Compatibility issues? Anyone tell me?

[dBuster]

I have had my old gateway laptop on its last leg and I went and bought a new Compaq CQ60 laptop, really nice although I can not get Ubuntu to boot the live cd and get me to a desktop! Okay, I can get the 8.10 32 bit version but it is slow and choppy. I would rather run the 64bit 8.04.x version!

The following are the specs on the laptop, if anyone sees anything that might prevent me from being able to boot please let me know. When I boot the 8.04.1 cd it gets the progress bar to the third block and then stops with the capslock light blinking at me and does not go any further...

The Specs:

Product Name            CQ60-215DX
Product Number 	        NB276UA#ABA
Microprocessor 	        2.00 GHz AMD Athlon X2 QL-62 Dual-Core Processor
Microprocessor Cache 	1MB L2 Cache
Memory 	                2048MB
Memory Max 	        4096MB
Video Graphics 	        NVIDIA GeForce 8200M
Video Memory 	        Up to 895MB
Hard Drive 	        250GB (5400RPM)
Multimedia Drive 	SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
Display  	        15.6" Diagonal High Definition HP BrightView Display (1366x768)
Fax/Modem 	        High speed 56k modem
Network Card 	        Integrated 10/100 Ethernet LAN
Wireless Connectivity 	802.11b/g WLAN
Sound 	                Altec Lansing speakers
Keyboard 	        101-key compatible
Pointing Device 	Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical scroll Up/Down pad

Processor specs:

Processor       AMD Athlon™ X2 Dual-Core Processors for Notebooks
Model 	                QL-62
OPN Tray 	        AMQL62DAM22GG
OPN PIB 	        N/A
Operating Mode 32 Bit 	Yes
Operating Mode 64 Bit 	Yes
Frequency (MHz) 	2000
System Bus Speed (MHz) 	3600
Wattage          	25 W
L2 Cache Size 	        1000
Process Technology 	65nm SOI
Package/Infrastructure Socket 	S1

From what I can see there I do have a 64bit system so what is the issue? What am I missing? I have tried the safe graphics mode and same results occur...

Thanks in advance.

Booted using the [ctrl][alt][F1] to see verbose the boot and the following occured:

[  113.978568]
[  113.978569] HARDWARE ERROR
[  113.978570] CPU 0: Machine check exception:  4 Bank  4: b600000000070f0f
[  113.978825] TSC 35134dc47c  ADDR 900000c2004001
[  113.978076] This is not a software problem!
[  113.979042] Run through mcelog --ascii to decode and contact your hardware vendor
[  113.979130] Kernel panic - not syncing: Machine check

[swornbrother]

I'm having a duplicate problem with the same model, Compaq Presario CQ60-215DX. It hangs on the third block of the progress bar during the Intrepid 64-bit livecd boot.

Ubuntu Studio Intrepid 64-bit will install, because it's text-based, but when I went to boot into the OS after installing, it hangs at the same spot.

Also, I tried the Jaunty Alpha 2 release, and it fixes this problem, but it's slow and choppy.

Tomorrow, I'll be trying Intrepid 32-bit, and we'll go from there. If it works I'm sure going to miss my ext4 filesystem on jaunty

[swornbrother]

Ok, I think I've figured out why it's slow and choppy under 32-bit. You need to latest NVIDIA driver.

I went to NVIDIA.com, downloaded the latest .run file from their linux download page, hit alt-ctl-f1, became root, ran "killall gdm" to stop the Xserver, ran "su sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.22.pkg1.run" then ran "sudo gdm" (to restart the Xserver). It ran perfectly, and now it's snappy.

I haven't tried it on Intrepid 32-bit yet, but I suspect it will work, since Linux Mint is built off of Intrepid.

Now I just need to get the wireless going

[dBuster]

I'm having a duplicate problem with the same model, Compaq Presario CQ60-215DX. It hangs on the third block of the progress bar during the Intrepid 64-bit livecd boot.

Ubuntu Studio Intrepid 64-bit will install, because it's text-based, but when I went to boot into the OS after installing, it hangs at the same spot.

Also, I tried the Jaunty Alpha 2 release, and it fixes this problem, but it's slow and choppy.

Tomorrow, I'll be trying Intrepid 32-bit, and we'll go from there. If it works I'm sure going to miss my ext4 filesystem on jaunty

Was the Jaunty you tried the 64bit or 32bit? I am downloading now the 64bit Alpha3 and will give that a shot.

Had to reload the whole laptop to factory settings since windows hosed the mbr with resizing the partition... Yeah go figure, now you know why you want Ubuntu vs vista...

I just wish it wasn't this difficult but in the end the rewards sure outweigh the troubles!!!

As far as the wireless goes, did you try the latest madwifi drivers? I have seen many notes that they work. Just a thought... I do not remember if I got the wireless working with the livecd of 9.04 alpha2 or not but I could swear I did. Without to many problems either... hmmm wish I could remember with all the other problems I have been having.

[swornbrother]

Jaunty Alpha 3 64-bit worked for me, except I couldn't use the latest Nvidia drivers (as they're not yet supported under Xorg1.6.)

It runs somewhat stably on Intrepid 32-bit, however I'm having problems with Compiz/Nvidia, after installing the latest Nvidia drivers (maybe it's because I install them from source, then reinstalled them as .debs?)

As for wireless, at this point I'm at a loss. Ubuntu recognizes them as Atheros, even though it's supposed to be a Broadcom chip. I haven't yet tried the latest Madwifis, but will give them a shot.

Ndiswrapper wouldn't work because they don't offer XP wireless drivers, ugh..

This computer would be perfect if it would just work!

Please let me know if you find a solution for wireless or choppy Nvidia stuff.

Cheers,
Chris

[swornbrother]

MADWIFI WORKS!

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=816780

That tutorial saved my many, many headaches.

Now, I just need to figure out what's wrong with my Compiz/Nvidia..

[dBuster]

MADWIFI WORKS!

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=816780

That tutorial saved my many, many headaches.

Now, I just need to figure out what's wrong with my Compiz/Nvidia..

So was it the first page of the tutorial that worked for you or was there some other info needed as well? I am going to print or save the particular page for the madwifi before I try and install.

Hey, speaking of install, when you booted the alpha3 did you have to run any special extra commands or just normally?

Also, were there any issues encountered what so ever?

[dBuster]

So I have installed and got the wifi working without any problems then I tried to install the nvidia display drivers and thats when things went sour.

I had to stop the x server in order to install the drivers and now I can not get back into the x server! I get the terminal only.

What could be done to get it fired back up? How do you roll back the nvidia drivers?

[swornbrother]

The latest Nvidia drivers are NOT compatible with Xorg1.6 on Jaunty, but I hear there's a temporary workaround until the drivers catch up. It involves modifying your Xorg.conf file:

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "IgnoreABI" "True"
EndSection

Check http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1026512 for more information on that.

The Nvidia binary driver comes with an Uninstall function:

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.22-pkg2.run --uninstall

I'm to take a jab at Jaunty 64-bit again today, and will repost any new findings...

[swornbrother]

Jaunty Alpha 3 64-bit with Nvidia 180 drivers works! I used the

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "IgnoreABI" "True"
EndSection

xorg.conf workaround and it worked flawlessly. Compiz even works, with graphics settings maxed out.

It looks like I'll be using this as my "stable" installation, even though it's alpha. I think I'll just not update it until Jaunty is stable.