Many times the HP/Compaq nw8240 laptop would shutdown on its own at various stages before failing to start X. However, the most recent time, I was able to edit xorg.conf and startx. This got me to the GNOME desktop. Selected System > Admin > Install (or something like that). Selected language, keyboard, timezone, and partitioning. let's see how it goes from here.
$ sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
$ startx
I'm not sure which are the required modifications, but here's what I've done in xorg.conf: Added Device/Driver = "ati" (also changed the Device/Identifier matching the Screen/Device, both "ATI Tech..."), added HorizSync, VertRefresh, and DisplaySize to Monitor, and added "1920x1200" to every one of the Screen/SubSection "Display"/Modes. Something like this:
Many times the HP/Compaq nw8240 laptop would shutdown on its own at various stages before failing to start X. However, the most recent time, I was able to edit xorg.conf and startx. This got me to the GNOME desktop. Selected System > Admin > Install (or something like that). Selected language, keyboard, timezone, and partitioning. let's see how it goes from here.
$ sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
$ startx
I'm not sure which are the required modifications, but here's what I've done in xorg.conf: Added Device/Driver = "ati" (also changed the Device/Identifier matching the Screen/Device, both "ATI Tech..."), added HorizSync, VertRefresh, and DisplaySize to Monitor, and added "1920x1200" to every one of the Screen/SubSection "Display"/Modes. Something like this:
Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility X700 (PCIE)"
Driver "ati"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-96
VertRefresh 43-60
DisplaySize 330 210
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility X700 (PCIE)"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1920x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
... etc ...