Linux for my laptop

[Nitestick]

it's possible the boot flag in the partition table hasn't been set correctly. use some utility (try cfdisk, it may run from the linux disc) to set the active partition.

as for light distros suited to old laptops, give DeLi linux a shot. it runs pretty well on my p133MMX notebook with 48mb of memory. it can be a bit tricky to configure, especially given it installs almost bare if you don't opt to install some packages manually.

 

[zmatt]

sounds cool nitestick but i am not an elite linux user. i just want to get the most out of my laptop with the least configuring and package building on my end. i am a power user but linux is still a bit foreign to me. for example the naming style where everything is a witty acronym is new because the name does not tell me what it does. and the general workings of the system are way different from windows. I wont try a distro that requires uber configuring and work on my end to operate as advertised until i feel i am ready.

 

[zmatt]

EDIT:

I tired one more time and somehow it worked! I don't know what I did differently but now the machine is chugging along nicely. thanks for all the help!