. Not what I wanted!
>
> The only other distro I've tried in the past is Debian. So I gave
> that a try. A network install using v.3.0. With this I had a list
> of problems and ended up with a machine that wouldn't boot Linux
> or WinXP.
>
> This laptop is new enough that the other Linux users that have
> purchased it haven't quite figured out how to get past this catch-22,
> with one exception...install SuSe 8.1. Apparently SuSe is the only
> newer distro that comes with a kernel already patched for acpi. I've
> read that SuSe 8.1 installs without any problems--minimal tweaking.
> However, I have no experience with SuSe and don't want to go out and
> spend money on something I may or may not want to keep. As I said,
> I'm partial to Redhat but if I have to install SuSe to have a laptop
> running Linux then that's what I'll do.
>
> Doesn't anyone here use SuSe? Comments please?
There's always the free ftp install of SuSE from
http://www.suse.com/us/private/download/suse_linux/index.html. It's up
to 8.1 now.
Having said that, I think it's possible to make an install disk for SuSE
with a different kernel if you need to. I haven't had to, although a
laptop I installed on only boots from older SuSE install disks, so I
used them instead of the present install disks when I did an upgrade...
RedHat may support the same thing, but my RH experience is very limited.
The general idea is:
- find a kernel and supporting modules that is known to work on your
laptop.
- create a boot/install floppy with that kernel.
- Once booted, point the installer at the version of RH/SuSE you want to
install from CD/ftp/etc.
- If, after the install, the kernel won't boot the laptop, replace the
kernel using your boot/install cd in repair mode.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions about how to get past the kernel
> issues when installing RH 8.0? I was thinking if I could get an
> older version of RH installed on the machine I could recompile a
> newer kernel, including the acpi patch, then alter the first RH 8.0
> CD to include a different kernel--vmlinux.img. I'm not sure if this
> can be done or even how to do it.
>
> Suggestions please!
Call RH support? Purchasing SuSE includes install support for 30 or 90
days, depending on version. Does RH offer the same? Also, the SuSE
hardware database is online, so you can check in advance to see what
they say about compatibility.
http://hardwaredb.suse.de/index.php?LANG=en_UK
--
Kevin Brosius
_________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
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