Installing Linux on a Toshiba A505-s6033

[flamesbladeflcl]

okay it was "Begin:waiting for root file system...."
after that it said something about improper irq?
then "gave up waiting for root device" and it droped to busy box. this is from a fresh download

[flamesbladeflcl]

oaky I got my computer to boot the iso directly with easybcd 2.0 and I managed to get to the install screen. so while I am now able to install ubuntu, I still want to fix the usb boot issue as I use the boot from usb option often when repairing or testing out a new distro (or running something like chromium os which doesn't work right from a hard drive install).

[flamesbladeflcl]

wait I lied, it actually loaded up the "try ubuntu/install/boot from first hard drive" screen this time but after I hit "try" it failed again. with the message "/init: line 1: can't open /dev/sr0: No medium found"

[flamesbladeflcl]

tried a few more times but still no luck >_< any suggestions?

[djchandler]

tried a few more times but still no luck >_< any suggestions?

You've exhausted all conceivable solutions AFAIK.

The only think left is a hardware issue. In the back of my mind is the paranoid idea that Toshiba has somehow hamstrung your system, keeping it from installing another OS because they don't want to support it. I have a bit older and less expensive Toshiba laptop that they deliberately left a setting for hardware virtualization out of the BIOS settings even though the underlying hardware is fully capable of supporting it.

Are you trying 32-bit or 64-bit Ubuntu? I would be interested to know if that makes a difference.

So here's a couple of shots in the dark to suggest. Have you tried downloading Virtualbox or some other hypervisor and tried to install Ubuntu in a virtual machine? Have you tried to install Ubuntu using Wubi?

I tried to use MS Virtual PC to run Linux in Windows 7 x64 Ultimate. Older versions did in Windows XP. It seems the only operating systems the newest Virtual PC in Windows 7 supports are Microsoft's. So I have been using Virtualbox 3.1 (Debian, Virtualbox 3.1.4 out now) or VMware Player 3.x (BusyBox notfred appliance for running Folding@Home SMP) to run Linux in a VM. Don't forget to fiddle with the BIOS/EFI yet again to enable hardware virtualization.

Your CPU and system are so new, you are blazing the trail, my friend. I think they call this the "bleeding edge." The only thing else I can think of is go over to Launchpad and see if there are any issues with your architecture posted there.

Found this link. Even once this user got LinuxMint installed, there were still issues and no answers yet.

In reply to this question I found another link on the Fedora Forums about a BIOS bug on an HP system with the same i7-720QM CPU. If you have been using a 32-bit version, this link suggests that perhaps using 64-bit will fix your issue despite the fact you are not over 4GB of RAM.

Your post above where you quoted

"Begin:waiting for root file system...."
after that it said something about improper irq?
then "gave up waiting for root device"

suggests we may be on the right track here as regards the BIOS bug and IOMMU.



PS Sorry it took so long to answer again. I've been indisposed the last couple of days.

[flamesbladeflcl]

I first tried 32 bit, then I switched to trying 64 bit Ubuntu, and the puppy I tried was 32 bit...

Haven't tried virtual box but that doesn't really solve my problems. I did try wubi though, that let me install but it failed again after running updates and restarting. different reason though.

Yeah some bios thing seems to be it.... but I can't figure out what.

[rigsc]

I just purchased the same laptop. I've managed to successfully install Fedora 12 on it using the "basic" video option. I have to boot with "pci=noacpi" in order to use USB devices, install the Nvidia driver, wifi driver, etc and even then it's a coinflip whether or not it will boot successfully.

Please followup if you've made any progress with it. It's too nice of a laptop to only run Windows.

[Djalmahal]

Hi, I'm thinking of buying this very laptop, so I'm foloowing this thread. Tomorrow I will go into a shop and try to boot it from an USB Stick, I'll let you know what happened...

Andreas

[flamesbladeflcl]

Hi, I'm thinking of buying this very laptop, so I'm foloowing this thread. Tomorrow I will go into a shop and try to boot it from an USB Stick, I'll let you know what happened...

Andreas

it is a nice laptop on windows, it seems to be really annoying for linux though

[Scienceman123]

I had issues with Wubi on this same laptop. Using Ubuntu 64-bit, the graphics start in what appear to be 256 colors. The login window fails to appear, switching to other ttys results in analog-like distortion (text wavers and shimmers). Switching to tty7 and then to a text tty renders all text unreadable.