[mdlug] Laptop woes - Knoppix boots but Ubuntu doesn't? (semi-SOLVED)

[Ingles, Raymond]

> From: Ingles, Raymond

>  So, something in the hardware has apparently failed in such a way
that
> Ubuntu won't boot but Knoppix will. Very strange. Anyone seen anything
> like that? I'm going to try the Ubuntu "alternate install", which
might
> let me actually see the kernel messages on boot. I'm also going to try
> some other distros, like OpenSUSE or Fedora. It'd be nice to resurrect
> this thing.

 Okay, a Knoppix version 5.x worked; a Knoppix version 6.x didn't.
Fedora 12 booted okay, but didn't see the trackpad, or the PS/2 mouse
I'd plugged in. Ubuntu 9.10 would boot from CD with the options
"acpi=off noapic nolapic", but would not boot from the hard disk with
those options.

 OpenSUSE 11.2 did boot from CD, and will reliably boot in "failsafe"
mode on the laptop. My wife can use it as a remote desktop client and I
was able to do some websurfing and such from it last night. That's all
we wanted from it (or a netbook) anyway, so for now it's good. Of
course, there's at least one other hardware problem now - the battery
seems to have died.

 We're going to give it a week before we declare the problem 'solved
enough'. If it makes it through the next week, I'm going to presume that
it's liable to survive at least another six months or so.

 Sincerely,

 Ray Ingles                               (313) 227-2317

 "Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl kills
 the first woman she meets and then teams up with three
 complete strangers to kill again." - TV listing for the
    Wizard of Oz in the Marin Independent Journal

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