PDA

View Full Version : [ubuntu] "Unable to install the selected kernel" on old laptop



zephyrcat
December 1st, 2008, 02:26 AM
I just got an old PIII laptop from a friend. I am trying to install Ubuntu on it. I know that it ran a previous version of Xubuntu, but Ubuntu has never installed (don't remember why). I am trying to use the alternate install, since the laptop does not deal well with live cds. This is the error message:


Unable to install the selected kernel
An error was returned while trying to install the kernel into the target system.

Kernel package: 'linux-generic'.

Check /var/log/syslog or see virtual console 4 for the details.

I pressed alt+F4 to get the details. I see a bunch of buffer i/o errors on sr0 and something saying unable to fetch some archives. If the details are important, I will try to figure out how to post them.

Normally I would just settle for Xubuntu, but I will be giving this laptop away and think Ubuntu will be easier for the recipient to learn.

Thanks!

oilchangeguy
December 1st, 2008, 03:40 AM
how much ram does the computer have? and what is the cpu speed?

zephyrcat
December 1st, 2008, 04:24 AM
The computer appears to have an 850Mhz processor and 256MB of memory.

zephyrcat
December 4th, 2008, 05:22 AM
Any ideas?

zephyrcat
December 8th, 2008, 06:01 AM
Is there any work around for this problem?