Major installation roadblock

[josephst18]

Hey everyone. I have an old Acer Travelmate C100 that really does not want to boot from any installation CD besides its own XP recovery set. Xubuntu minimal install- nothing. Ubuntu 8.10 full install- still nothing. Wubi tells me it doesn't have enough RAM to continue (it has 256MB), and if this warning is ignored, Ubuntu just boots and shows a logo, then the screen flashes green and everything freezes. Is there any way to install Ubuntu without using a CD or a USB stick (BIOS doesn't support them). I have read about the network install method, but it is so complicated it just makes me want to stick with Windows XP. The best way would be to install it on its own partition, but from inside Windows. However, I have not found any ways to copy the files to a new partition, reboot, and finish setting up Ubuntu.

[Mark Phelps]

You MIGHT be able to force an Ubuntu install, but with 256MB of RAM, you won't be happy with it. I was able to force an install of Xubuntu on a 256MB laptop and it ran so slow, and took so long to paint the windows, that it was all but useless.

You would do better with one of the less memory-intensive Linux's like Puppy Linux, or Damn Small Linux (DSL).

See the distrowatch website for a list of Linux distros available.