ubuntu install problems on brand new laptop

[kamiisama]

hello, i'm new to the ubuntuforums' community but not to linux/ubuntu. today i bought a brand new laptop:

toshiba satellite l505d-s5983
basic specs - amd II (m300) 2.0ghz dual core cpu, 3 gigs ddr2 ram , 320 gb hd

nothing special. ah and it came with windows 7! yaay....not so much, SO of course the FIRST thing i wanted to do when i got my brand new shiny laptop home was get rid of that pesky POS windows and put a REAL OS onto it! and what a coincidence ubuntu 9.10 just came out!! i figured it was meant to be~! but not so much.

SO here is my problem, tried an older distro (9.04) and didnt work, kept hanging before even getting into the install screen. so i scrapped that and tried 9.10, this time ...same thing, so i went poking around the bios (which has an advanced section about | | <-that big) and found AHCI was messing things up, switched that and rebooted and YES! got to page 1/6 of the install! or so i thought, it locked up...tried restarting locked again...and again....sooo now i'm stuck with a $500 paperweight until the next big update? because i THINK it has to do with the drivers but again i'm not an expert...which is why i'm here..

SO please...any thoughts/advice/help? even stabs in the dark are greatly appreciated at this point!
thanks~

[dvlchd3]

Try alternative disc:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/down...rors#alternate

[colinwhipple]

I have the same laptop. After disabling AHCI I was able to use the alternate text-based install. But when I get to the main Ubuntu screen all input, mouse and keyboard, is ignored.

[CalderCoalson]

Do you have an Intel graphics card? If so, you might have the same issue I'm having here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1307886

[colinwhipple]

No, my laptop has an ATI video card.

[Dazed_75]

I spent most of today trying to install Fedora 10 or 11 on a Toshiba L505D-S5983 for someone else. When I could not make those work the guy let me try ubuntu 9.10. I did get it to work by adding "acpi=off" to the boot command. Everything then worked fine until you try to shutdown. Then it goes to a graphic pattern indication a graphic mode the cord does not understand and appears hung.

But the install worked and the installed ubuntu works as long as you get the "acpi=off" clause into the boot line. I was not sure the wireless was working either but that was not a priority today.

On the other hand, a clean install of 9.10 puts in grub2 which does not use /boot/grub/menu.lst and I have not yet learned how to edit the equivalent for grub2 to make a permanent fix.

[colinwhipple]

What did you do to get acpi=off in the boot line? I was able to do the install, but don't know where to go from there. I have tried a couple things at the Grub2 screen, but they don't work.

[colinwhipple]

I found some instructions for Grub2. I pressed "e" and went into edit. I tried three different times, putting "acpi=off" (without the quotes) in various places, then pressing CTRL-x to initiate the boot with the edited commands. No luck; after logging in and entering "startx" I end up with a Ubuntu desktop that is non-responsive to keyboard and mouse input. The system is not locked; the time updates as time goes by.

[kamiisama]

yeaaa nothing seems to work so far hah just suppose i'll have a nice shiny paper weight til the next big update?

[Larry Linux]

Many people have brought up the problem of 9.10 Live CD hanging just after boot - for example, once the CD boots up, it asks whether you want "to install"..or "use Ubuntu live". Unfortunately, no matter which option is chosen, the screen goes black with a white hash mark in the upper left corner of the screen once you choose which option you want.

I've tried numerous burns, six to be exact - at all 4x speed. I've even downloaded three separate ISO's, including two Ubuntu 9.10 and one Kubuntu 9.10. All have the exact same problem on computers with ATI graphics and Intel processors. On computers without ATI using AMD processors, this problem doesn't exist, and the CD works. Obviously, there is some type of driver recognition problem, or a problem with the kernel itself when using ATI/Intel.

I've never had this problem before with previous Ubuntu releases. In fact, previous Ubuntu releases worked as reliably as any os I've ever used. Hopefully someone at Ubuntu will read this and figure out what the problem is and get it resolved.