Acer Travelmate can't boot kernel. Gentoo works though

[bogdanb]

I noticed this problem on a TM240, but someone reported it for a TM250 too above.

The boot loader works, then:

Loading root.bin...
Loading linux.bin... ready.
Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.

and then it freezes.

To recap: I tried Knoppix on a TravelMate 240 and it freezes just after it says 'booting the kernel'. If I use boot options (I think the kernel matters here) that keep the laptop in text-mode, the text remains on the screen, otherwise the screen goes blank. Any disk activity ceases. It does not respond to any keyboard input I tried. The network led keeps blinking, but as far as I can tell it always does on this laptop (even with no network activity). I have tried all kernel versions - frambuffer, expert, the one with no hw detection, all of the no* options, to no avail. Since the kernel doesn't boot, testcd doesn't work.

There is a report (on http://www.geocities.com/ma_sivakuma...ux_laptop.html ) that Acer launched a Linux-preinstalled laptop for the Indian market. Also, I just tried booting the Gentoo Linux LiveInstall CD and it boots just fine. It seems to go through hardware-detection alright (though I didn't look very carefully at what it finds), the graphical console works and I could connect to the internet just right. This means there shouldn't be anything intrinsic to linux.

I don't want to actually install Gentoo, though, since the laptop has some sort of hidden 'repair' partition or something (it came with windowsXP Home), and I don't want (nor have time) to mess with it yet. I'm also not very experienced with Linux (though I do compile a kernel now and then) and even less so with laptops; this one is not even mine, it's my father's.

I tried Gnoppix, it didn't work either. However, I'm not sure if that CD isn't broken. I'll check it later.

Anyways, it would be nice if anyone with actual experience with Linux could look at a travelmate (come one, one of you guys must have a friend who owns one), find out what the problem is and 'fix' knoppix. Or tell me what to do about it (I am willing to compile a kernel and remaster a Knoppix image if necessary, if only I knew what the problem was). Please help!
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[jrh142]

I have also not been able to boot Knopix on my ACER Travlemate 240 BUT I was able to use the MEPIS 2003.10.01 live CD on this laptop (2.44.22 kernel). MEPIS found and initialized the built-in Ethernet but doesn't see the wireless adapter, it uses the mousepad but did't accept a USB mouse I tried. I used the default boot (did not need to specify 'noapic'); Have not tried to install MEPIS since I use the preinstalled copy of XP and ACER has several preinstalled partitions on the box which I'm afaid will kill XP if I delete them.
Hope someone can figuer out how to make Knopix run as I like it better than MEPIS but at least I have a workable LINUX boot now (and with XP I know I'll need a recovery path)!

[scheurer]

turn off APIC + SMP then it should work (boot).

[windos_no_thanks]

The boot loader works, then:

Loading root.bin...
Loading linux.bin... ready.
Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.

and then it freezes.

To recap: I tried Knoppix on a TravelMate 240 and it freezes just after it says 'booting the kernel'. If I use boot options (I think the kernel matters here) that keep the laptop in text-mode, the text remains on the screen, otherwise the screen goes blank. Any disk activity ceases. It does not respond to any keyboard input I tried. The network led keeps blinking, but as far as I can tell it always does on this laptop (even with no network activity). I have tried all kernel versions - frambuffer, expert, the one with no hw detection, all of the no* options, to no avail. Since the kernel doesn't boot, testcd doesn't work.

If you have tried the "nosmp" cheat code and it still doesn't work you need a remaster with a kernel without smp support. Links to an (oldish) one are here:
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6154
But if you know how to do a remaster yourself it should be fairly straightforward, just recompile the kernel without smp.