8.10 install troubles

[black_thunder]

I have a problem with installing/using LiveCD for Ubuntu 8.10 desktop.

I am new Linux user. This is my first installation. I have Win XP currently installed on my SATA drive. I have another harddrive (IDE) that has unpartitioned space on it, and that is where I planned to install ubuntu. I downloading ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386 and tried to install it but I had problems.
I got a BusyBox shell. So I searched the forum and saw that there are threads with similar problems. I turned off the quiet and splash so I can read where it has a problem at. It ended with "attached scsi generic sg5 type 0", then went to BusyBox.
I narrowed it down to my card reader. I unplugged that. Still no go. I reseached some boot options and tested all combinations of those. (all_generic_ide, pci=nomsi, floppy=off, irqpoll) Now I get a USB hid error.

[time] "...USB HID core driver"
then it falls to busyBox

Has anyone had problems relating to USB devices? If so can somebody tell me how to fix it?
I noticed there is a nousb boot option, but I cannot use that because I have a USB keyboard.

My Specs:
CPU: AMD 64 X2 4200+
MB: ECS RS485M-M w/ ATI chipset
HD: one SATA HDD, one IDE HDD, and one SATA DVD/CD drive
and I use a USB keyboard.

Thanks in advance!

[oldos2er]

I had USB problems when I first installed 8.10, but they went away after one of the kernel updates. You could try booting into recovery mode, and running the command "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade".

[black_thunder]

I do not currently have ubuntu installed, or any linux for that matter. This is my first leap into a linux OS. I cannot even get into LiveCD. My final error message now is some thing like:

[time]"Attached SCSI disk"
[time]"configuration #1 is the 1 choice"
(waits about 60 sec)
then it goes to busybox.

I tried to switch keyboard legacy modes. Didn't help. Switched to a PS/2 keyboard and then used nousb. Still didn't work. Unplugged all usb devices. Still nothing. I would really hate to stay with Windows........

If anyone has had this problem as well and has a solution it would be greatly appreciated.

[oldos2er]

Does your motherboard support USB 2.0? It probably does, but it would be good to know for sure.

[black_thunder]

Yes It does and it is enabled in the BIOS.

I also tried turning off USB Legacy support, and used a PS/2 keyboard, but it still didn't work.

The only thing I have not tried yet is completely disabling the USB controller, but wouldn't I still have to have it disabled while running ubuntu too? I really can't do that b/c I have wireless USB adapter (which I unplugged that too).

[black_thunder]

Would this have anything to do with my mouse/keyboard being Microsoft branded?