Running Ubuntu on Toshiba L630

Question

After suffering with the following error while trying to install Ubuntu onto my Toshiba L630 (kernel_thread_helper+0x0 0x10). I bypassed the error and managed to install the OS by going going into the "installation setup menu"( by pressing f6 while booting from my Ubuntu Installation CD) and assigning "acpi = off". I believe this fixes the problem because it stops the laptop doing checks that aren't compatible with the software.

However, now that I have Ubuntu installed, I cannot run the bloody thing because I have no way of choosing "acpi=off" before booting Ubuntu. I guess this is a pretty broad question but I'm going to ask it anyways. Has anyone managed to find a version of linux that works on an L630 without any errors? If not, Is there a way to choose acpi=off before booting? Maybe by adding a line to the grub? Also, does anybody think I'm wasting my time? I read somewhere that toshiba laptops don't work well with linux. So if there isn't a fix for this I would appreciate being alerted about this.

Cheers

Answer 1

You should be able to append the acpi=off to the end of the kernel line in grub.conf.

It'd look something like this:

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i586 ro rhgb quiet acpi=off

Answer 2

I use Fedora 12 on my Toshiba L630. But, my Fedora use PAE kernel. I don't understand to why much of Linux distro can't installed on Toshiba laptop (including openSUSE, the distro which awarded as the best distro for laptops). but my friend with Toshiba L640 have no problem to install anything distro on his laptop.. lol... but (my experience) I have succesfully install Vector Linux SOHO 6.0 on my L630 without any problem (except on fs check,try to be patient). U can try it... (^_^)v