installation freezes after 10 min

[citronella49]

Hello,
I am completely new to linux, so I am sorry that I have no idea what I am talking about.

I have an old Dell Inspiron B120 which was running really sluggish on win xp, so I tried to reinstall xp, but had constant errors. So I gave up and decided to go with linux... I have used only knoppix before so I tried that and it booted up fine on the Dell... I figured for the perm install I should go with something better, so I chose ubuntu after some reading.

Problem: I put the cd in and chose install and waited, the ubuntu load screen came up fine and loaded all the way and then an x-windows style desktop came up... looks like a water stained piece of old paper with an X cursor... I was able to move the mouse for a short time... nothing else popped up and after a few min the mouse stopped responding and it froze...

This is the second time I've tried to install, and it froze both times. I am going to keep trying, but if anyone has any ideas, or rather questions ... cause I don't know what I'm doing wrong, that would be so helpful. Thank you

[citronella49]

ok, so I tried it again and this time it went past the x-win screen and the screen flashed on and off several times, when it was on it showed either vertical or horizontal lines, then flash black... eventually the screen turned gray and there was a circle cursor with some dots going around inside the circle... after a while I touched the mouse pad and the cursor disappeared and the cd stopped spinning and it all locked up again...

I have a question... how can this be installing without asking me any questions?

[kahlil88]

It sounds like there is a problem with your hardware. If it freezes before asking you questions, Ubuntu is not installing.

[spedax]

have you tried checking the cd for errors ?

[linux_tech]

what are the system specs, how much memory is there in the machine?
If there is 256, then puppy or possibly xubuntu would work better.


Assuming you have 512 or better, give the alternate cd a try
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/downloadmirrors#alternate