Installing Linux on a Toshiba A505-s6033

[flamesbladeflcl]

I recently got a new laptop a Toshiba A505-S6033 from best buy after my prior laptop's screen hinge broke. The laptop comes installed with windows 7 64bit. I trying to install ubuntu to a another primary partition in order to dual boot (and after I get that running, I plan to add osx to triple boot). I have a copy of ubuntu on a usb drive made with unetbootin, and I've tested that it works with multiple other computers. When I try to boot it on the a505, it starts to load then fails when it tries to find the root file system. I've tried to load other linux versions such as puppy (both from usb and cd) and Hexxeh's chromium os (usb) to similar results, all failing when they try to find the filesystem. any suggestions?

[quixote]

I don't see your exact model on the Laptop Testing page, but maybe there will be some useful information for you among the other Satellite models.

[flamesbladeflcl]

can't find anything to help, all the ones I see list problems for things not working after install. but I can't even install.

[djchandler]

I recently got a new laptop a Toshiba A505-S6033 from best buy after my prior laptop's screen hinge broke. The laptop comes installed with windows 7 64bit. I trying to install ubuntu to a another primary partition in order to dual boot (and after I get that running, I plan to add osx to triple boot). I have a copy of ubuntu on a usb drive made with unetbootin, and I've tested that it works with multiple other computers. When I try to boot it on the a505, it starts to load then fails when it tries to find the root file system. I've tried to load other linux versions such as puppy (both from usb and cd) and Hexxeh's chromium os (usb) to similar results, all failing when they try to find the filesystem. any suggestions?

First of all, congratulations on your purchase of a very nice laptop. Toshiba has a great reputation for reliability. It should serve you well. There's a lot of computer there.

Puppy Linux requires Grub be installed before you can install Puppy to a hard disk. Considering how it works to install to hard disk, that wouldn't be my first choice. It looks as if they are looking to find their niche as a portable OS, not necessarily for long term install on a hard disk. To do that, you need to jump through a couple of hoops. What you tried with Puppy probably doesn't even try to mount your hard drive. See this link.

If Puppy is the only one you tried to boot with a CD, that doesn't mean an Ubuntu CD won't boot. But I don't think the USB boot is the problem. It looks to me like you have out thought the software installer. The Ubuntu installer must assume that the user is probably not as sophisticated as you seem to be.

Did you create the new primary partition in Windows 7 and perhaps create any extended partitions within it? Or if you have a primary also created for OS X, that could be the problem.

My solution would be to go back into Windows and delete the partition you already set aside for Ubuntu. The Ubuntu installer started moving my Windows data around to make room for itself on the Windows partition when I did that once and wasn't fully paying attention. It was a case of outsmarting the installer, just as you did too. The other primary partitions could flummox the installer, especially if there are already 4 primary partitions and marked as in use. If the room you set aside is just marked as unused and not partitioned, then you will have the option to install in the largest contiguous empty space on the hard disk.

Check out this thread. The original poster in this thread had reached the 4 primary partition limit. It's 3 pages long but marked solved, and that's a good sign.

Most new computers with Windows installed have 3 primary partitions already allocated since Vista. You have a restore partition set up by the OEM, a rescue partition created by the Windows installation plus the partition where Windows itself resides. That leaves just one, and if Ubuntu is already finding 4, that could be the problem and why it won't mount the drive, particularly if you chose install now instead of "Try Ubuntu."

[flamesbladeflcl]

I wasn't trying to install puppy that was more of a test to see if anything would boot right at all after my trying to run ubuntu failed. (I used puppy as I normally keep a puppy flash to run on wyse boxes when the server is down for a quick temp setup) I haven't made the partitions yet, though yes there are 3 by default which I plan to remove. but the more important thing i want to make clear is that it doesn't get far enough to show the option select screen (the try ubuntu, install ubuntu options).

I'll try an ubuntu cd but I don't think it is the solution either...

[djchandler]

I'll try an ubuntu cd but I don't think it is the solution either...

How about a BIOS/EFI setting getting in your way and stopping it from booting from USB? I assume you had to fiddle with the BIOS or enter a menu to boot the USB device.

[flamesbladeflcl]

How about a BIOS/EFI setting getting in your way and stopping it from booting from USB? I assume you had to fiddle with the BIOS or enter a menu to boot the USB device.

It starts to boot it just fails, I've tried reseting it back to default bios settings but it still doesn't work.

[djchandler]

It starts to boot it just fails, I've tried reseting it back to default bios settings but it still doesn't work.

Do you at least get to the sign-on line that starts "ISOLINUX" before it stops?

Somehow the code being read from the media you are trying to install from is not properly executing--Square One again. How about changing your SATA to AHCI if set to IDE?

Can you run and MD5SUM or SHA1SUM on the CD or .ISO image file from within Windows?

You can find those data strings in the directory at the bottom of this page.

[djchandler]

It starts to boot it just fails, I've tried reseting it back to default bios settings but it still doesn't work.

Do you at least get to the sign-on line that starts "ISOLINUX" before it stops?

Somehow the code being read from the media you are trying to install from is not properly executing--Square One again. How about changing your SATA to AHCI if set to IDE?

Can you run and MD5SUM or SHA1SUM on the CD or .ISO image file from within Windows?

You can find those data strings in the directory at the bottom of this page.