BIOS error in F12 x86_64 LiveCD

[nightliz]

I am trying to run the liveCD of Fedora 12, the x86_64 KDE version on my laptop. The blue screen with the boot countdown will appear, and I can get to the list with the "Boot, Verify and Boot", etc. options. The memory test works fine. However, if I try either of the boot options, the cd spins, thinks a bit, and I get a black screen with the words
Fail in evaluating [something, disappears too quickly to read]. Broken BIOS suspected.
The screen then goes completely black, the cd spins for a while, and nothing else happens.

Laptop is a brand new HP Pavilion dv6-2150us
Intel i3 CPU M330 @ 2.13GHz
3.8G usuable RAM
Windows 7 64-bit currently installed

How can I get this to work?

[CSchwangler]

Seems as if this could be relevant to your problems:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F12_bugs#Systems_fail_to_boot.2C_USB_is_not _functional.2C_network_adapter_fails_to_work_.28or _possibly_other_symptoms.29_due_to_imperfect_handl ing_of_BIOSes_with_broken_IOMMU_handling

You probably own one of those HP machines with incompatible BIOS (compare with the list provided).

[nightliz]

The missing message is "the _REG object of the EC", I think.

My machine is indeed on the list, but I quote from that link
For all of those except the HP xw4600 Workstation and the Dell Precision M6400, all of the following conditions must be true before you hit the bug:
You must be using the 32-bit edition of Fedora 12
You must have no memory beyond the 4GB address area (practically speaking, this means you must have around 2.5GB of physical RAM or less)
Virtualization features (VT-d) must be disabled in the BIOS

I was attempting to use the 64-bit edition, which "In most cases (see above), installing the 64-bit edition of Fedora 12 would be enough."

I have 4 GB of physical ram, 3.8 of which is usable (according to Windows 7).

Virtualization features were disabled. I just tried enabling them, which was listed as one fix, and it did not help.

Are my only options to install the damn thing and fix it from there or try a different Linux distro?

[CSchwangler]

You can certainly try a different Linux distribution and see if that works better. Did you try to append the kernel parameter iommu=soft to your boot configuration?

[nightliz]

I'm not sure how to do that. Am I adding this when fedora is booting up? To the computer? I want to try the liveCD, and I thought that was something I could use if it were installed.

[JBstrikesagain]

when you boot the DVD there should be a boot: prompt which is isolinux.. after boot: type out this so it looks like so:

boot: linux iommu=soft

that's how you append kernel options with isolinux I believe.

'linux' is usually the default kernel image name with RH distros, but it could be anything depending on how isolinux.cfg is configured.