Blank screen trying to install on IBM laptop

[terrymac5]

I have an old IBM i series 1200. Thought I'd try ubuntu. Booted a verified CD and it goes to blank screen and hangs. Tried "vga=792 acpi=force irqpoll" in boot options based on a forum suggestion but that didn't help. Any thoughts? 160MB RAM might be the issue?

[nicedude]

160 MB is too little for a live CD install I believe it takes 190-256MB ( somewhere in that range ) and I would recommend you to use Xubuntu instead on a machine like this as it uses XFCE desktop rather than Gnome desktop and will install on machines with as little as 128MB of RAM so you should be fine and it will run much faster than Ubuntu on your machine. Also if you get Xubuntu CD and it gives you problems booting up 2 suggestions,

1. remember there are "alternate install" disks for Xubuntu ( and Ubuntu )that don't have the live boot function and are for machines that have problems booting to the live disks.

2. there are other boot parameters to try other than the ones you listed such as noapci -> just google around for 10 minutes for linux boot parameters and you should be able to find some lists, I can't remember them off the top of my head though

Hope this helps you out, PM me if you have any further questions as I won't see them in this thread more than likely.

nicedude

[snowpine]

I have an old IBM i series 1200. Thought I'd try ubuntu. Booted a verified CD and it goes to blank screen and hangs. Tried "vga=792 acpi=force irqpoll" in boot options based on a forum suggestion but that didn't help. Any thoughts? 160MB RAM might be the issue?

160mb is not enough RAM to run any of the Live CDs. I would recommend the Xubuntu Alternate CD, which supposedly requires a minimum 128mb. This is assuming you are able to get the video to work; sorry but I am not an expert with the IBM's. Good luck!

[terrymac5]

Thanks to both of you for your replies. I'll give xubuntu a try and report back.

[snowpine]

Thanks to both of you for your replies. I'll give xubuntu a try and report back.

Make sure you use the alternate CD.
Good luck, Xubuntu is a great distro!