Cant Find a Distro

Im about to pull my hair out trying to find a distro that will play nice with my laptop. I have a Thinkpad T61p. I have tried Suse 10.2, 10.3 (Live CD), Kubuntu 7.10, Fedora Core 8, and puppy linux... Suse 10.2 was the ONLY distro that would even get to the installation, and after finishing, and needing to reboot, all I got was a Black Screen of Death, like it wont start xorg. I dont know if its that I have the Quadro FX 570m and none of the distros properly support that or if its because if the intel turbo memory? I'm lost, anyone had any luck on similar hardware and a distro?

 

y dont you use ubuntu instead of kubuntu. it id known to be much more stable in the new PCs

 

I'm running Ubuntu on my T61 (not 61p). But I also have a Quadro card and it works fine. If Ubuntu works then so should Kubuntu. First install the OS from the CD in Safe Mode graphics. Then once you're running use Envy to install the proprietary nvidia drivers.

There is a thinkpad wiki out there some where. Ah here it is:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki

 

I dont use ubuntu because I dislike gnome. 'nuff said

 

I can say try Linux Mint KDE CE....the final was just recently released....it's a tweaked Kubuntu basically, as hardware friendly as you'll find. I'm trying it now after using gnome forever, liking it.

 

Are you sure that the Kubuntu install was frozen permanently? For me, it always freezes up at ~75% and then after about 10-15 minutes it starts moving again.

 

You don't have to settle for Gnome if you prefer KDE. This is just one of a bazillion Google items on how to get KDE up and running in Ubuntu.

I use Gnome with Ubuntu, but, on this same machine, also have Suse 10.3 and use KDE. Haven't used either long enough to decide which I prefer, though I like Suse best at this point in my very n00bish Linux experience.

 

try using the alternate cd installer for the distros that wont even begin installation. You will have to deal with a text based installer (personally, i prefer it) but installation goes quicker, and it doesnt need to run an x server, so if its the visuals the live cd is struggling with creating you wont need to worry.

when you reboot though, try using recovery mode and installing the drivers there. Thats how i had to do it..

 

Have you tried booting the box in single user or runlevel 3 yet? At least make sure that it works with the rest of the hardware before trying to tackle the vid driver. If you can get to cli, then get a working net connection (especially wireless), vid should be downhill from there.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/gz_sys_req.html
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_amd64_169.12.html
http://suseforums.net/index.php?showtopic=38958

According to nVidia, Quadro uses the same driver as my GeForce card. Have you checked out the xorg.conf file? Make sure it has nvidia in stead of nv in there.

EDIT

Forgot to mention that I use 10.2 and 10.3 of OpenSuse.

 

Got Kubuntu installed after Downloading the full DVD and installing in text mode, adding to the repositories, and then downloading the nvidia driver with lynx! yay, too bad nvidia wont let people incorporate their drivers into distros

 

What does glxgears do? Should be a fluid 3D demo. If so, then you're in business for the next big hurdle: Compiz Fusion. I use it on one box instead of the default manager. Pure eye candy, but the Mac and Windows users tongues drag on the floor when they see it. The Mac users think the cube is kewl. Windows users don't know why someone would need more than one desktop space.

And because everyone needs a diversion every once and a while: Tremulous http://tremulous.net

 

glxgears is a way of testing whether you have support for 3D graphics, as well as a source of basic benchmarking results. For example, if you wait for 5 seconds, you'll get

Code:

9432 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1886.386 FPS

 

I have a T61p and I must say that Linux Mint (Gnome & KDE Editions) works great on it. I had some trouble booting with the LiveCD at first due to the graphics card not being supported with the NV driver, but I found a solution on the Linux Mint Wiki, got it up and running, installed, and its been smooth ever since. Only issue I have is not being able to Hibernate this thing yet, but that's a problem with the Nvidia Driver. As far as the Turbo Memory is concerned, Windows Vista is the only operating system that I know of which supports it, so I don't think it would be a major issue at all...on my system, I get a "failed to allocated memory" tag for it, no probs.

 

I dont' recommend using ENVY to install your drivers. Instead try to use the restricted drivers manager. ENVY bypasses synaptic and could potentially screw up your dependencies. Use it as a last resort.

Why does Mint continue to include ENVY?

 

the restricted drivers manager didnt work for me last time i used it... so i just use envy

 

If you like KDE, Mepis 7 and PCLinuxOS 2008 have recently become available.

 

Co-sign Viking, esp Mepis...I would be using Mepis except that making my wireless card work (in sig) would cause me to jump through too many hoops. Same problem with PCLOS.

 

Yeah, I haven't done a hard drive install of any of these on my Compal so I can't say. I hate even the newer versions of KDE so I didn't even try.

The nice thing about both Mepis and PCLOS is that you don't have to reinstall every six months, you can just upgrade by continuously updating them. A lot of times when you upgrade Ubuntu, stuff doesn't work.

 

PCLinuxOS has been the best option on my Thinkpad T61:

http://temporaryland.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/pclinuxos-2008-on-my-thinkpad-t61/

http://temporaryland.wordpress.com/2008/01/17/pclinuxos-2008-on-my-thinkpad-t61-part-2/

Make sure you do a full update as soon as you install, preferably using a wired connection. There has been a lot of improvements since I wrote that review.

On the other hand, if you happen to like Digital Photography, you may be interested in giving the Digital Photography Edition a try:

http://www.dfpe.pclinuxos.nl/

Enjoy!