HP/Compaq Presario and Linux

[Travis Roy]

My workplace got a workstation machine for our Manchester datacenter.
Just a computer for people that come to work in the facility to use if
they don't have a laptop or for testing and whatnot.

Anyway, I decided to dual boot the box with WinXP/Linux. After trying 3
different distributions of Linux (SuSE, RedHat, and Mandrake) I had to
put in a support request. You see, when I put the CD in, it would start
to boot, then reboot right away. I -FINALLY- got it to boot off some
rescue CD and I thought I would repartition the drive myself and give
FreeBSD a go just to see if I could get it to work (FreeBSD has worked
out better then Linux on my NX9010 laptop, also by HP/Compaq).

So I repartition the drive, reboot and it detected a "partition
corruption" and it -FORCED- me, from the BIOS to re-install WinXP home
from the rescue partition.

Here was the response I got from HP/Compaq about the issue:

---
Dear Travs,

Thank you for contacting HP Total Care.

I see that you installed Linux in Presario and partition forces to 
re-install.

This is because that the Presario product line was developed for home 
users utilizing Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, and Windows XP Home operating 
systems.  
Linux is primarily a business application and Presario products 
were not designed as business systems.  Therefore, drivers for devices
such as modems and sound cards are not available for Linux.

If you would like assistance from an HP technician, please bear in mind 
that HP will offer all commercially reasonable efforts.  This means 
that support will be offered to the best of the technician's knowledge. 


If you need further assistance, please reply to this message and we will
be happy to assist you further.


Regards,

Monica
HP Total Care
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-- 
Travis Roy <travis at scootz.net>