Ubuntu will not boot ........ Help

[Carlos 99]

Hi all, Hope you can help me solve my dilemma. Have recently bought mini 9 with ubuntu pre-installed, All working fine until tried to get my wireless dongle working. Have altered a couple of file as suggested on this and other forums but to no avail and now mini will not even boot up...... The ubuntu logo comes on and progress bar freezes half way through. Eventually i get WARNING ; Failed to open config file/etc/modprobe.d/arch-aliases : no such device or address. Have tried booting in recovery mode as described on this forum but still will not boot and same error showing. I am using ubuntu 8.04. Hope someone can help.

[ugm6hr]

The Mini has built-in wifi. Why do you need a dongle?

Perhaps if you tell us exactly what you did, we might be able to help.

The other option is to reinstall Ubuntu from scratch.

[Carlos 99]

Thanks for reply, Sounds really dumb but cannot remember what i altered..... I basically want to use rescue disk supplied by dell and re-install and start again Have bought external optical usb dribe off flea bay but it does not seem to work even though i have changed boot sequence to look for this first. Tried new optical drive on windows and it plays and reads fine. I want to use my dongle for when im on the move and out of range of wifi connection. If i can get machine to boot i will upgrade to ubuntu 8.10 as i believe that will run my dongle without any issues. Any ideas how to get my machine to boot are welcome.

[ugm6hr]

If you want Ubuntu 8.10, just install that directly (no need for external DVD - use a USB):
http://www.ubuntumini.com/2008/10/user-guides-for-ubuntu-810-intrpid-ibex.html

[Carlos 99]

Hey thanks for the info, So i make live usb of 8.10 and set boot sequence to usb . Is the install off the usb easy ( will it update hardy heron which is on my dell mini at the moment or will i have to enter commands etc to do this as the copy of ubuntu on there is dells version .. ??)

[ugm6hr]

See the link for details.

It will not update, but just copy over the existing Hardy.