Attention Linux gurus...

[Steerpike]

Have a new laptop and I'm having a hell of a time getting any Linux distro to work. So far I've tried:

Linux Mint 8
Ubuntu 10.04 (and the one immediately prior)
OpenSUSE
Sabayon
Crunchbang Linux (a favorite)
PCLinuxOS 2010
Fedora 12
MacPup/Puppy

The laptop is a Toshiba A505 with an i3 Intel Processor, GMA 4500HD graphics, and a RealTek wireless.

Ubuntu 10.04 comes closest, although it hangs and gives me a power management error message during boot. Only thing that doesn't work once it is booted is wireless, even with the appropriate RealTek drivers.

I tried upgrading to kernel 2.6.33 with no luck.

I am hoping the impending release of Linux Mint 9 will help.

Any suggestions on this?

 

[SpidermanTuba]

Go with whatever comes the closest and hit the forums for that distribution. Try google searching for your particular problem its likely someone else has had the same issue.

 

[Steerpike]

Yeah, I've tried the Ubuntu forums as well as the Toshiba forums. The advice thus far, including using the newer kernel, hasn't worked for me. Apparently this laptop is a big pain in the ass to get linux running on. If I had known that when I bought it I would have purchased a different one.

I was hoping someone else might know of a distro that uses the latest kernel and has great hardware recognition

 

[SpidermanTuba]

Check the website of the manufacturer of the particular hardware that is giving you trouble to see if they have a fix. My soundcard didn't work with Linux when I first installed it, I had to go the the Intel website to figure out how to get it to work.


Linux can be very frustrating to get running. I've spent many hours on it myself. But its worth the time saved from having to worry about viruses and virus protection- I've run linux on my computer for about 5 years now or so - not one virus, not one virus attack, nothing .


I wish I could help you more but it sounds like something very specific to your hardware. You may have found proposed fixes online that have not worked, but there may be other fixes that you haven't seen yet. Or maybe no one has solved this problem. I dunno what to tell you other than that, and good luck!

 

[Steerpike]

Yeah, RealTek actually has a linux driver. Installing it doesn't work, though. The wireless card is actually activated with it installed, but I can't "see" any wireless routers. If I already know one is there I can connect to it, but immediately get dropped.

Maybe I can email RealTek support. Most companies won't directly support linux, I've found, but since RealTek has a linux driver available on its site maybe that's worth a shot.

 

[gslack]

Have a new laptop and I'm having a hell of a time getting any Linux distro to work. So far I've tried:

Linux Mint 8
Ubuntu 10.04 (and the one immediately prior)
OpenSUSE
Sabayon
Crunchbang Linux (a favorite)
PCLinuxOS 2010
Fedora 12
MacPup/Puppy

The laptop is a Toshiba A505 with an i3 Intel Processor, GMA 4500HD graphics, and a RealTek wireless.

Ubuntu 10.04 comes closest, although it hangs and gives me a power management error message during boot. Only thing that doesn't work once it is booted is wireless, even with the appropriate RealTek drivers.

I tried upgrading to kernel 2.6.33 with no luck.

I am hoping the impending release of Linux Mint 9 will help.

Any suggestions on this?

First how comfortable are you in a console or command shell? if this isn't a problem for you, and you have experience in a "nix" non-graphical interface environment. You could try a Slackware type of compiling to fit your specific system. This is a very advanced and often difficult option though, and I would not recommend it if you are unsure in a "nix" console.

Second, have you tried the "expert install" options or the "alternative install" CD? Often the "live CD's" or standard install discs will return errors on some configurations. Also are these attempts actual installs or just running the live CD? I hope you see where I am going here. Live CD's are fun and handy to try new distros but on some of the newest setups they will suffer from the normal linux issues of lack of newer hardware support out of the box.

Third your system seems rather new, and from my understanding linux still does not have full iCore support or often limited functionality. And asking linux guys in a linux forum, will often get them all trying to flex linux muscle and show compatibility that may not actually be warranted. Don't get me wrong I run Debian 5.0.4, Ubuntu 10.04, for my work PC, and the forums for each have saved my hide more times than I can count. BUT they do tend to be a bit optimistic in what linux can do. just as if you ask a windows or mac man they will inevitably sell their own to you.

with your system being so new as far as hardware, I would assume it came with windows 7 or Vista... If so I would go with them exclusively for a few months at least. Then try again in the next release. if you have an older PC use that for your Linux use. Frankly an iCore processor with more than 2 cores is a bit of an overkill for a simple home linux system. If you aren't going to run a home or media server, encode a lot of HD video, or render a lot of highly detailed 3d graphics for game production and or film, an iCOre processor with 3 or more cores will not do you a lot of good. And if its for gaming, well lets just say linux isn't a gamers OS....

 

[jessica]

i had this same problem, but searching in Google solved it. am now using ubuntu remix for mine.

 

[Capitalist]

Mandriva 2010 works on everything I have.

 

[blu]

i had this same problem, but searching in Google solved it. am now using ubuntu remix for mine.

you should post what fixed it here or at least link to the page/forum that helped you

 

[blu]

Any suggestions on this?

Ubuntu is your best option. you have really new hardware though and it generally stays up to date with drivers. If you haven't tried it yet make sure to enable restricted drives in your package manager

 

[Douger]

Get back to basics.
Go download Debian 5 stable.Lenny.
if you have fast internet, download the first DVD, ISO
Burn the ISO as a bootable image.
Set you BIOS to CD/DVD as first in the boot menu .
Install with graphic installer.
All those others are nice but nothing in Linux compares to Debian stable.

 

[gslack]

Get back to basics.
Go download Debian 5 stable.Lenny.
if you have fast internet, download the first DVD, ISO
Burn the ISO as a bootable image.
Set you BIOS to CD/DVD as first in the boot menu .
Install with graphic installer.
All those others are nice but nothing in Linux compares to Debian stable.

Stable lenny does not support a lot of the newer hardware.

Debian has 3 branches, stable, testing and unstable. Unstable has the most current hardware support but very unstable and buggy, testing has the next newest hardware support, and then stable with the least but most stable. Good rule of thumb is testing is the next stable version in a couple of years or so, and unstable is the next testing.

 

[blu]

Get back to basics.
Go download Debian 5 stable.Lenny.
if you have fast internet, download the first DVD, ISO
Burn the ISO as a bootable image.
Set you BIOS to CD/DVD as first in the boot menu .
Install with graphic installer.
All those others are nice but nothing in Linux compares to Debian stable.

Stable lenny does not support a lot of the newer hardware.

Debian has 3 branches, stable, testing and unstable. Unstable has the most current hardware support but very unstable and buggy, testing has the next newest hardware support, and then stable with the least but most stable. Good rule of thumb is testing is the next stable version in a couple of years or so, and unstable is the next testing.

indeed. debian uses very old software, not good at all for bleeding edge hardware

 

[gslack]

Get back to basics.
Go download Debian 5 stable.Lenny.
if you have fast internet, download the first DVD, ISO
Burn the ISO as a bootable image.
Set you BIOS to CD/DVD as first in the boot menu .
Install with graphic installer.
All those others are nice but nothing in Linux compares to Debian stable.

Stable lenny does not support a lot of the newer hardware.

Debian has 3 branches, stable, testing and unstable. Unstable has the most current hardware support but very unstable and buggy, testing has the next newest hardware support, and then stable with the least but most stable. Good rule of thumb is testing is the next stable version in a couple of years or so, and unstable is the next testing.

indeed. debian uses very old software, not good at all for bleeding edge hardware

Bingo! if ya need something simple to run as a server or backup or router, than debian can't be beat really. But if ya want newer hardware or a open source home pc, than ya gotta go more modern.

if ya need Debian stable reliability and support for modern hardware, best look to Ubuntu or perhaps Knoppix. Then there is Open SUSE (Microsoft tool) or Mandriva (never had much luck with it)..

 

[Ringel05]

Yeah, I've tried the Ubuntu forums as well as the Toshiba forums. The advice thus far, including using the newer kernel, hasn't worked for me. Apparently this laptop is a big pain in the ass to get linux running on. If I had known that when I bought it I would have purchased a different one.

I was hoping someone else might know of a distro that uses the latest kernel and has great hardware recognition

I don't understand why you're having a problem with it unless Toshiba has something in the Bios that fucks up Linux drivers. I have a new home built, all recent hardware and I'm running Mint 8 with no problem at all.