Need some help with installing linux on a laptop...

E

EKmath

New Member
Hi. New guy here. *Waves*
The thing is;
I have a laptop; Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600. Trying to install linux, but the thing refuses to boot the linux CD. I have wiped the HDD clean, nothing on it. When I try to boot the CD, all it says is "Insert system disk, press any key when ready".
Is there any way to install linux on this computer...? :confused: Or am I stuck with windows? :( It does recognize Windows CDs.
 
Yes, it is, it boots the windows XP CD. To me, it looks like toshiba has made a deal with MS that only MS products are recognized as system disks. But if so, there has to be a way around...?
 
EKmath said:
Yes, it is, it boots the windows XP CD. To me, it looks like toshiba has made a deal with MS that only MS products are recognized as system disks. But if so, there has to be a way around...?
Click to expand...

don't believe they would do that. but lets keep this discussion to a single thread.
 
I have made a boot discette and tried that already. So I don't think it's that. What do you mean, bios problem? In what way? Sorry about the double tread. Didn't know where to post it.
 
The problem is, I can't get it to boot into linux. Neither with the CD, or with a boot diskette. So what do I do. There were no information about that on the links...
 
I got it from a linux book i bought. And yes, I booted it on my stationary computer so... I really have no idea at all what is wrong... It just seems that the laptop refuses to boot anything other than windows. And I find that hard to believe.
 
ok, check your bios and ensure the CDrom is the first boot device.

EDIT - oh you did that all ready, ok not sure what else to do :eek:
 
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Yea, me too, no idea what is wrong... It just ignores the CD. Or it detects it, but then it says it's not a valid system disk.
 
Is the Linux on a DVD or CD?? Reason I ask is because I had a similar problem when I burned a Linux DVD and try to install it on a computer with a CD-ROM.
 
Its possible that if you created the cd on your desktop that it might not work on your laptop. I've burned cds before and they worked fine on the machine used to burn but failed to work on another computer.

You might try burning it again or on another machine and try again.
 
I have encounted the same problem has you did. The problem could be that the cd isn't bootable. Make sure the linux you got is in the iso. format, or it could be that your cd has gone bad.

The solution to this is you may want to redownload the linux and burn it to the computer.

if the cd is working properly, another solution could be that you could first install windows and then parition the hard drive, and then install linux. After installing linux delete then parition drive that contains windows.

Hope this helps.
 
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The CD is a CD, not a DVD, and I did not burn it, it came with a book I bought about linux; "Readhat Linux 7.2 unleashed". So it's bootable, it boots on my stationary.
The problem is that I can't get into the install part of the process. Not with windows installed, and not on a wiped HDD. *Shrugs* I don't know...
 
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