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Laptop installs

The Ultimate Guide for the rest of us


Laptop installs

Postby LeadFingers » Sun Jun 15, 2008 4:42 am

It seems that we have an abnormal number of users getting stuck with installs on their Laptops. I blame this on not only Hardy's new structure or the Improvements made to xorg, but also on specialized hardware todays laptops use. Unfortunately due to the vast number of issues one might find, it's not possible to write a Walkthrough style of guide, so I've compiled an explanation of the different options you might use if you can't get a smooth standard install. While this is based toward laptops it will work equally well with desktops.

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You may find either of these two sites has a walkthrough for your specific laptop & issue, your best place for a first step.

older Laptop support from the Ubuntu Archives http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=135

Newer Laptop support from the Ubuntu forum http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=332

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For those of you that the install process stalls between the time zone and the completion of the partitioning, check your Ram.
For some unknown reason most laptops need at least 768Mb to properly install


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When you get ready to do your Ultimate Edition installation you can save yourself some headache...

Boot from the Ultimate Edition DVD,
Let it load completely,
Open Partition Editor System/Administration/Partition Editor

If you're using the whole drive for Ultimate Edition
Delete the partition/partitions
Create a 2 or 3Gb /swap partition at the end of the drive
Format it ext3
Leave the rest unallocated
Hit the Apply button
When it's complete, close Partition Editor
Hit the Install Icon and follow the steps

If you're duel booting
Shrink the primary partition to leave room for Ultimate Edition
Hit the Apply button
when that's done
Create a 2 or 3Gb /swap partition at the end of the drive
Format it ext3
Leave the section for Ultimate Edition Unallocated
Hit the Apply button
When it's complete, close Partition Editor
Hit the Install Icon and follow the steps

Following those steps will make your instillation much easier as many laptops get a install hang while trying to define your partitions, having a unallocated space for Ultimate Edition solves this. having the /swap partition speeds up the whole process.

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Sometimes the Power Management software fights the Power Management in the Bios, to correct this we use noacpi...
At initial boot screen
Hit F6
hit spacebar once
type noacpi

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For busybox error...
At initial boot screen
Hit F6
type all_generic_ide floppy=off irqpoll after the "--"

This was provided from ubuntuforums.org

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To be able to read the errors when loading...
At initial boot screen
Hit F6
Change quiet splash to nosplash

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Never underestimate the value of loading in the Safe graphics mode

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The Minimum amount of Ram required to load the Ultimate Edition Live DVD is 384Mb,
However it can also use the /swap partition, if available.
for those with less than the minimum Ram, downloading & burning any of the Live partitioning tools
such as Gparted or Parted Magic can create a /swap partition on the hard drive, from their live CD.
Using this method should get you past the Minimum Ram requirements.

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The following deals with more than simply installation but has a nice variety of well explained boot options that can be added the same as above...

At the initial boot screen
Hit F6 blah blah blah


From Ubuntu documentation... Boot options

This will explain how to edit the grub menu entries on the fly (not permanently).

As the machine starts to boot you get a Grub message, at this time press the Esc key. This drops you to a text menu. Choose the boot option you want to work with. Navigate using the the up and down arrow keys. (Cursor key.)

When you have selected the menu item press e key

Then you will be presented with a "root" line on the first line. You must then move to the "kernel" line one down from there with the down arrow. then again you press e key

Go to the end of the line Ctrl+e and add the command from below.

Press the enter key when you are done with the changes, and finally press b to boot.

Your machine will now start to boot.
Options for the boot command line.

This list is not comprehensive but it contains some of the common options. When presented with the text on the screen "boot:" then the options below can be given. They must have the kernel name before the option.

Example: Adding the vga=771 option
Change
boot: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-k7 root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet splash

to
boot: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-k7 root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet splash vga=771


Options can be used together such as in this example:

/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-k7 root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet splash noapic nolapic


Kernel Options
These options are used by the kernel, and will apply to any system at any time. The file "Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt" in the relevant linux-source package provides more information.

vga=xxx
Set your Framebuffer resolution to VESA mode xxx. Check here for a list of possible modes.
Example:vga=792 will give you 1024x768 @ 24-bit color
...........vga=795................1280x1024 @ 24-bit color

acpi=off OR noacpi
This parameter disables the whole ACPI system. This may prove very useful, for example, if your computer does not support ACPI or if you think the ACPI implementation might cause some problems (for instance random reboots or system lockups).

acpi=force
Activates the ACPI system even if your computer BIOS date is older than 2000. This parameter overwrites acpi=off and can also be used with current hardware if the ACPI support is not activated despite apm=off.

pci=noacpi OR acpi=noirq
These parameters disable the PCI IRQ routing

pci=acpi
This parameter activates the PCI IRQ routing

acpi_irq_balance
ACPI is allowed to use PIC interrupts to minimize the common use of IRQs.

acpi_irq_nobalance
ACPI is not allowed to use PIC interrupts.

acpi=oldboot
Deactivates the ACPI system almost completely; only the components required for the boot process will be used.

acpi=ht
Impact Deactivates the ACPI system almost completely; only the components required for hyper threading will be used.

noapic
Disable the "Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC)".
A good command to add to the boot line for laptops that don't want to install

nolapic
Disable the "local APIC".

apm=off OR noapm
Disable the Advanced Power Management.
Another good command to add to the boot line for laptops that don't want to install

irqpoll
Changes the way the kernel handles interrupt calls (set it to polling). Can be useful in case of hardware interrupt issues.


Installer options (user-land)
These options are usually used when installing a system, and are picked up by the installer program or start-up scripts, and not by the kernel.

debian-installer/framebuffer=false
Disable framebuffer.

hw-detect/start_pcmcia=false
Don't start PCMCIA. Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, one of the stranger names for a piece of hardware. :) Your hardware is an association.

netcfg/disable_dhcp=true
Force static network config.

bootkbd=uk
(for US keyboard should prolly be bootkbd=en)
Set keyboard map. Use a two letter ISO country code to get the right letters on the right keys. This option can help with password problems.

Making Permanent changes
Once you know you need to boot with a special option on your installed system, you'll have to edit the file /boot/grub/menu.lst to make the boot option permanent.

To do this, please do the following:
Code: Select all
sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

Add the option to the line that starts with "# kopt=". Then run
Code: Select all
sudo update-grub

to have the menu entries updated.

***Note***
If you instead edit the menu entries directly, your changes will magically disappear the next time update-grub is run, for instance when the kernel or grub packages are updated. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GrubHowto for more information on configuring grub.
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1st Box: Ultimate Edition 2.0 x64/ 1.8 x64
2nd Box: XP (dusty)
3rd Box: Stable Media box Ultimate Edition 1.8 x64 with XBMC

The Oxen are slow but the Earth is patient ~Chuen~
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LeadFingers
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