Acer Aspire 5450... things just don't work!!!

[scdaymon]

Hi there guys!!!

It's my first post here, since I'm trying to know your distro a little more since I've been reading so many good things about Pclinuxos.
But there's a huge problem... I cannot install pclinuxos 2011. I burned already 3 different dvd's after 2 different downloads of the iso image, but when I boot the dvd, everything seams to be fine, apering to choose live cd or install screen, then I choose install, it appears a bar, but then, after a while the screens becomes black and nothing hapens.

I'm starting to think thats something to do with my laptop. Maybe Pclinuxos isn't detecting this hardware or something like that.

The other strange thing, is that I have a pclinuxos 2010 burned dvd, and the installation works well with that, But when the installation finishes the resolution screen is so big, and I cannot make it smaller, with more graphics resolution.
By the way, if I install pclinuxos 2010, since it's a roling release would it be the same as install 2011 with network connection being able to somehow upgrade?

Can you help me? I'm really insterested in installing Pclinuxos, either way.
Thanks...

Ps: Sorry for the bad english... I'm portuguese 

[menotu]

Hi scdaymon - welcome to the forum

but when I boot the dvd, everything seams to be fine, apering to choose live cd or install screen, then I choose install, it appears a bar, but then, after a while the screens becomes black and nothing hapens.

Have you tried booting to the desktop first and trying the install from there?

Also, when you burned the CD(DVD) did you burn at a slow speed as that can often help prevent problems?

Was the md5sum check good?

By the way, if I install pclinuxos 2010, since it's a roling release would it be the same as install 2011 with network connection being able to somehow upgrade?

No - not a good idea.  Too many "core" items have changed since the 2010 release.

What graphics card does your Acer have?

[scdaymon]

Hi there menotu, thanks for your answer,

I will try your suggestion to boot to the desktop, and then try to run the installation from there… I guess I didn’t try that!
But I do burned the dvd at the slow speed.

About md5sum, I’m sorry but I do not now what’s that? 
How can I check if that’s good?

About the graphic card it’s an Intel hd 1GB!

Tonight I will try again.
I really want to give Pclinuxos a try.

Thanks again menotu

[scdaymon]

Hi there again folks,

Well it’s no worth, for some reason I can’t explain, the dvd does not boot like it should (and I’ve already burned 4 ou 5 different iso’s, at the lowest speed).
It’s really bizarre, cause even when I choose the live mode (when yo enter the desktop without installation), after appearing the loading bar of pclinuxos for a while, the screen just turns black, and the thing just freezes!!!!! 
I still didn’t check if md5sum is good, cause… well, I still don’t know what is that, and how to check if it’s good!!!
I’ve tried several Linux distros, and this has never happened. And note that the Pclinuxos 2010 dvd boots normaly, without this strange behavior.
It’s really annoying since I’ve heard so many good things about pclinuxos, and I was so excited to give it a try (‘cause I want to change my main os).
Can anybody suggest something?!
 If not, I guess I’ll just have to wait for a new release, hoping that this strange behavior doesn’t happen again… 

[kjpetrie]

To check the md5sum, open a terminal and type md5sum <path-to-file> putting the real path to the file in. Then check in a web browser on the download mirror to see what it should be. If they match on the file you've downloaded it's OK. If they match on the disc you've burnt, it's OK. If they don't match it's faulty.

If all matches, try the other boot options to see if one of the reduced functionality modes will boot. If all else fails, press F3 (I think that's the key) to get the boot line on screen and add a 3 at the end. Also scroll along to the "splash=silent" entry and change it to "splash=verbose" to allow the boot messages to be displayed. If it gets to a terminal you can log in as guest and type startx to see what error message you get. If it doesn't you will at least be able to report how far it got.

[Just18]

Hi there again folks,

Well it’s no worth, for some reason I can’t explain, the dvd does not boot like it should (and I’ve already burned 4 ou 5 different iso’s, at the lowest speed).
It’s really bizarre, cause even when I choose the live mode (when yo enter the desktop without installation), after appearing the loading bar of pclinuxos for a while, the screen just turns black, and the thing just freezes!!!!! 
I still didn’t check if md5sum is good, cause… well, I still don’t know what is that, and how to check if it’s good!!!
I’ve tried several Linux distros, and this has never happened. And note that the Pclinuxos 2010 dvd boots normaly, without this strange behavior.
It’s really annoying since I’ve heard so many good things about pclinuxos, and I was so excited to give it a try (‘cause I want to change my main os).
Can anybody suggest something?!
 If not, I guess I’ll just have to wait for a new release, hoping that this strange behavior doesn’t happen again… 

There are several boot options ......  one uses basic video drivers and that *should* get you to the Desktop if the media is burned OK.

Try them in turn until to see what the result is 

[ebvt]

scdaymon, here's what your request for an md5sum would look like:

[eb@localhost ~]$ md5sum /home/eb/Documents/Downloads/pclinuxos-kde-2011.09.iso
6ebf25fc77f71f5f840547d844e93cdc  /home/eb/Documents/Downloads/pclinuxos-kde-2011.09.iso
[eb@localhost ~]$

ebvt

[Chuck]

I have the same laptop, runs PCLinux great, make backup dvd's, use DBAN wipe harddrive , use G_PARTED split harddrive in two sections , windows 20 MB, whatever and Linux the rest.
Install windows then PCLOS. Hope this works for you
 
 Chuck

[Crow]

scdaymon my son has been installing PCLinuxOS in his friends computers and Acer has been the most friendly (not like HP   )

1. Do you want to have Windows and Linux?
2. How did you partition your drive? how is distributed?
3. Did you run fine the live CD? any glitches?
4. Did you check the live CD md5sum by now?

Oh, and welcome to the forums 

[melodie]

Hi,

To add to what the other members asked:
If you have Windows, to check the integrity of the ISO file you downloaded, you can use md5summer: http://www.md5summer.org/

Still if you have Windows, you could setup a usb stick to contain and boot the distro, with one of theses 2 programs:
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
http://www.linuxliveusb.com/

Then if your machine has a bios which can't be configured to boot from USB, there is a program (free for personal use) which lets your install on usb stick be booted on such machines, it is Plop boot manager. http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanagerdl.html

Regards,
Mélodie

[scdaymon]

Hi friends…

melodie ; Crow ; Chuck ; ebvt ; and Just18… thank you very much for your concern and you answers.
I will try all your advices, as soon as I get home (I’m at work, without my laptop), and then I will report results.
I’m very excited about pclinuxos, and more confident since Chuck as said that this distro works well on the same computer.
Let me finish by saying that I still have Windows on the hard drive; and a few more distros: Mint; Dream Studio, Kubuntu; As I said before, I never tried Pclinuxos, and I’ve heard so many good things about it, and so about the community, that I want to give it a try, hoping to find my new main os… specially since gnome 3 hole!

Thanks again guys… I will report.

[Crow]

Mint; Dream Studio, Kubuntu

A problem with Grub? maybe

[kjpetrie]

Something to watch, if you want to keep those other systems bootable when you do manage to install pclos, is to install pclos's bootloader to its own partition and then set whichever distro handles your current booting to chain load it. Otherwise pclos will overwrite your MBR with legacy grub and only pclos and Windows will be able to boot.

[melodie]

Something to watch, if you want to keep those other systems bootable when you do manage to install pclos, is to install pclos's bootloader to its own partition and then set whichever distro handles your current booting to chain load it. Otherwise pclos will overwrite your MBR with legacy grub and only pclos and Windows will be able to boot.

Hi,
I think I read somewhere that the GAG bootloader can handle them all. But how to install it, use and configure : no idea ! Never tried it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAG_%28boot_loader%29

a few more bootloaders which might be interesting to try/study:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/xosl/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/gujin/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/air-boot/

^^

[Crow]

A boot loader to rule them all?  hehehehe