HP Pavilion a1130n

[marklori]

I am wondering if anone has successfully installed Gentoo on this system. It is a very problematic box (although it's the first new machine I've had in years!) I have Mandriva 2006 on it now as this is the only OS aside from WinXP that I have found to install on it. Suse 10, Ubuntu Breezy, Slackware, Debian Sarge, Arch, Knoppix, and a couple of others I can't recall have all failed. Some fail to be able to partiton the disk (Arch, Slackware, Knoppix, Debian). Others lock up at some point (Ubuntu has cd read errors on 4 different cd's including a couple of cover disks from mags and Suse locks up on the initial reboot). Mandriva at least installs without problems but fails to be able to use my usb ports.

I have added an nVidia geForce 6600 PCI express video card, which works ok.

I would like to try gentoo on it, but want to see if anyone more astute than me has had success on this model of computer before I invest that much time. It does not have a broadband hookup so I would be downloading everything here at work to install from disk. I admit to having tried installing gentoo once before but never getting the results I wanted, but I know that is my own impatience and lack of understanding.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and for any helpful thoughts you might offer.

Mark