Hi:
I´ve bought an AIRIS ANDROMEDA laptop (2.4 GHz, 512 MB RAM, Hard disk Fujitsu MHS2040AT 40 GB , GPU ATI 7500 64 MB, 4 USB 2.0 ports, flat panel XGA 1400x1200, Chipset Intel 82845, integrated Winmodem PCTel, integrated LAN adapter, integrated AC97 sound, etc.). It´s a new laptop, and i´ve bought it one month a go (in dec-2002). Windows XP is installed in the first partition of the disk.
I´ve tried to install Red Hat 7.2, RH 7.3, RH 8.0, Mandrake 9.0, Debian Linux (the last stable version), and a Suse LiveEval, but NONE OF THEM WORKS. I´ve installed all these linux distributions in other computers (desktop computers) and there is no problem with them.
All the versions of Red Hat that I´ve tried to install hangs the system before the installation starts. I insert the CD-1 in the DVD/CDRW device and then I restart the system. When the kernel loads to begin the installation process, it stops in the hard disk devices lines:
ide0: BM-DMA at 0x1400 0x1447, BIOS settings, hda:DMA, hdb:PIO
ide1: ...
'ICH2: chipset revision 18, etc.' HD controller lines appears before the hard disk devices lines.
In the case of Mandrake and Debian, the system doesn´t stop at this point. The installation program starts successfully, and the installation ends without any problem (the graphics card, mouse, lan adapter, XGA flat panel, etc. are successfully detected). After the installation, the system restarts. LILO works well, but when the kernel loads, it stops in the same line I´ve commented before:
ide0: BM-DMA at 0x1400 0x1447, BIOS settings, hda:DMA, hdb:PIO
ide1: ...
I don´t know why in Red hat linux the installation doesn´t begin, and in Mandrake and Debian the installation works well. I think there´s a problem with the 82845 chipset ( may be the HD controller) or the hard disk and Linux (Windows XP works perfectly with the actual configuration, dohhhh!). I don´t know if it can be resolve changing the BIOS configuration, or it depends on the kernel.
Please, if someone has a possible solution, mail me or answer this questions. Thanks!