Re: SusE 8.2 on Sony Vaio

In addition to the items posted in order to help you...

At 03:25 AM 7/31/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>Sorry if the thechnical content of this mail is below standard. Can anyone
>tell me why my sony pcg-FR215M hangs when trying to install suse 8.2 linux
>distribution...(it seems to be hanging on YaST...)

By and large, unless someone else is familiar with the tech-specs of the 
machine, I doubt it.  Hangs can happen for any variety of 
reason.  Sometimes, if the machine is a new model (read, fresh off the 
assembly line) it may sport hardware so new, Linux won't know what to do 
with it.  If the model has been around for at least a few weeks, then 
chances are someone else may have gotten it to work, or is trying to do 
so.  In this case, wider support will slowly wend its way into all 
distributions.

To know if this is the case, the suggestion of looking in the alternate 
console (ALT-F10) could give you the answer.

>I have tried disabling/enabling acpi, safe mode...am getting frustrated..
>the same thing happened with 8.0.

I assume you mean SuSE 8.0?  Most certainly, going backwards is not going 
to help if unsupported hardware is to blame...

>internet access for my laptop as i cant connect it at work so this
>distribution is the only one I have....(I am new to linux and want to dual
>boot with windows so that I can get used to the unix environment and maybe
>eventually give up windows.

This may be a bizarre suggestion, assuming 8.0 doesn't support the hardware 
in that model and 8.2 does: Can you get 8.2 to start successfully on a 
different machine?  If not, then it could be defective media.  In this 
case, take the box back for an exchange --assuming you bought it recently, 
of course.  Apropos media: If you bought the Professional edition of SuSE 
8.2, you should have both CD's and DVD's.  Try booting the other media in 
this case.  I say this because with 8.0 and 8.1, I could boot the CD's, but 
not the DVD's --this was because of a firmware-to-boot-sector bug, and is 
fully documented in the SuSE Support Database.

Incidentally, in case you don't know this, SuSE's installer sequence is: 
Boot, start YaST, gather all the information it needs to install, pop up a 
confirmation.  Only once you acknowledege the confirmation does the 
installation begin (this includes partitioning and formatting), so you 
should be safe up to the confirmation if you're trying the media on a 
different machine.

If all else fails, there are a few other suggestions:
- Read the SuSE documentation, paying close attention to the "advanced" 
topic of kernel and module parameters.  That which you're supplying already 
(eg. acpi=on) may not be all you need.  For instance, you might need a 
parameter to define a HDD device...

- Apropos the above: Did you just try acpi=on and acpi=off?  How about 
pci=acpi instead of the acpi= parameter?  Or: apm=off.  Most of these may 
seem inconsequential/unnecessary, but you never know...

- Make all the boot and module floppies and boot off these.  Sometimes this 
overcomes the hangs.  Of course, if you have no Floppy drive for the 
laptop, this may be a moot point.

- A number of people here will attest to this: On some systems (such as 
those with Firewire, or otherwise external drives), the system will hang 
during boot.  The common solution here is to copy the CD/DVD image to hard 
disk, and then using this as the installation source.  Someone other than 
me will be best equipped to guide you through these steps if you need them 
--I never had to do it.

- Try looking at the linux-laptop Web Site (among others) to see if someone 
else has installed Linux (regardless of distro) on your model 
machine.  There may be clues you can pick up and use with SuSE...

>but this is turning into a pretty sh1tty introduction...

The introduction might be, but we're here to help.  Try getting THAT from 
Micro$oft at no charge... <grin> <duck> <run to eat dinner>.  Patience, 
grasshopper :)


Good luck! :)


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