I have a new Dell Latitude 630 and wish to install Linux on a separate partition from the stock Windows XP (Professional) installation and then have a dual-boot laptop. However, I am not able to install from either the DVD drive or from diskboot.img on a USB memory drive.
I am able to get the laptop to boot from the DVD, but the process stops just before the installation program begins, with the message that there is no driver for the DVD device.
The DVD is an Optiarc DVD+RW AD-5560A. Optiarc is apparently a recent joint venture between Sony and NEC. There are no drivers for this model at the Optiarc site and none for this model at Dell.
The installation medium is OK. I used it to install Fedora 7 on another Dell (not a laptop). So I do not believe that's an issue.
I was able to dd the diskboot.img file to a USB memory drive. I was not able to get the laptop to boot with it. Researching further, I discovered that I also had to set the partition as bootable with fdisk. I did this. Afterward, the laptop would attempt to boot to the partition on the USB drive but would halt with the message, "Operating system not found".
The first solution, obviously, is to find a driver file, or something that's compatible with it, but I have no idea which drivers (in the list provided by the installation program) would be compatible. Aside from that the diskboot.img file appears not to work.
Possibly relevant other information (or possibly not): processor is an Intel Core2 Duo T7500. Also plugged into the USB ports of the laptop during installation was a Bluetooth receiver for a wireless mouse.
At this juncture, I am about to give up and learn to love XP but before I reach the end of my Fedora rope, does anyone have some information or help that they can share? Thanks!
Dell Inspiron
Linear Mode
