installing linux on a ze4115

[Michael Mefford]

last december i purchased a ze4115 from hp online...it came standard with winxp...currently i'm trying to install redhat as a dual boot option...however, i'm finding more productive to beat my head against the wall...

i've read through other forums dealing with this topic (usually based on ze4101s or ze4235s) and have implemented all of the ideas, but i still can't boot into linux...

during the installation i use the 'nopcmcia' and 'nomce' options and everything installs fine...then i reboot the machine to run it for the first time and (after using 'nopcmcia' and 'nomce' in lilo) it still hangs on 'starting pcmcia:' during the boot...and it hangs...and it hangs...

any ideas?...

micahel.

[Bruce Copeland]

That's strange. I have a ze4100 built-to-order KB series (basically a ze4125 with extra memory) of comparable age. I've never had to use nopcmcia or nomce for installation or regular booting. Maybe you have a KA series even though you purchased yours later than I purchased mine. If so, you might see if you can upgrade your bios.

The 'Starting pcmcia ...' occurs relatively late in the boot process (after the start of Redhat's interactive stuff). Can you step through the interactive part of boot and skip the Starting pcmcia step? If so what does your system log (or boot log) show for the previous boot attempt that stalled at starting pcmcia?

It might also help if you compare your hardware to mine. My Linux installation details are described at:
http://www.cybersym.com/pages/linux-ze4100.html

Bruce

[Michael Mefford]

well, here's an update...

bruce: my ze4115 is a KA series, but almost identicle to your machine...i did update the bios without any change in my progress...it is interesting, though, that when i install redhat with the 'nopcmcia' option it still looks for and tries to start pcmcia...and no, i can't even enter the interactive startup...i press 'i' or 'I' and it's like the installation program never recognizes it, even though it's echoed to the screen...

interestingly enough, however, for kicks i tried to install mandrake 7.2...i tried the installation without any options, and it worked...mandrake 7.2 installed fine except for the boot disk creation...it could not find my usb floppy and just hung there...now, this mandrake 7.2 has the 2.2.17 kernel whereas all of the redhat versions i've tried have the 2.4.x kernels...so, naturally the question arises, is the 2.2.x kernel better for hp machines (mine in particular) than the 2.4.x kernel?...any ideas?...

anyways, i'm trying to find a copy of redhat 6.2 or 7.0 because they have the older 2.2.x kernel and because i like redhat...also, i've optained modem driers from linuxant for my conexant modem, but i'm having no luck getting it to work...

michael.

[Caesar_3]

Hello!

Check the services that you OS starts
chkconfig --list and see if it "on" on the pcmcia and if "on" stop it.

Caesar

[Michael Mefford]

caesar: could you be more specific?...

michael.

[Michael Mefford]

bruce: it works!!!...i loaded rh9 this morning onto my ze4115 with no options and everything went fine...it even found my ati video card, but identified it as "ATI Radeon Mobility U1"...if i leave that, then when the machine restarts and boots for the first time, the xserver fails...for now i'm using the generic vesa driver, but i can only get 800x600 resolution on a 1024x768 screen...i would like to use the radeon driver, though...i have looked at your site and will try your suggestions later today...

something else to note...to install rh9 i had to disable the legacy usb support in bios...

michael.

[James Morgan]

Try Fedora Core 2, it has wonderful support compared to other distrobutions (ACPI is actually supported natively meaning your fan isnt running all the time). I dont remember if you need the "nomce" and "nopcmcia" kernel arguments. I remember having a smooth installation and it was ok with pcmcia service/support on (although i never inserted a a card while running it).

There is still an issue with the display adapter... only frame buffer support for now. I have herd of some 3d accelerated support with the recompilation of xfree86 but i didnt know how, or had the time to do it.

Good Luck,
James