Can't even get started.

[ColdWarBaby]

This is my first day here so please bear with me.
I've managed to find one thread in the forum that was similar to my problem but the discussion got so technical that i just had to stop reading. And that was in Absolute beginners!
So, here's the story for anyone who can help.
Downloaded Ubuntu. Successfully burned the CD. Got the menu offering the various options and chose the trial at reboot. Rebooted my computer and got nothing but a black screen with a single white cursor in the upper left hand corner.
Had to eject the CD and pull the plug to get the PC to shut down. Tried it several times and got nowhere so here I am.
I was under the impression, from the info at the download site (http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download), that once the CD was burned, getting to demo the OS would be a cake-walk.
Now, i'm what you might call techno-impaired. I really just want to kick microsoft to the curb. I've got an old gateway PC with a pentium 4 processor and not a whole lot of memory. If i'm wasting my time trying to get this to work, just be honest and let me know.
If there's a relatively simple explanation for what's happening and a reasonably easy fix, i'm all ears.
Thanks to all in advance for any help anyone can offer.
CWB
There is no way to Peace. Peace is the Way.

[Zzl1xndd]

Can you advise how much ram you have in the system? It takes a little bit to run the LiveCD.

If its less then 512 you might have issues.

[Legendary_Bibo]

how long did you wait? It takes a while for it to boot into the OS off of the CD on an old PC.

[anewguy]

As already mentioned:

- please post back the specs of the computer - cpu/memory/video adapter/etc

- it can take what seems like a *LONG* time for it to load up from the CD. Allow at least 5 minutes, then check your drive light and watch for activity. If you don't see any drive activity for about 2 minutes it might be a problem.

We can provide options to boot in when it's booting to get around some problems - video and power options for example.

Dave

[QIII]

How do you define "successfully burned the CD"?

In addition to the foregoing questions (your hardware specs are quite important), did you:

1. Check the md5sum as described on the download site?

2. Attempt to run the option to check the disk for errors?

I agree with the general tenor of the preceding posts. We need to be sure your specs will support the LiveCD.

If they don't, you can install from the "Alternate" image. However, your performance may not be spectacular. There are lighter versions such as Xubuntu and Lubuntu (not "official" yet, but nearly there) that will run on lower-spec machines.

[utnubuuser]

Hello

There are some known bugs/issues too. Here's a link to the release notes

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LucidLynx/ReleaseNotes

and the forum sticky for known workarounds

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1469475

and ditto on the idea of checking the CD for errors. - limited ram can cause slow loading; and there are boot parameters that have gotten some people around the blinking cursor - here's a link to boot-parameter fixes

http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2010/05/...up-workaround/

[k3lt01]

Ubuntu 10.04 does have some difficulty installing on low RAM machines. I had to update from 9.10 via Update Manager and that was with 256mg RAM. Once it is on though, with a little tweaking, it will run brilliantly on as little as 265mg RAM if you have about 2gb SWAP.

As the others have said we really need to know your system specs, things like RAM Video Card etc so we can help you get the best Ubuntu experience for your setup.