i have a japanese oem nec versapro va90j 900mhz piii laptop that's been pretty cranky with letting anything install.

so far i have only been able to get minimal functionality from knoppix (i can get online and browse), but sound, usb ports, and the integrated nic don't work (among other things). of note, however, is that if i perform a tohd, i am able to burn cd's ... which proved to be a priceless commodity.

i tried slackware 10.2 (which failed to allow the pkgtool to work. midnight commander worked but it's a bit too powerful for an idiot like myself to dink with), debian 3.1 (which won't boot after install), and fedora core 4 (which fails even to initialize the install).

the only distribution i've installed so far which worked was breezy badger ubuntu (5.10). of note however, is that upon installing kubuntu-desktop it broke. too bad gnome's 1024x768 res looks like 800x600.

my laptop doesn't like kde, and i have a huge stack of install cd's to prove it ... lol