UBUNTU installation help?

Question

ive got a "ubuntu desktop CD".After inserting the disc and restarting the PC,the ubuntu screen comes with a 30 seconds timer on left hand side and options like---"start or install ubuntu","start ubuntu in safe graphics mode"..etc.

i hit enter on the first one.A pop-up window came saying "loading casper something".Then this window disappeard.

Now came the ubuntu screen with a PROGRESS BAR.
it said "loading essential drivers"
i waited for five minutes there but nothing seemed to happen.The progress bar showed 0% completed.
i kept the PC running & went out to have a walk.On returning after a 30 min long walk,it still shwed the same old "0% completed" crap.
i tried rebooting 5 or 6 times but no gain.......
The progress bar just dosen't advance!!!
Any recommendations?????
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i am running a Pentium 4 PC with 256 MB RAM.I have windows xp SP2 already installed.
windows is running fine.

Answer 1

I can't remember if it has it, but you may want to try a text-mode install. If this is an available option, try it.

As the first poster said, 256MB of RAM is a minuscule amount. You might want to try Xubuntu. It uses the Xfce window manager (what displays windows), but it doesn't require a lot of memory. It's better for older hardware. Look into it. Let us know if you have any other questions.

You may want to try burning your CD at a slower speed. Generally, Ubuntu would tell you if there is a problem with the CD. If it can't, try burning it at a slower speed and see what happens. It certainly couldn't hurt anything.

Regards,

Brandon

Answer 2

Couple things.
one.
256 mehs is going to crawl along with alive cd.
two you need to be carefull about doing a full on install if you have a current wondpws installation that you care about.
three. it's all worth it in the end.

For your system, with the 256 megs of ram, you should be maybe looking at a lighter install like xubuntu.

as for the disk. The one of the options on that disk should be to test the disks integrity. give that a whirl. you might find that your burn job was faulty. you can try buring another disk, and do it at a nice slow speed like 4x.

The live CD image, like I said is goig to be very slow on your system. It is no indication of how Ubuntu would perform if actually installed.
If you are serious, and want to give it a try for real, you could downlooad the "alternate install disk" which uses a text based installer. much smoother process in general.

Make sure you have all your program disks and your windows stuff, and BACK YOURSELF UP. it is possible (but not too likely) to fry your windows installation while doing an full install. The live CD can;t do anything to your HDD.

Good luck.

Answer 3

You should use the alternate install cd, it's text-based and uses less RAM.

Use this iso instead:
http://ubuntu2.sourcemirrors.org/gutsy/ubuntu-7.10-alternate-i386.iso