Scrambled X Windows during installation

[czy]

Hello,

I am trying to install Ubuntu 7.10 from a liveCD onto a virtual machine (Parallels workstation).

I get the installation boot screen, which for some reason is different to the normal screen when I boot my system with the liveCD (see attached image ubuntustartup.jpg), ie, it does not have the options to "Start Installing Ubuntu", "Check disk integrity" etc.

Once I enter the command "live", it loads the installation X Windows but the display is scrambled as in the attached screenshot (scrambled.jpg)

I have tried fiddling around with resolution settings on the virtual machine, but to no avail.

My questions are:
1) Why am I getting that particular boot screen instead of the normal one? and what are the implications?

2) During the boot prompt, how can I force the installation X Windows to a a particular resolution? Are there any other display-related arguments that might help? (I tried entering "live vga=771", but it did not work)

Help would be much appreciated, since I need to decide whether to purchase this VM software before the trial expires.

Thanks in advance!