Ubutu install issues

[SrGuapo]

OK, I got my ubuntu boot CD ready and I have tried it multiple times in my old dell machine (P3 500, 256 MB RAM, 20GB ATA). Anyways, at first, every time it wouls quickly scroll through a bunch of stuff then go into a seemingly endless loop of equal signs ("="). I don't know if this is normal, but I let it run for about 15 minutes before trying again. I set some of the parameters (like turning off APIC interupt routing and a coupoe others that could have been relevant). Now it will not go into the "="s, but it will give me errors saying something about a "kernal panic".

Can anyone help me out? I have no idea what I am doing and some help from someone is appreciated. The hard drive is an ancient 20GB ATA drive. It was partitioned as FAT32 in Wndows, but I ran Derek's boot and nuke on it. Any advice as to what I'm doing wrong?

 

[SrGuapo]

Bump.

Surely someone has experience with installing ubuntu...

 

[user1234]

Did you just bump your thread after 23 minutes ? You really expect anyone to answer within such a short time ? I suggest to go to ubuntuforums.org

 

[WobbleWobble]

Originally posted by: user1234
Did you just bump your thread after 23 minutes ? You really expect anyone to answer within such a short time ? I suggest to go to ubuntuforums.org

It was a day and 23 minutes...

 

[drag]

not normal behavior at all. Usually the first thing I look at is if I burned the cd correctly.

It's easy to have a burner create a bad install cd. Usually the issues that I have revolve around that.

Try burning the cd again at a slow speed. Maybe try using a different program. (nero works good for me in Windows XP)

 

[n0cmonkey]

Try drag's stuff first, and if that doesn't work:
Test your ram with memtest86.
Try a different IDE cable.

 

[HKSturboKID]

Or u can request cd from ubuntu for free. The last time I requested their CD, it took about 2-3 weeks. I requested like 10 copies for friends and family. Since they came from out of the country. It was all rip apart and inspected when I got it in the mail.

 

[SrGuapo]

Thanks for the input. I am running memtest now and am trying to find another IDE cable... I can burn another boot CD. Can anyone recommend some good free software?

 

[SrGuapo]

Uhhh, memtest does work with SD RAM right? I have been running for about 5 minutes and I have over 300,000 errors o_0 in the first test! If that is the problem the PC is really not worth keeping. The only other SD RAM I own is a 16 MB stick in my old Pentium 1.

edit: 500,000

 

[SrGuapo]

Yep, pulled out the first stick, ran memtest again, clean as a whistle...

I am installing right now... thanks for all the help guys!

 

[n0cmonkey]

And people wonder why I frequently suspect RAM.

:beer:

 

[SrGuapo]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
And people wonder why I frequently suspect RAM.

:beer:

lol... I assumed it was a hard drive issue because of the errors and slow boot speeds... Weird, I just realized tht this was my first hardware failure (besides the destruction of my voodoo3, but that was not an accident).

Actually, I have aniother problem now. It installed the core components and told me to reboot. I did so and now my PC says that no OS is found. I changed the HDD to the primary boot device and I get the same message... Any advice?