trouble with ubuntu on new t61

I am trying to get ubuntu to dual boot with vista on my new T61. I have a 32 bit cd and 64 bit cd and neither will work. The 32 bit will start to work but then it has an error and says to type "help" for a list of commands. The 64 bit(which i would prefer) will not work right away and forces my to restart. I switched my SATA hard drive to compatibility mode but it didnt help.

PLease help (oh im pretty new to linux, only had it for a few monthes on another computer)

 

I personally haven't tried to install ubuntu on a t61, but I've looked into it quite a bit as I'm getting a T61 myself soon. If you want, you can try using the alternate install iso's instead (those are text based rather than the graphic install).

You can also try checking out here as it does have some decent info on installing Ubuntu (feisty or gutsy) on a T61:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T61

 

My new hard drive is coming toda, hitachi 200 gb 7200 rpm!

So should I Intall llinux first then vista or vista then linux?

DO I need to partition the hard drive with vista before I install linux?

 

From what I've heard it's always better to install Vista first (I hear it's usually easier as Windows might override the grub bootloader). I think you have to shrink the windows partition beforehand, but the install will allow you to do the rest of the partitioning from there (It just needs the space).

Here's another guide I found that addresses this issue (it doesn't show the alternate install, but the instructions should remain the same):

http://apcmag.com/5046/how_to_dual_boot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first

 

Since you're installing Vista from scratch anyway, just allocate as much as you want for Vista when you install it, leaving the rest unpartitioned. Easier than giving Vista the whole drive, then shrinking that partition again.

 

Yeah, Microsoft likes to actually format all the partitions before the one you're installing on. I don't know if they still do that with Vista.

Regarding your installation problems, try booting with acpi=off and apic=off. You could also try disabling ACPI 2.0 in your BIOS, sometimes that helps. You'll probably have things go more smoothly in October when 7.10 is released, and a distribution like Arch with a current kernel will have better compatibility as well.

 

I had a similar problem with the LiveCD hanging while booting, but the alternative CD worked fine. If that doesn't work, you're better off giving up on that particular distribution and trying another. Debian's worked fine on my Acer laptop, as long as I specified installgui, otherwise, no go. PCLinuxOS worked fine, LinuxMint worked fine. LinuxMint is very nice indeed, based on Ubuntu (no 64 bit version at the moment, but you know, 64 bit does absolutely nothing on current computers that 32 bit doesn't do just as well).

 

no idea why it works for me after I changed SATA settings to compatibility mode. but i am using x61s with 32bits though

 

64 bit will still not work. I tried using the 32 bit verison i had from this spring and it says there is an X server error. I ran it in safe driver mode and it worked. So how can I get it to install and work with my nvidia quadro nvs140m? Do I need to try I newer version or something?

 

I did get the 32 bit version going and am using that. However the nvidia setting sprogram will not let me use 2 monitors. any other way to do it?

also my music is read off my vista partition, the songs play with no music. I think I have all the codecs but it seems like a codec error

 

I am stilhaving trouble with the two above problems. The nvidia settings says that I need an xserver restart for me to run 2 seperate screens, but it will not let me save the dual monitor configuration. When I go to safe the configuration, it says unable to remove the old x config backup file. It also will not safe my resolution preference so I have to change it after every startup. Any Ideas?

I believe the sound issue is more related to no sound working at all from my laptop, instead of the mp3's not working. I found some info on thinkwiki about it but it was very confusing

 

i messed up the x server somehow so do I have to reinstall everything?

 

No, not at all, you'll have to use a terminal to fix it though. If you backed up your xorg.conf file, try restoring that, if not you can use a terminal based text editor to try and fix it.

If you don't have a preferred terminal based text editor, use nano, just make sure to run it with the "-w" (ie. "nano -w filename")flag to disable automatic line wrapping (that can wreak havoc on certain conf files).

 

as you can probably tell i know very little about linux and especially the terminal. Since I dont know how to fix it does anyone have a tutorial or anything or should I just reinstall it? I am not worried about loosing anything really so that may bethe best route.

 

crap. I think I deleted my vista partition with a week old copy of vista ultimate!

All i get now when i bootup is
grub loading stage 1.5
Grub loading please wait
error 22


is there anyway to fix this? or did i lose it for good?

 

It's really your call. I don't know of any tutorial to help you, though troubleshooting itself is really difficult to put into a tutorial anyway, too many different variables. If it were me, I'd try fixing it anyway, for the learning experience.

That looks like more of an issue with GRUB than with your Vista partition. What were you doing when this error started happening?

If you don't want to use Linux anymore, the thing to do would be to restore the Windows bootloader. If you do still want to use Linux, then, either manually fix GRUB (the configuration's probably just pointing to the wrong partition), or do a re-installation of your favorite distro (I'm assuming Ubuntu, given the title of the thread), which would reinstall GRUB as well.

 

How do I restore the windows bootloader?

I was reinstalling ubuntu and afterwards I restarted my comp. It used to ask me which os I wanted to boot but t now the messege just appears. I sure hope my vista copy is wasted now after using it for 1 week

 

I haven't done it in Vista, only XP, but I imagine the steps are similar. Boot with the Windows install disk, then press "r" to enter the recovery console. Once you've logged in, then just type "fixmbr", you may want to run the "fixboot" command for good measure as well. That should take care of it. I believe typing "exit" will then set the machine rebooting.

When you were reinstalling Ubuntu, did you do anything differently than the first time you installed it? Maybe a hardware change? I just find it odd that an installation would succeed the first time, but fail upon trying again.

 

wel its all fixed. now if I could fix my original problems of no sound and dual monitor support not working

 

Good to hear you have things working (somewhat), if you don't mind however, you should post what you did to fix things, in case someone else has a similar problem in the future.

 

oh right sry. All I did was reinstall ubuntu and it worked. FOr some reason I think the install did not finish.