Installing 8.04 on Dell Inspiron 8200

[chewyjoint]

Hi

I am looking for advice on installing Ubuntu on an old Dell laptop please.

There is a complication in that the screen on the laptop is broken so I have to use an external monitor.

I've tried formatting the drive and have completely removed the old windows installation. When i insert the Ubuntu CD it gives me the options screen and I've tried several options but whatever I try after about 2 minutes of action the screen just starts flashing alternatively black and orange.

For all I know I could be making a very basic error but if anyone can offer advice I'd be most grateful.

Thanks

[raymondh]

Hi

I am looking for advice on installing Ubuntu on an old Dell laptop please.

There is a complication in that the screen on the laptop is broken so I have to use an external monitor.

I've tried formatting the drive and have completely removed the old windows installation. When i insert the Ubuntu CD it gives me the options screen and I've tried several options but whatever I try after about 2 minutes of action the screen just starts flashing alternatively black and orange.

For all I know I could be making a very basic error but if anyone can offer advice I'd be most grateful.

Thanks


Have you compared the minimum spec requirements of 8.04 with your system? Note that though it may say 256mb RAM (as an example), it'll need more because some of it needs to be used by the graphics.

Try a safe graphic-mode. Press F4 and it is one of the options. Or, you can also try an alternate CD install. It is text-based instead of GUI based. Another alternative is to do a minimal (sever) install and add on later a lighter desktop/window manager (like LXDE or openbox).

Let us know how goes.

[jjcv]

I have and old Inspiron 8000 whichI tried to install 9.04 on with no luck. I kept getting a split screen which was not usable. I tried various other distros also, got one working but cannot remember which. It may have been Fedora or Suse.

The hardware is just too old for the latest software it seems.

[seenthelite]

Do you have the standard desktop CD or the alternate CD, if you access the documentation available at the Ubuntu site regarding installation on older machines they advise to go with the alternate CD method. I will be doing this myself in the next few days on a Toshiba laptop purchased in 2000. Puppy runs well on older machines also.