I really wanted to run Ubuntu on this new laptop of mine. It’s a Compaq Presario F500, but for some reason Ubuntu jsut will not run properly, even from the live CD. There seems to be some issue with the graphics card, as what is consistent is that if I boot into anything other than Safe Graphics mode (and then, only sometimes), once the OS starts up the video drivers the entire machine freezes solid.

The Laptop runs an NVIDIA 6100 GeForce Go video card, which seems to be the problem. I also know the CD I used is fine, as I’ve already used it to install Ubuntu in a partition on my Sony laptop (whcih runs an ATI card).

Having played around with Ubuntu under various hardware configurations and having run into problems running 3 monitors, I’me rather familiar now with the xorg.conf file - and the drivers were set to vesa, which are pretty much guaranteed to work. NVIDIA cards do require restricted mode drivers, so it’s a bit hard to update and install them when you have no connection to the net and no shell to work in!

I even tried to alternate CD, which worked fine right up to the point where it tried to install a kernel - then it entirely failed to find any one of the three on the CD. The installer directed me to check one of the virtual screens, and when I did I saw the error, and then the laptop froze solid.

So all in all not a great experience installing Ubuntu so far, which is a real shame as I really wanted this laptop to be my first all-Linux machine. I may have to wipe out my old Vaio and install Ubuntu on that instead. I have managed to get Vista running in a way I’m happy with though - UAC’s turned off, I have a decent AV program and a decent firewall, and some custom-written rules means the OS can’t actually communicate across the internet, Rocket Dock means I have a toolbar launcher, and Yod’m 3D gives me a Beryl-like 4 desktop cube rotator, which is incredibly handy.

Oh, and World of Warcraft actually runs quite well, so that’s gaming sorted too.