[Sussex] Ubuntu install

[Steve Dobson]

Hi Phil

On 27/11/10 22:39, Desmond Armstrong wrote:
> On 27/11/10 21:09, PHILIP COLLINGS wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> I am trying to install ubuntu 10.10 on to a tower that I have built.
>
>> The cpu is running at 1400 but will go higher, 2.5 gb ram.200gb hdd.
>> I have been trying to install with live disks which do work on another
>> comp I've got. The unit freezes from just after the dos front pages of
>> the comp to the boot menu of the disks, or anywhere in between.

You haven't told us which motherboard and CPU you are using.  The speed 
of the CPU is not really all that important for installation debugging, 
whether it is an AMD64 or a IA32 processor is much more useful (as is 
the motherboard make and model).

Given that you have built a tower I am going to assume that you went 
down the AMD64 route, they are common and cheep these days so there is 
really no reason not to (I assume that there are still IA32 motherboards 
on the market - I haven't checked).

I don't have a universal knowledge of all motherboards but the AMD64 
motherboards I have played with to date have their memory split into two 
banks, and you get best system performance if you balance the memory 
sticks between both banks.  If the memory sockets on your motherboard 
are in two colours then I would suggest that it is very likely that this 
is the case here.

2.5GB of memory is a really odd amount for a AMD64 system.  Assuming 
that you have 2 x 1GB plus 1 x 0.5GB memory sticks I would give serious 
thought to pulling the 0.5GB unit.

>> I have as yet to get a full install. the furthest I've got once, was
>> the keyboard and time zone settings
>> Has any body got any ideas, as I'm beginning to run out of things to try.
>
> The first thing I would check is the CD drive as, if it is worn, this is
> the sort of problem one gets. So try another CD or DVD drive first.
>
> But have you had the live CD running properly?

Desmond is right.  You can get some funny errors on failing CD-ROM 
drivers.  But the problem may be more fundamental, it maybe that your 
motherboard (which I assume you've just purchased) may have hardware not 
supported by the kernel on the CD-ROM.

How up to date is your Ubuntu CD?  I don't mean when did you download 
it, I mean when did Canonical master it?  Which kernel/driver set is on 
that CD and does it support all the hardware on your motherboard?  I 
recently installed Debian on a friend's not to old laptop (AMD64) and 
found that there was an issue with the screen/frame-buffer driver in the 
kernel itself.  In this case it was a bug introduced into the kernel 
itself, and old version worked fine.  You might like to try the previous 
version of Ubuntu.  (Note: AMD64 fully supports IA32 so you can try the 
old 32-bit software on a newer 64-bit processor, it just doesn't run as 
fast.)

If you're not having any luck with Ubuntu then have you thought of 
trying another distro.  I'm not suggesting that you switch permanently, 
but trying a different install CD with a different kernel/driver set may 
work and at least it will prove that your hardware is working properly.

Debian, for example, have just entered the final stages of testing for 
the 6.0 "squeeze" release.  This includes proper support at last for a 
USB stick network installer. (http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst)  As 
Ubuntu is Debian based this should give you something close to what 
you're use to with Ubuntu.

Steve