SuSE 7.3 Prof on Pavilion N5210

[David Reed_4]

I've made several attempts installing SuSE 7.3 Professional (default with Office) on a HP Pavilion N5210 notebook with 64MB RAM and 10GB hard drive and WindowsME.

SuSE's Yast2 is supposed to allow a default partition that moves and preserves Windows in its own partition, but each time I attempted that, a message said that partitioning failed. It said to use another program to set up the partitions. I tried that with the Windows Recovery CD, but no such option seemed to present itself.

Installation succeeded only when I selected in Yast2 the default options to wipe out Windows and give Linux the whole disk. BUT I still have problems with KDE etc. (see below). I suspect the partition left residual debris -- because the text that flashes by on screen during Linux startup seems to mention "bogus" sectors and mounting problems (but does not stay visible long enough to make note of these). Also, the one time that the KDE desktop loaded completely, it showed an icon for Windows C drive.

Any suggestions?

The other symptoms are:

When I inserted "Options
sw_cursor" in XF86Config, it gave me the proper arrow cursor.

However, only text mode and Failsafe work fine. I still have these problems
with the other graphical interfaces:

1) KDE displays a desktop with only the two or three icons or half-icons:
trash can, CD drive, sometimes half of the world globe. But the screen
freezes immediately, and nothing works. Sometimes KDE opens with a red
background and exploding bomb graphics. Ctrl-Alt-Del is usually the only
way out.

2) fvwm2 usually paints only the top half of the screen, leaving the bottom
half without even the background, and then it freezes. (Sometimes it paints
a distorted screen instead.) None of the keyboard commands work here. Only
a paperclip in the reset hole gets me out.

3) mwm and twm have similar problems, and the screen soon freezes.

I have re-installed four times in the week since I have had SuSe Linux
Professional 7.3, and still can not use anything except the text-based
screens.

I have not yet received any personal contact from SuSE Support -- only
automated replies to my e-mails.

Thank you,
David