Cannot get ANY Linux to install - Please read and help?!?!?

[RtX]

I'm really stuck all. This has never happened to me in the 10 years I've run Linux. I'm posting here because Kubuntu is what I really want to run.

I have an Acer Aspire 5040 laptop. Runs WindowsXP just fine. Dual-boot setup is intended here. A quick rundown on the specs:

Phoenix BIOS
AMD Turion 64 ML-32 Processor
80GB Seagate HDD
ATI Mobility M200 GPU
Broadcom 802.11g Wireless LAN (BCM4318 chip)
Realtek RTL8169 Wired LAN
Realtek High-Def Audio
DVD-RW

Notes from various Linux installation trials:

Slackware 10.2:
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The default kernel will boot but the system seems to lock up at adding the swap partition which is the first step.

Freespire:
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The default kernel will boot and I am able to install the system. Wireless does not work and the sound works for a bit and then starts to sound like scratching while sound is playing. I have to reboot to get the sound back to normal. Then only works for another minute or so, then back to scratching sound.

Kubuntu 6.06 32-bit:
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I have to pass the 'noapci' OR (I forget) the 'apci=off' option to the kernel in order to get the kernel to boot on install. I can get the system installed OK but wireless again does not work. Cannot get wireless to work using ndiswrapper. Kernel boot reports 'no microcode found' for the BCM43xx and cannot load the module. The only fix I have found on the net for this wireless controller is for Kubuntu/Ubuntu 64-bit. Power management does not work and is greyed out.

Kubuntu 6.06 64-bit:
--------------------
Again, I have to pass the 'noapci' OR (I forget) the 'apci=off' option to the kernel in order to get the default kernel to boot. I can get the system installed OK but neither wireless OR wired LAN work. On 'ifconfig eth0 up' I get device or resource busy. Power management does not work and is greyed out. Cannot get the wireless controller to work even with ndiswrapper. Kernel boot reports 'no microcode found' for the BCM43xx and cannot load the module.

SuSe 10.1 64-bit:
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SuSe is simply fat and cumbersome to work with. I cannot seem to get the hang of how YaST works. Updates shown down at the bottom-right of the screen seems to hang and not work. Running YaST from the CLI did work, and then YaST in the GUI worked and updated the system. Wireless does not work and cannot get working using ndiswrapper.

Fedora Core 5 64-bit:
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Fedora was the worst. Did not autodetect my sound controller at all. No sound. Wireless did not work. Stopped there as adding sound to my hacking list was simply too much.

PCLinuxOS:
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PCLinux did boot and install OK. Wireless does not work and the system will not shut down properly. The screen goes blank and the system does nothing. After I force a shutdown, on the reboot it complains about the filesystem and wants to run a check. Obviously the system is not shutting down.

E-Live .5:
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The system boots OK and I am able to install the OS. Wireless does not work and cannot get it to work using ndiswrapper.

What do I do? I need help getting Linux installed properly and then getting this darn wireless to work.

Frustrated. Your turn...

[askrieger]

Re: Cannot get ANY Linux to install - Please read and help?!?!?

"m confused. Are you talking about ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) which is turned off with the cheat code "acpi=off" or APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller) which uses the cheat code "noapic". In either case, google/linux will show you quite bit of information. I don't think this is a processor specific problem, although it may be a kernel specific, or hardware specific problem.

[RtX]

Re: Cannot get ANY Linux to install - Please read and help?!?!?

First, thanks for replying and offering your help. It is very much appreciated!

OK - so I have Kubuntu 6.06 64-bit installed now. To clarify, I have to have the 'acpi=off' option passed to the kernel or the kernel will simply not boot. I get a kernel panic on boot without this passed. I ALSO have the 'noapic' option passed as I have found that without this option, NONE of my network controllers will work including wired network.

I have been following the instructions found here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...5021WLMi_Amd64
to try and get the wireless controller to work. The instructions work all the way to 'modprobe acer_acpi' and this fails with 'FATAL: Error inserting acer_acpi (/lib/modules/2.6.15-27-amd64-generic/extra/acer_acpi.ko): No such device'. I'm thinking that the reason for this is because I have to pass the 'acpi=off' option to the kernel but I'm not sure.

I might add that I do not have any power options as well. Again due to the fact that I have to pass the 'acpi=off' option. This option is really screwing me up!

Other things that I have done include adding 'blacklist bcm43xx' to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and making sure that 'alias wlan0 ndiswrapper' is in /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper. Now on boot, I get in dmesg:

[ 28.903486] ndiswrapper version 1.8 loaded (preempt=yes,smp=yes)
[ 29.206527] ndiswrapper (load_pe_images:571): fixing KI_USER_SHARED_DATA address in the driver
[ 29.207954] ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5 (Broadcom,02/11/2005, 3.100.64.0) loaded
[ 29.216534] ndiswrapper: using irq 10
[ 30.222689] wlan0: vendor: ''
[ 30.222693] wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:16:ce:21:f0:b9 using driver bcmwl5, 14E4:4318.5.conf
[ 30.222711] wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK

Sounds good right? However, running ifconfig reports my wireless controller as eth1 - not good. It's also eth1 in Network Settings. It's enabled but does not work.

So this is where I'm at currently. What should I do or try next?

Thanks again!