Go to http://www.linux-laptop.net/dell.html scroll down to the 5100 and see that linux does indeed work on that model. Maybe you just have some faulty hardware, maybe you are not adding something that is needed. Another page on installing Suse directly: http://www.albion.uklinux.net/inspiron5100.html On my Sony I had to add the boot parameters... On a side note: where does it die? Is it possable you don't have a bootable partition? Or that grub/lilo is not getting loaded from the MBR? Does it boot from CD...but not the Harddrive? Did you set bios to boot from CD but not the HD? Can you get back to the bios? or do you not even get that far? It is possable that the older computer would not have everything working, however, I have installed on many "old systems" and linux always works. I just had to hunt around for patches for the rest of the thing. I even had to not install X on one occasion. Is maybe X just not working with your vid card? try ctr-alt-F2 and get a classic console and see dmesg. I don't think you have a floppy drive on that one, but try to boot from the cdrom...or floppy(if you have one) and check out grub/lilo (whichever you are using. On Wednesday 03 December 2003 6:52 pm, Sebastian Wolff wrote:
Dear SuSE community!
This is a call for help and a troll against linux.
Is it possible that in particular situations Linux may kill the main board of any laptop?
By now I destroyed with the help of SuSE Linux 8.2 and 9.0 2 (!) laptops in the last 2 month: An older Maxdata and a brand new Dell Inspiron 5100. Both show the same symptoms:
They simply don't react after turning the power on (except turning on the fan and the CD drive). The repair service believes it is the main board which must be replaced.
And each time the 'damage' resulted from similar situations (the first time I believed it was the age of my laptop):
I wanted to change the BIOS configuration. To enter the setup you have to press F2 in the very beginning. Usually I miss this time. Hence, I resetted the computer after missing it. However, I am used to damages to the file system in the worst case - therefore, to press reset is a very common and intuitive way.
Well. Sometimes it can also kill your whole hardware.
Now I have 2 questions:
(1) What happened ???!
(2) Who can I sue for it?
After all this operating system (really, I liked it till now) destroyed a value of 2500 Euro (2700 $) within only 2 month! As a student I can live with that money for a whole year - and then I wanted to finish a research project next week - 3 complete month of work are gone now. Now, this is a 'free' operating system. Who is responsible? Linus Torvalds? SuSE? The developer who produced this bug? Rather nobody. After this incident I have to define 'reliability' in a new sense. This warranty problem might be a reason to encourage companies to stay at Windows, HP-UX or MacOS.
Regards Sebastian
-- Michael P Russell Software Engineer The Titan Corporation Electromagnetics & Electronics Division 700 Comanche Rd NE Albuquerque, NM 87107-4106 (505) 344-7455 ext. 116 mrussell2@titan.com