str8chat4u
October 21st, 2010, 09:28 PM
I tried to "Try before you Install" Ubuntu 10.10 CD on two PCs. Both PCs have previously run Ubuntu 10.04. First PC, an HP NX9005 laptop got as far as displaying a screen to select the language and choose either "Try before you install" or "Install" options. On selecting "Try before you Install" option, the mouse pointer changed to the rotating busy icon, but nothing else happened. After 10 minutes I gave up waiting and powered down.
The second PC, a fairly old Via based system, went into a permanent loop - getting as far as the word "Boot:", pausing for a few seconds, very briefly displaying a message I did not manage to read, and then dropping back to the start of the BIOS boot sequence. Eventually I typed in the word "help" and hit return as soon as the word "Boot:" was displayed. This gave a list of help options. After selecting one, it loaded a kernel and then displayed a message stating that a couple of instructions were not supported by the CPU, and very unhelpfully said use another kernel. This is very irritating when it is one of the first steps in a boot sequence. Either the boot CD should state that version 10.10 is incompatible with the system on which I was trying to run it, or it should offer an alternative kernel. Better still, it should automatically load a kernel that will run on older hardware.
One reason for looking at Ubuntu is that it tends to be much better at running on older slower hardware than the current Microsoft systems. To exclude these machines by making a system that will run only on the latest hardware is illogical.
The second PC, a fairly old Via based system, went into a permanent loop - getting as far as the word "Boot:", pausing for a few seconds, very briefly displaying a message I did not manage to read, and then dropping back to the start of the BIOS boot sequence. Eventually I typed in the word "help" and hit return as soon as the word "Boot:" was displayed. This gave a list of help options. After selecting one, it loaded a kernel and then displayed a message stating that a couple of instructions were not supported by the CPU, and very unhelpfully said use another kernel. This is very irritating when it is one of the first steps in a boot sequence. Either the boot CD should state that version 10.10 is incompatible with the system on which I was trying to run it, or it should offer an alternative kernel. Better still, it should automatically load a kernel that will run on older hardware.
One reason for looking at Ubuntu is that it tends to be much better at running on older slower hardware than the current Microsoft systems. To exclude these machines by making a system that will run only on the latest hardware is illogical.