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Getting Started with Ubuntu 5.1 on Averatec 3120V

The Averatec 3120V has served me well over the years. It's now time for it to serve me in other ways. I wanted to permanently install Ubuntu on it and see how well a notebook runs as a server. But before I even attempt to reformat the hard drive with the new operating system install, I just want to give Ubuntu a try. The Ubuntu 5.1 Live CD is perfect for this purpose. The Live CD allows you to boot Ubuntu on any computer without actually modifying the data on your hard disk. The Ubuntu Live CD is available for 32-bit PC, 64-bit PC, and Mac.

After configuring the Averatec 3120V to boot off the CD-ROM in the BIOS (press the DEL key on boot), the system proceeded to load the initial Ubuntu installation screen. For a default installation, just press ENTER. I did that and, less than a minute later, I saw a garbled screen. Nothing happened. No amount of key presses or anything would make the computer respond.

The three finger salute (Ctrl-Alt-Del) worked on the other hand. I was again greeted with the welcome installation screen. I read the screen more carefully and saw, "Press F1 for help and advanced installation options." Ok, I pressed F1, which provided a number of options. One of the options, " Special boot parameters for special machines.", seemed to fit my immediate need.

Pressing F5, I got another screen full of options. This time the options are presented as boot parameters. One of the options said, " Laptops with screen display problems vga=771". Ah-ha, sound like exactly what I needed. But I didn't really know how to use boot options. Good thing the installation program provided an example:

boot: live vga=771 noapic nolapic

The second two boot parameters are used for other purposes, not related to my display problem. Happy there is a solution that might work, I typed "live vga=771" on the boot prompt and pressed enter. Within minutes I have a live Ubuntu system running on the Averatec 3120V. Perfect. The performance was excellent. Having gained the confidence, I installed the operating system permanently on the notebook.

For the actual installation CD, you'll have to use "linux vga=771" at the boot prompt instead.

Chieh Cheng
Sun, 7 May 2006 13:48:18 -0700

Today, I learned that vga=771 means 800x600x8 at boot up. You can find a whole table of values at HOWTO: Change bootup resolution

Chieh Cheng
Wed, 20 Dec 2006 14:38:54 -0800

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