Need help installing Unbuntu on a Gateway NV52 Laptop

[luna9698]

Hello, I am very interested in trying Linux. I have done some research and finally made Ubuntu as my choice. I downloaded the image from the main site and burned it to a cd. The problem I am having is that I cant seem to change my start up to cd drive instead of hard drive. Anyone familar with my laptop? I have tried F10 to get into bios but nothing seems to work. I am stuck and I really want to try Linux. Thanks for all your help

[raymondh]

Hello, I am very interested in trying Linux. I have done some research and finally made Ubuntu as my choice. I downloaded the image from the main site and burned it to a cd. The problem I am having is that I cant seem to change my start up to cd drive instead of hard drive. Anyone familar with my laptop? I have tried F10 to get into bios but nothing seems to work. I am stuck and I really want to try Linux. Thanks for all your help

Gateway - DX, FX, One, GM, GT, GX, Profile, Astro

* Press the F1 key repeatedly after restarting the computer.
* Some older Gateway computers use F2 to access the BIOS Setup utility.

from the pcsupport website (http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/a/biosaccess_pc.htm).

before installing ...

1. Back-up your personal files
2. Defrag windows (2x if you have the patience)

Post back if you need assistance.

Welcome to Ubuntu and good luck.

Raymond

[soseihin]

Have you had any luck with this yet?

I just bought one myself. I'm in the process of installing 9.04. To boot from the live disc I had to first get into BIOS and enable it. Even getting into BIOS was a chore. IIRC I hit "esc" to get in. It may have been "f2" though. It also helps to hit "pause/break" as soon as you see the gateway splash screen. That way you have a second to think about what you're doing before the screen disappears - insanely fast! After your BIOS options are configured you can get into the boot menu with "f12."

Hope that helps!

Ah, and another word of advice is to tap the keys twice when trying to get into BIOS or the boot menu.

Good Luck!

[luna9698]

Heh still no luck. This is annoying. Bumping just in case anyone else knows.

[soseihin]

Hmmm...

Is the problem still that you can't get into BIOS?

FWIW I finished everything up last night and have yet to notice any undocumented hardware issues with 64-bit 9.04 (for example: http://jake.wasdin.net/blog/).:KS

I'd certainly share any solution I came up with, but I may be unclear what the problems is... at the same time maybe my advice is hard to follow/understand...

[jessiebrownjr]

Do yourself a favor and make sure you have either a Windows CD that came with your computer, or make sure you don't wipe the recovery partition. I have a dell, and I wasn't given a recovery CD, just a partition... Well, I wiped the entire hard drive...And decided I wanted to dual boot, and OH MY, I HAVE NO WINDOWS... if it wasnt for a certain Dell OEM CD ISO i found floating around a torrent site, i'd be screwed.

[soseihin]

Do yourself a favor and make sure you have either a Windows CD that came with your computer, or make sure you don't wipe the recovery partition. I have a dell, and I wasn't given a recovery CD, just a partition... Well, I wiped the entire hard drive...And decided I wanted to dual boot, and OH MY, I HAVE NO WINDOWS... if it wasnt for a certain Dell OEM CD ISO i found floating around a torrent site, i'd be screwed.

Good advice, if you plan on dual booting. Gateway doesn't supply recovery discs, but there is a utility they included to write some from Vista. The info should be in the documentation that comes with the system. But from the "start menu," under "all programs" is a folder called "gateway" that will walk you through the steps. It took 4 dvds, IIRC. Or you can buy them from Gateway:
https://secure.tx.acer.com/RCDB/Main.aspx?brand=gateway

[shaunsmith_99]

Hey Luna,

I have Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 Running on my Gateway NV5214U and it works wonderfully. It's a dream and everything will 'work well' with this laptop. The video driver will need a bit of tweaking, but on my install Ubuntu promoted me to install the proprietary driver for the ATI Radeon card. This is a great laptop BTW and it has proven itself (at least in my mind) as the best bang for the buck for a linux box. :popcorn: