Having trouble installing Ubuntu

[lostwarden]

Here is my problem. I bought a laptop (256MB RAM/Centrino Processor/80GB HD) from a guy with no OS, and the CD/DVD ROM drive has problems reading disks. I tried using a disk install and the drive realizes that there is an ISO, but booting keeps failing.

I have gone as far as using Damn Small Linux to try to intially setup seeing that a smaller ISO file may boot better. I haven't gotten that to run at all.

Oh and I can't use USB as bootable devices to set this thing up.

Im thinking about getting an enclosure kit for my HD and partition that drive and install Ubuntu that way. I also know that I can boot from LAN, but every tutorial keeps throwing me off.

If anyone can help me out on the best and cheapest way to set up this laptop that would be awesome.

[Mark Phelps]

If your laptop is not upgradeable beyond 256MB of memory, you're wasting your time trying to install Ubuntu. Yeah, you CAN install it from the alternate CD, but you won't be happy with the results.

I know -- I went through the same thing, ignoring a lot of advice to the contrary, and discovered with that little memory, real-time performance is so S...L...O...W as to be all but useless. Not criticising Ubuntu; it's just not designed to run effectively with that little memory.

You're much better off trying a less demanding variant like Xubuntu, or one of the more lightweight distros.