Installation problem on acer laptop

[paralis]

I tried to install kubuntu 7.04 on my brand new Acer Aspire 5920G and so far got no luck.
After a moment I got the busybox, something like:

busybox v.1.1.3 (blabla) /bin/sh: can't access tty: job control turned off

That's the one and only message I have.

The laptop features an intel core 2 duo T7100 (1.8 Ghz), nvidia 8600 M GT 256 Mb, 2 Gb DDR2, 200 Gb hard disk drive (Toshiba) and other things.

That's my first laptop so I don't have much experience on that kind of computers. Anyway, all suggestions are welcome.

[Snowhog]

Re: Installation problem on acer laptop

Are you actually trying to perform and install, or just attempting to boot from the LiveCD?

"...brand new Acer Aspire..." Does it have M$ Windoze Vista as the installed OS? I suspect that it does, as that is the flavor of the month for M$. If that is so, you can't install another OS without some preparation to the drive first, but that isn't difficult.

[penguin.ch]

Re: Installation problem on acer laptop

Feeding "can't access tty: job control turned off" to the search engine of the Ubuntu forums ought to bring up a couple of threads looking quite promising

[paralis]

Re: Installation problem on acer laptop

Are you actually trying to perform and install, or just attempting to boot from the LiveCD?

Trying to install kubuntu.

"...brand new Acer Aspire..." Does it have M$ Windoze Vista as the installed OS? I suspect that it does, as that is the flavor of the month for M$. If that is so, you can't install another OS without some preparation to the drive first, but that isn't difficult.

Yup it does have Vista family Premium. The system had two ntfs partitions of 90 Gb. I deleted one in order to install linux.

@UnicornRider: didn't have time to check last night, but checking right now ;-)

[paralis]

Re: Installation problem on acer laptop

I checked some quite long threads on ubuntu forum and tried to pass the option 'break=top' with F6 and when getting the busybox 'modprobe piix' and 'exit'. Doesn't work. Nothing, no message, no nothing.

I also tried OpenSuse and SimplyMepis, same symptoms minus the busybox. The install process doesn't even start.

ANY SUGGESTION WELCOME. I'm stuck with Vista and it's quite boring.

For info, the hardware description of the laptop:

Brand: ACER
Model: 5920G
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 1.8 Ghz
Ram: 2 GB DDR2 (2x1GB)
Graphic: Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT 256 MB
Hard Disk Drive: Toshiba MK2035GSS SATA 200 GB
Optical Drive: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-T20N ATA
Ethernet: Broadcom NetLink Gigabit Ethernet
WiFi: Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
Sound: Realtek High Definition Audio
Firewire: IEE 1394 RICOH OCI
Controllers: Intel 82801 HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller, Intel ICH8M Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 2850

[dibl]

Re: Installation problem on acer laptop

Those Nvidia 8600 chips require the newest Nvidia proprietary driver if you have any hopes of running 3d or glx. Easiest way to get it installed is to download and install the Envy script installer from here: http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html

Read the instructions to download and install Envy. When installed, Envy will appear in your Kmenu>System folder, you click it to run it and it will install Nvidia driver version 100.14.11, which is the only one that will run your Nvidia chip optimally.

[penguin.ch]

Re: Installation problem on acer laptop

The install process doesn't even start.

Oh, oh ... no boot, no party

If this were my machine, I'd test it (i.a.) with Kubuntu 06.10 and Debian 4.0 KDE ...

In parallel, "Loogle" ought to be able to provide you with additional hints and ideas (?).

[Snowhog]

Re: Installation problem on acer laptop

Yup it does have Vista family Premium. The system had two ntfs partitions of 90 Gb. I deleted one in order to install linux.

I'm going to suggest that the problem may still be related to how you prepared the PCs partitions. With M$ Vista, it isn't enough to just delete the partition you want to use for Linux. Within Vista, you must 'shrink' the Vista volume. This is required because Vista actually marks the entire HD for it's sole use. Unless the volume that Vista is installed on is shrunk, then it is still the owner of the entire volume, even if you deleted one of the partitions.

[paralis]

Re: Installation problem on acer laptop

Thank you all for your replies.

@dibl

I wish I was at a point where I could complain about this or that not working under Linux. I knew, before getting this laptop, the most common issues (for laptop/notebook) are about graphic chipsets, webcams, sound, etc. I'm not there yet. I can't install those drivers since they require a working system. I do not have a system besides Vista.
I'll keep in mind my graphic chipset may require those drivers.

@UnicornRider

I found THIS. A slackware 10.2 running on the same laptop. It's in italian which I don't speak but I'll see what hints I can get from the article and/or the author. At least, I know, it's possible to run linux which is good news.

@Snowhog

About the partitions, I don't know yet nothing about Vista playing bossy and 'marking' the HD for its sole use.
The partitions, at my first use, were:
- 9.76 GB (EISA thing, supposed to be the recovery partition from what I've read on the net) 100% free. No mention of any kind in the paper doc. Filesystem: unknown.
- 88.5 GB System partition (C, filesystem: NTFS
- 85 GB DATA partition, 100% free (clearly not used, documents are stored on C, filesystem: NTFS
- 3.24 GB, no name, no filesystem identified, purpose: unknown. 100% free.

My first reflex was to make sure D is not used by nothing on Vista. Then I deleted it: no luck with Kubuntu/Ubuntu/Suse/Mepis (even if the problem might be elsewhere).

Here, I must mention a weird detail. Right after deleting D:, I could see the free space with the disk management tool from within Vista (administrator tools). BUT, after my first reboot, the free space just vanished and was no where visible although my disk drive was still correctly identified like a 200 GB drive.

Since I wanted to 'reclaim' that free space and I thought that might be easier to 'see' a well known partition from the linux install program and I used GParted Live CD to check my partitions and recreate a FAT32 partition using that 'invisible' space of 85 GB. I did that. I tried again to install but no luck.

So right now, my partitions are exactly the same than the very first day except the second big partition is FAT32 instead of NTFS.

I'd like to say, this is my first laptop AND my very first branded PC. I always assembled my own PCs and always will. That situation I see on the disk drive with 'hidden partitions' not even documented looks like a horrible mess to me. AND it won't last. I mean as soon as I get all the acer drivers needed and some of my data backed up, I'll clean that up. I can't help it but I can't tolerate a manufacturer telling me how my drive must be set when I have been the only one in charge for years. I just can't lol

Anyway if that behaviour from Vista claiming all partitions as its very own is true and if that is the main problem preventing me to install another system, I just could get rid of it. I would have no problem to do that.

I'm still open for ANY suggestion.

[paralis]

Re: Installation problem on acer laptop

I used gparted liveCD to rebuild all the partitions (100 GB ntfs, 20 GB fat32, 80 GB ext3). Now, the install process goes a lil further (using break=top as option and later modprobe piix and exit when stuck on the busybox) but I'm stuck at

Running boot local scripts bla bla OK

Right above that line there is something like:

Starting kdm

I think something's wrong with X. I ran the install in safe graphic mode to avoid that problem but apparently it doesn't help. Nothing on tty7 (not sure I should have something on tty7 at this point but well...).

Is there any way to 'install' an external driver (namely nvidia drivers) during install like windows and the F6 key ?

[paralis]

Re: Installation problem on acer laptop

Latest news: downloaded the alternate CD, installed from it.

First reboot: stuck, kdm not starting. Hopefully, with the alternate cd, I had a working system so I checked xorg.conf. One thing is sure 'nv' driver does NOT work with 8600M GT.

Downloaded the latest nvidia drivers 100.14 which does support 8600M GT chipset. Cannot access my usb key with the drivers despite a message on console saying it's detected. Burned the drivers on cd. Cannot mount cd lol Checked on forums: it's a known bug. After a few minutes I can read my cd. I copy the drivers to /user and run the drivers with sudo.
Drivers complain about libc dev package. I install it. Everything goes well. Reboot. Kdm does not start, flashing cursor.

Apparently, the nvidia module does not load or cannot load.

Trying to load the module nvidia manually I got something like: 'Error running install command for nvidia'.

Sorry if I don't give all details but I read so many posts and tried so many things I'm a lil bit fed up right now.

Anyway I'm still stuck. ANY suggestion welcome.