Best Linux Distro for a Laptop

[Asher]

Update: System doesn't boot.

I had to reboot to Windows (first time since I've installed ubuntu) -- discovered it doesn't boot. It just doesn't do anything after grub launches it.

Booted Windows XP from the CD, launched the rescue console -- fixmbr and fixboot and bootcfg didn't change anything, it's *****ing about the filesystem now on Windows XP. But the filesystem appears to be fully intact (I can traverse it fine, including C:\Windows, using the rescue mode).

Now nothing boots (thanks to fixmbr removing grub). So I checked out www.ubunutuforums.org, and booted the ubuntu CD into rescue mode. The solution is real simple: type "grub-install /dev/hda1" to reinstall grub. The filesystem, BTW, appears intact here also.

Only, I get the error "The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly" and it doesn't do anything at all. The file exists and is readable...

Tried doing an fdisk -l to see partition list, and it says "cannot open /proc/partitions".

Nice. Guess I jumped the gun in praising Ubuntu.

[Asher]

I was just told on ubuntuforums.org:

I hate to say this, but you've messed things up to a very large extent.
...
As of right now, there's no choice really but to reformat and reinstall from scratch

Awesome. I retract all positive comments I've said about Ubuntu.

Fortunately I still have my Norton Ghost image of my Windows partition before this experience. I'll be restoring that...

[Q Classic]

You know... with the amount of sheer bad luck you seem to have with linux, compared to everyone else...

is it possible that you might have just ****ed up?

[Asher]

Not sure how my ****up, which coincided with the installation of Linux on the laptop, stopped Windows from booting.

The only thing to touch something close to Windows was Ubuntu's installer/partitioning tools. Funny enough it seems to be some partitioning boundary error that's screwed it all up.

[Q Classic]

Well, honestly, since i have no idea how you installed everything and what not...

I'm just saying... on all the different hardware I've installed it on, presumably with similar tools, I've never run into the number of issues you've had.

[Urban Ranger]

Asher, I think you are cursed. Linus hates you

I never had that much trouble with Linux, even when I got my feet wet with RH5.2.

[aneeshm]

You are cursed .

And did you try manually fixing the /boot/grub/menu.lst file after Windows refused to boot ? The tools provided by Microsoft tend to be rather . . . abrasive . . . . towards other operating systems .

[Urban Ranger]

I thought his best option would be to take a look at grub.conf after discovering Windows couldn't boot.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Originally posted by Asher
Now nothing boots (thanks to fixmbr removing grub). So I checked out www.ubuntuforums.org, and booted the ubuntu CD into rescue mode. The solution is real simple: type "grub-install /dev/hda1" to reinstall grub. The filesystem, BTW, appears intact here also.

Only, I get the error "The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly" and it doesn't do anything at all. The file exists and is readable...

If you had done fixmbr, installing grub to /dev/hda1 wouldn't have fixed anything anyway.

It does seem that you're going to need to rebuild the world from scratch, especially if you've had overlapping partitions (how the hell did those appear? One would expect that *partitioning* of all things would Just Work by now, it's not exactly the newest technology on the board). Just back up what you can and what makes sense (at least $home, anyway).

[Atahualpa]

grub is stupid, use lilo

[Urban Ranger]

Good joke, I need that

[Asher]

I reimaged the drive and started from scratch, installing Windows faster Ubuntu, and now everything is working again. So far.

Now I'm reconfiguring Ubuntu like last time...