10.04 nor 10.10 will install... not happy

[th1bill]

I tried to upgrade my 10.04 to solve a long running issue with grub-pc not configuring and in doing so I crashed my entire main system.

Okay, fresh install... First the Maveic CD but at an estimated 25 to 30% it stalled. Repeated attempts... same result. Go back to Lucid but at 29% (reported by installer) the Installer reports failure. I used my back-up unit and download a fresh copy of Maveric only to have the same result.

I have tried other Debian derivatives such as Lenny, Mint and Mepis... these seem to have a video failure in the early stages of the install leading me to believe that there is an issue with my hardware... like I gotten ahead of the community with my last upgrade?

Before I ran a K8 series BioStar mainboar and now;
MSI.............K9N6pgm2v
AMD.............Phenom Black Triple Core
2 gig of memory
onboard video

I have fallen back to my old ******* XP and it installed without a hitch... is there any hope that I can...maybe, dual boot this without destroying the MBR beyond repair? The last two attempts did just that requiring a fresh install of *******, the repair panel and fixmbr failed repeatedly.

[mörgæs]

How does a 10.10 live boot work?

[drs305]

I have tried other Debian derivatives such as Lenny, Mint and Mepis... these seem to have a video failure in the early stages of the install leading me to believe that there is an issue with my hardware... like I gotten ahead of the community with my last upgrade?.

Have you tried some of the boot options before beginning the install? I'm a bit surprised you'd need them with onboard video since this is usually for graphics cards, but there are boot options you can set as the CD starts.

When you see the two icons at the bottom of the screen, press F6. The language screen will pop up. Hit ESC then F6 again and you will see various options you can select, including 'nomodeset'.

If you know of a specific kernel option you need to use that isn't listed, hit escape again and you should be able to add it to the boot line at the bottom of the screen.

You'll have to do a bit of searching if you don't know what each of the predefined kernel options does and whether or not you might need them.

Good luck with the install.