Linux and my laptop

[saurbaum]

I have this brute currently running Windows 7 but because I'm a sucker for doing things the hard way I'd like to setup a Linux partition. Unfortunately I can't find a flavour that will boot far enough in to give me either a live cd session, install options or even install inside windows with Wubi. No useful error messages that I can see but it fails around the time the Sata devices are being loaded.

Any suggestions other than wait for a new Kernel?

Chassis & Display
Vortex II:17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£69)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2760QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
2.0GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580M - DirectX® 11 (17.3" Vortex II)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BD-5730S 6x BLURAY WRITER & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE (£79)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD INC. BLUETOOTH 3.0
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD

 

[pr1s0ner]

Which versions have you tried?
If you try to run a live cd rather than installing and still cant get it to start then I wouldn't have thought it was the sata stopping things.

 

[tfcoulson]

Ive pretty much got the sames specs apart from its a 15.6". I managed to get ubuntu live cd to work, I think I had to use the lower graphics option or something. Wubi wouldnt work. It also wouldnt install, I cant remember why. I got fedora 16 to install using the full dvd and low graphics option, and this works fine. I know ubuntu is on some of these laptops, I think theres a site thats sells them preinstalled on clevo laptops so theres a way to get it working. But full dvd (not installing from the live/smaller dvd) works for me.

 

[Quattrix]

With a beast like that, I recommend just using virtual box.
You can have linux and windows up at the same time and that machine won't even skip a beat .

 

[saurbaum]

I've tried ever flavour I can and I can't get a live CD to work. The closest was a live CD of the latest Ubuntu (12.04) but the graphics were totally corrupted and unusable.

A virtual machine does work quite nicely but lacks the ability to really kick in the graphics hardware, which may well be the root of all my problems.

Wubi installs and goes around to complete it. I can see the hard drive thrash for an age and the wifi indicator light comes on but I'm left looking at the original text screen which says Press Escape for advanced options. That's just an old splash though as nothing happens when I hit escape by this time.

Rumour has it that it's caused by the graphics card being to new for the current Kernel which wont be updated in 12.04

 

[pr1s0ner]

I always used to use knoppix as a quick live boot test to see how well linux is likely to work. It seems to support more hardware off the install than anything else. Might be worth a go. If it works then at least you know it can be done ; )

 

[Buzz]

I use backtracks. I find it excellent. I have win 7 dual boot with it. Can install from USB drive very easily, and does pretty much everything needed.

backtrack-linux

All hardware works with a little configuring. But it installs and partitions and does pretty much everything itself till installed. Worth a shot IMO

 

[saurbaum]

Incase anyone is also having this trouble.

It's a bug in the current (commonly used in Ubuntu and derivatives at the time of writting) kernels default drivers with this graphics card. Add --nomodeset to the startup command list and you can activate the official Nvidia drivers when you get booted up properly into X.

Runs nicely at that point.

 

[disigma]

You are going to have to install and configure Bumblebee to get "some" use of your Nvidia GPU. Since Optimus isn't fully supported (yet) on Linux, you wont get the most out of your laptop.

Visit this site and have a read: http://bumblebee-project.org/

Hope you get it to work. Nvidia have confirmed they are working on Optimus drivers for Linux.