10.10 Installation Trouble

[JMB902]

Hi all, new here,

I'm having a really hard time loading Ubuntu on a bit of an older HP computer. Unfortunately I'm not hugely tech savvy so I can only narrate the sequence of events as they happened, sorry if its unduly lengthy.

First off though, the system specs are as follows:

CPU: Intel Celeron, 1.70 Ghz / 400 MHz
RAM: 512 MB
Core Version: 4.06

It had hitherto been running Windows XP.

First of all, I put the Ubuntu 10.10 32-bit disk in and booted it up, with the CD drive set first in the BIOS boot priority list. However, Windows still booted. I tried running the CD inside Windows, but the computer froze. I've successfully installed Ubuntu on my laptop from the same ISO, so I figured the CD drive must've had it.

So I got a USB CD drive, plugged it in. Unfortunately, it didn't show up in the BIOS boot list, nor did any USB drives (the only 'Removable Device' listed is a 'Legacy Floppy Drive'). Still, once in Windows, the CD autoran and I clicked the last option (something like 'Help boot Ubuntu') and it installed its program.

Once the computer restarted, I was given the option to boot either Windows or Ubuntu; I chose Ubuntu and all seemed well. I chose to erase the disk and install Ubuntu as I had on my other computer. It went smoothly enough, until I got to the 'Who Are You?' prompt - I filled out name, computer name, password etc. but the 'Forward' butten remained pale and I couldn't click it. I waited, and the orange bar crept up to a bit over two thirds of the way and the text above it said 'Ready when you are...'; still I couldn't click 'Forward'. I left it for a considerable deal of time and nothing changed. I (probably quite stupidly) figured I should restart and try again.

Now here's the problem: The hard drive seems quite erased - when I turn the computer on, after the usual diagnostic screen, I just get a blinking white dot in the top left of a black screen. There's no option to boot Ubuntu, and I can't convince the BIOS that I have an external CD drive plugged in that I'd like it to boot before anything else.

Quite frankly, I'm at a loss.

Plese, if you have any suggestions, I'd be really grateful - thanks for reading all of this; sorry again for my lack of technical knowledge.

Thanks,
JMB902

[Katfish]

Try using a wipe-out disk to clean everything out of the hard-drive and then start over with your installation.

[JMB902]

Thanks for your response!
The only trouble there is I don't have the original disks that came with the computer (are there generic wipe-out disks?) - and the CD drive itself doesn't work.

[dino99]

you first need to set the bios booting on cd

or following this howto:

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jellykernel.org%2Fgeek%2Finstal ler-ubuntu-sans-cd-ni-cle-usb-ubuntu-netinstall%2F

[JMB902]

Hi, thanks for the link.
This computer doesn't seem to have any OS on it anymore (my first attempt at installing Ubuntu must have erased it). What I did manage to find though, was this site:
http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm

I followed Method 3, which successfully booted Ubuntu from a USB drive. So I'm installing now but having the same problem as the first time.

It gets to the 'Who are you?' prompt - I've filled it all out; the orange progress bar is almost at the end but has stopped moving and the text above it reads 'Ready when you are...' but the forward button is still pale and unclickable.

Is there something I could type in to the terminal underneath it to move to the next prompt?

Thanks again.

[JMB902]

Ah...never mind, I'm a dope :) :
I just changed the username to lower case letters and it proceeded fine.

But thanks for the other tips.