msfisher
June 14th, 2009, 06:33 PM
I'm a near-newbie. I have an aging Averatec 3200 which I've tried to load Linux on for a couple of years. Honestly, I've tried a lot -- Ubuntu since v.7; Fedora 9, 10 & now 11; Mandriva 2007 thru 2009, Free and One; OpenSuSE since 10.2; Foresight; PCLinuxOS (newest); OpenSolaris (I know, UNIX, not Linux, plus it trashed my MBR!); Debian (newest core install); Simply Mepis 6, 7 & 8; Linux Mint 4 thru 7 and Zenwalk 6.
Only one of these installed successfully -- Linux Mint 4, and it was crippled by not recognizing either the Broadcom wireless or the VIA wired NIC. I know, I could have used ndiswrapper, but at the time I was enough of a newbie to try anything else first.
Just now, I tried Fedora 11. In contrast to some of the installers, it actually got through partitioning and started to install files.
Open SuSE does much the same thing. So does Debian.
When I try to load Ubuntu, it gives me lots of errors (especially for the wireless NIC) then defaults to the command line. Running startx I find that there are no valid modes and though a screen is found it has no usable configuration. I tried the "safe video" option and got the same result. The Alternate Install CD does install, but I get the same errors on reboot and end up at the CLI.
Mandriva barely gets past the first installation screen.
Foresight doesn’t even start.
I got PCLinuxOS to load live using VESA rather than X but couldn’t get it to install.
Even using “safe” graphics, Zenwalk 6.0 installer starts but tells me that X11 won’t run.
Here are the particulars of the laptop:
Mainboard: Averatec 3200
Chipset: VIA KM400
Processor: AMD Athlon XP-M @ 1533.3MHz
Memory: 1024MB
Video: VT82C570 MV IDE Controller KM400 Graphics Adapter
Network Card : Broadcom Corp BCM4306 802.11g Wireless NIC
Network Card : VT82C570 MV IDE Controller VT6102 Rhine II Fast Ethernet
I have the 40gig drive partitioned into ~20gigs for Windows XP Home and the rest for Linux with a 2gig swap partition.
Anyone have any ideas about loading ANY Linux distro on this thing (I prefer Ubuntu)?
Only one of these installed successfully -- Linux Mint 4, and it was crippled by not recognizing either the Broadcom wireless or the VIA wired NIC. I know, I could have used ndiswrapper, but at the time I was enough of a newbie to try anything else first.
Just now, I tried Fedora 11. In contrast to some of the installers, it actually got through partitioning and started to install files.
Open SuSE does much the same thing. So does Debian.
When I try to load Ubuntu, it gives me lots of errors (especially for the wireless NIC) then defaults to the command line. Running startx I find that there are no valid modes and though a screen is found it has no usable configuration. I tried the "safe video" option and got the same result. The Alternate Install CD does install, but I get the same errors on reboot and end up at the CLI.
Mandriva barely gets past the first installation screen.
Foresight doesn’t even start.
I got PCLinuxOS to load live using VESA rather than X but couldn’t get it to install.
Even using “safe” graphics, Zenwalk 6.0 installer starts but tells me that X11 won’t run.
Here are the particulars of the laptop:
Mainboard: Averatec 3200
Chipset: VIA KM400
Processor: AMD Athlon XP-M @ 1533.3MHz
Memory: 1024MB
Video: VT82C570 MV IDE Controller KM400 Graphics Adapter
Network Card : Broadcom Corp BCM4306 802.11g Wireless NIC
Network Card : VT82C570 MV IDE Controller VT6102 Rhine II Fast Ethernet
I have the 40gig drive partitioned into ~20gigs for Windows XP Home and the rest for Linux with a 2gig swap partition.
Anyone have any ideas about loading ANY Linux distro on this thing (I prefer Ubuntu)?