Need Help Making the Switch

[Eric998765]

So I decided after doing some research last month that I was going to make the switch to Kubuntu from vista (although I have had zero problems in a year and a half with my vista (64 bit enterprise)). So anyway, I'll be getting a new hard drive for my desktop soon since I'm running out of room, but before i make the 100% commitment, I was going to test out Kubuntu on an old laptop, but I can't get it to install! I've done the disk check at boot and it came up with no problems. When i do a straight install (standard or oem) it has a loading screen for awhile and eventually i get a black screen with a cursor that i can move with the mouse, but thats it, and eventually the laptop will shut itself off. then if i turn it on again and try to do the option to run kubuntu while keeping current os or whatever (the first option at boot) it gets me to a greyish screen and pops up some icons (two of which look like a hard drive and some tools ie hammer) and whether i click on something or not, it too eventually shut the laptop down.

so am i doing something wrong or is there some kind of hardware issue i might be having?

 

[sourceninja]

Please give us specs on your hardware. It will be impossible to help in any way other then guessing without it.

 

[Eric998765]

yeah i figured that might help.

Toshiba Satellite M35X
Intel Celeron 1.4GHz cpu
256MB ram
Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME graphics controller
Realtek AC97 audio
BIOS is toshiba v1.2 from 9/3/2004
SMBIOS 2.31
40GB toshiba mk4025gas hdd

 

[SickBeast]

Have you tried a standard Ubuntu installation?

Are you sure you're not using the 64-bit version by mistake?

You should check the CD to make sure it's not damaged/scratched.

I've had no problems whatsoever installing Ubuntu, and I did have Kubuntu up and running once as well. I typically boot up off the CD and browse the internet on Firefox while it installs to the hard disk.

Oh, I've also heard of people having problems installing Ubuntu with 256mb of ram or less. Apparently you need 512mb of ram to install Ubuntu, and then only 256mb to run it (for whatever reason).

You may get more mileage out of that machine with Puppy Linux.

 

[Colt45]

I've got debian on some of my similar laptops, never had a problem. Maybe try one of the live CD distros, to see if they have a problem too (maybe some funky hardware..)

 

[crazychicken]

I use fedora - both fedora and ubuntu release a new version every 6 months-ish - i like to stay ontop of the "latest and greatest" thats why I like these distros.

Dave

 

[sourceninja]

I'd be suprised if the liveCD installer can run on 256megs of ram. I'd suggest the alt install disk. You can get that from the kubuntu or ubuntu website. It will install the same OS, just with a much less resource intensive installer.

 

[blackangst1]

Is your mobo nvidia 965 chipset? If so, youre probably out of luck with the install. Compatibility issues.

 

[Eric998765]

well, funny story, downloaded the alternate cd, and got the install to work flawlessly, set up everything and was ready to go, and when kde 4.1 loaded, it died just like the live cd. so basically i have a reformatted hdd and can't get a full boot guess i'll be reinstalling windows and just waiting a few weeks til i get my new deskto hdd to get linux

 

[Nothinman]

Then you've got an Xorg problem.

 

[sourceninja]

Sounds like either a X windows driver issue for the video card, or kde4 is just too much for that computer.

 

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: sourceninja
Sounds like either a X windows driver issue for the video card, or kde4 is just too much for that computer.

Or he/she is trying to install on a p965 chipset.

 

[hunter761]

With only a quarter Gig of RAM, you want to stay away from resource hungry apps like KDE 4. Try a distro designed for 'older/limited' hardware. TinyMe and PCFluxboxOS are my two favs. Both are based on PCLinuxOS which itself is based on Mandrivia.

H

 

[NoShangriLa]

Try Damn Small Linux for that little of RAM.