Spring One 2007 freezes on network setup

[Guest halfer]

Hi all

 

I have a Dell Latitude C610 laptop (256Mb RAM, 10Gb disc, 1GHz PIII). I downloaded "mandriva-linux-2007-spring-one-KDE-cdrom-i586.iso" and burnt it to a CD, and booted into KDE. I selected the install option, and let the files copy over. After it said I should reboot, I did so, and I am now faced with a "Network & Internet Configuration" wizard that appears upon selecting the main boot option, and then the machine freezes. (The screensaver seems to still be active, but using the touchpad or keyboard does not bring anything back). Safe mode unfortunately seems to be similarly affected: after the "sh-3.1# " prompt, a cursor blinks, but the keyboard does nothing.

 

I have successfully installed Windows on this laptop, followed by Kubuntu, so the hardware is OK. I don't want to go back to Redmond, and Kubuntu suffered problems with ACPI and machine shutdown. Can anyone offer any pointers? The live CD seemed to work fine, albeit slow as expected.

[Guest halfer]

Ping. Anyone any ideas? I've read elsewhere (on Mandrake) that if the networking setup can be disabled until after the install completes, then it will work without problems.

 

...Just want a distro that works on my laptop without hassle

[adamw]

Check if there's a BIOS update available for your laptop: a couple of users have reported that similar keyboard problems with Dell machines were resolved by BIOS updates.

 

Otherwise, see this errata note:

 

http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Releases/Mandr...n_Dell_machines

 

it has another possible solution.

 

if you're still stuck after that, post again...