Problem installing Linux

bmaxi · 17-09-2012 9:57pm #1

This may not be a linux problem as such but I'm hoping someone will have come across it.
I have a Dell Inspiron 1501 1.9ghz 2GB RAM 80Gb HDD running XP SP3 and I want to put one of the Linux distros on it. I have downloaded and burned Ubuntu 12.04, Mint Cinnamon and Lubuntu but I can't get any of them to install on the laptop. I get as far as the "load OS" screen but when I press enter all I get is a screen of coloured vertical lines and the laptop is frozen at that and requires a hard reboot. I'm thinking it may be a hardware problem but I have no problems in XP and all the drivers are up to date as far as I know.

areyawell · 17-09-2012 10:02pm

Are you booting the cd from windows desktop or as a live cd when you turn on the laptop?

bmaxi · 17-09-2012 10:29pm

As a live CD, I'm actually booting Lubuntu from USB.

areyawell · 17-09-2012 10:40pm

Was the USB drive formatted to fat32 first? Wont work properly otherwise. Also if plan on installing to hard drive id recommend doing it on a partition, perhaps 8gb. But should work fine with just running it off a usb

GreenWolfe · 17-09-2012 10:42pm

What's the graphics card in the laptop?

bmaxi · 17-09-2012 10:53pm

EarthlyPangaea wrote: »

What's the graphics card in the laptop?

ATI Radion Xpress 1150

bmaxi · 17-09-2012 11:04pm

areyawell wrote: »

Was the USB drive formatted to fat32 first? Wont work properly otherwise. Also if plan on installing to hard drive id recommend doing it on a partition, perhaps 8gb. But should work fine with just running it off a usb

Yes the USB is Fat 32, not very up to speed with partitions, I prefer to let the OS do it's own thing.

Johnboy1951 · 17-09-2012 11:44pm

areyawell wrote: »

Was the USB drive formatted to fat32 first? Wont work properly otherwise. Also if plan on installing to hard drive id recommend doing it on a partition, perhaps 8gb. But should work fine with just running it off a usb

Why is this? Surely ?/ubuntu can be booted from other fiesystems?

What won't work properly?

Thanks.

areyawell · 17-09-2012 11:51pm

Ubuntu cant utilise NTFS only FAT16 or FAT32.OP Did you download the 32bit or 64bit version. Your laptop is probably 32bit

Johnboy1951 · 18-09-2012 12:03am

areyawell wrote: »

Ubuntu cant utilise NTFS only FAT16 or FAT32.

I wasn't aware of that, thanks.

The only time I recall running Ubuntu was from an ext filesystem ....

druidhill · 18-09-2012 12:08am

I seem to harp on about this quite a bit, but install virtually using something like VMWare or Virtualbox (my choice) - makes for a much easier and quicker install. It certainly eliminates a number of these issues.

If you wanted, you could install a working OS and then install the graphical desktop (as it does sound like a graphics issue you are having and I only work with CLI so can't help with that).

bmaxi · 18-09-2012 8:18am

areyawell wrote: »

Ubuntu cant utilise NTFS only FAT16 or FAT32.OP Did you download the 32bit or 64bit version. Your laptop is probably 32bit

All 32 bit.

bmaxi · 18-09-2012 8:28am

druidhill wrote: »

I seem to harp on about this quite a bit, but install virtually using something like VMWare or Virtualbox (my choice) - makes for a much easier and quicker install. It certainly eliminates a number of these issues.

If you wanted, you could install a working OS and then install the graphical desktop (as it does sound like a graphics issue you are having and I only work with CLI so can't help with that).

Sorry, I didn't understand a word of that. XP is installed on the laptop, do you mean run a programme inside XP?
One thing I neglected to mention earlier is that the linux systems all run perfectly on my desktop, which is what points me toward a hardware problem.

PrzemoF · 18-09-2012 9:41am

OP, burn a cd

bmaxi · 18-09-2012 10:45am

PrzemoF wrote: »

OP, burn a cd

I've burnt two CDs, one for Ubuntu 12.04 and one for Mint Cinnamon, the USB is Lubuntu, none of the media have worked.

Johnboy1951 · 18-09-2012 11:03am

Try d/loading a different distro ....... PCLinuxOS or Mepis are also good choices.

PrzemoF · 18-09-2012 11:26am

OK, try using boot option acpi=off

More here, if you're not sure what I'm talking about:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132

bmaxi · 18-09-2012 12:02pm

PrzemoF wrote: »

OK, try using boot option acpi=off

More here, if you're not sure what I'm talking about:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132

Thanks but having read some of the posts in that forum, I wouldn't feel competent or confident enough to try that. I have a working, not functional, knowledge of computers and I'd be afraid I wouldn't be able to recover the situation if anything went wrong. I also have zero knowledge of Linux systems and a lot of the terminology is gobbledeygook to me

Knasher · 18-09-2012 12:17pm

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1477668 this thread covers somebody with the same problem (and even the same laptop), along with a solution.

Also while acpi=off can be problematic if your laptop fans don't work without it, nomodeset is risk free.

PrzemoF · 18-09-2012 3:59pm

bmaxi wrote: »

Thanks but having read some of the posts in that forum, I wouldn't feel competent or confident enough to try that. I have a working, not functional, knowledge of computers and I'd be afraid I wouldn't be able to recover the situation if anything went wrong. I also have zero knowledge of Linux systems and a lot of the terminology is gobbledeygook to me

OK, understood. Anyway I think that Knasher found the solution - if you need any help with using it let us know!

bmaxi · 18-09-2012 10:20pm

OK. Followed the instructions in Knashers post and after a few false starts managed to get Ubuntu to load, got as far as the ID set up and all was going well, left it installing for a few minutes and when I returned, black screen. I assumed it had just finished and gone to sleep but when I try to boot into anything now I meet fail notices. I can get to a boot screen with five options, Ubuntu, Ubuntu recovery mode, mem test, mem test serial console and Windows XP (on/dev/sda1) but none will boot into an OS. The Windows option takes me to a "stop" error and advises to run chkdsk but I can't do that without accessing the OS. There is also an option to edit or run a command line but I don't know what to edit or what commands to use. Any suggestions? At this stage I'd be happy enough just to do a clean install of XP.

PrzemoF · 19-09-2012 1:28pm

select ubuntu, press 'e'. You'll see the details of this grub menu entry.
Do you see 'nomodeset' there?
If it's not there you have to add it.

(After booting the system you'll have to make the changes permanent.)

Can you make a photo of a failed ubuntu boot? There is always a message what's wrong. There is a chance the the installation process was never finished, so you might have to do it again.

bmaxi · 19-09-2012 8:23pm

PrzemoF wrote: »

select ubuntu, press 'e'. You'll see the details of this grub menu entry.
Do you see 'nomodeset' there?
If it's not there you have to add it.

(After booting the system you'll have to make the changes permanent.)

Can you make a photo of a failed ubuntu boot? There is always a message what's wrong. There is a chance the the installation process was never finished, so you might have to do it again.

Thanks. I won't be home until late tonight so I'll post tomorrow.

bmaxi · 20-09-2012 12:00pm

OK, not possible to take photo of the screen as all I get is photo of the flash and without flash, picture is indistinct so I'll have to do it the hard way.
First off, booting into Ubuntu just gives a black screen with a flashing cursor, no key activity. booting into XP gives the choice of OS and then the stop screen.

Pressing e gives this menu;
GNU GRUB v. 1.99-21ubuntu3.1
set params 'ubuntu with linux 3.2.0-29-generic-pae'

recordfail
gfxmode $ linux-gfx-mode
insmod gz10
insmod part-ms dos
insmod ext 2
set root='(ld00,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy--fsuuid-set=rootcae8205f-1c1c-407e-b162-b8e004c2d853
linux/boot/umlinuz- 3.2.0-29-generic-pae root=uuid=cae8205f-1c1c-407e-b162-b8e004c-2d853 ro quietsplash $ut-handof\f
initrd/boot/initrd-3.2.0-29-pae

At the bottom of the page;
Minimum Emacs-like screen editing is supported. TAB lists completions. Press ctrl-x to boot, ctrl c for command line or ESC to discard.

Cursor is movable

Pressing c gives;GNU GRUB V. 1.99-21 ubuntu 3.1

Minimal BASH like line editing is supported for the first word, TAB lists possible device or file completions.
grub>

PrzemoF · 20-09-2012 12:20pm

Replace quietsplash with nomodeset

if it works we'll make the changes permanent

bmaxi · 20-09-2012 1:22pm

PrzemoF wrote: »

Replace quietsplash with nomodeset

if it works we'll make the changes permanent

No luck. It brings up a long screen of script and just hangs at that.
The last two items on the screen are begin running /scripts/local/bottom and begin running scripts/init/bottom

PrzemoF · 20-09-2012 1:35pm

can you try to boot a live cd with this nomodeset option?
I guessing that the installation was never finished.

Install it again, this time with acpi=off (it should be somewhere in advanced options)

Read more here:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/160036/how-do-i-disable-acpi-when-booting

P.S I wanted to check if the option is there, but i don't have a 12.04.1 livecd

bmaxi · 20-09-2012 2:10pm

PrzemoF wrote: »

can you try to boot a live cd with this nomodeset option?
I guessing that the installation was never finished.

Install it again, this time with acpi=off (it should be somewhere in advanced options)

Read more here:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/160036/how-do-i-disable-acpi-when-booting

P.S I wanted to check if the option is there, but i don't have a 12.04.1 livecd

I'm going to download it again. When I look at the CD I burned there's only about half the surface written on, seems strange for a 700mb disc with a 695mb programme on it. I'll post back later.

bmaxi · 21-09-2012 10:08am

Downloaded Ubuntu again and no change. I tried it on another laptop and it worked perfectly so it is obviously a hardware problem, probably graphics card.
I'm going to cut my losses and go back to XP as there is no way to upgrade the graphics card, all I have to do now is figure out how to get all the stuff off my hard drive

.
Many thanks to everyone for your help and patience.

Johnboy1951 · 21-09-2012 4:12pm

bmaxi wrote: »

Downloaded Ubuntu again and no change. I tried it on another laptop and it worked perfectly so it is obviously a hardware problem, probably graphics card.
I'm going to cut my losses and go back to XP as there is no way to upgrade the graphics card, all I have to do now is figure out how to get all the stuff off my hard drive .
Many thanks to everyone for your help and patience.

You could try a different distro ..... not Ubuntu based ..... to see if there is any different outcome.

bmaxi · 21-09-2012 10:03pm

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

You could try a different distro ..... not Ubuntu based ..... to see if there is any different outcome.

I did try PCLinux after you suggested it and I actually forgot to mention that it loaded without a problem but I didn't particularly like the interface and didn't find it user friendly. No doubt someone will contradict me but first impressions are important and Ubuntu and Mint Cinnamon were the most impressive to a newbie like me.

Problem installing Linux

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