Live CD boot - can't select any options

Hi there, been trying to get linux installed on a troublesome laptop for 48 hours now without any luck so thought I'd post here as my last option.

I've tried installing 10.10 desktop, 9.04 netbook remix and just this minute 10.04 netbook versions of ubuntu, as well as other versions of various linux distros.

Anyway to make my question more precise, my problem is as follows.

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I woke up this morning and burnt 10.04 netbook to CD (not usb) as I wanted to put it on an old laptop with max resolution of 1024x768. I put it in an external CD drive and it boots up to the options screen on the Live CD, where you can choose to 'try Ubuntu netbook without installing' or 'install ubuntu netbook' etc.

The problem is, I can't click (press enter) on any of the options. The same problem arose with earlier versions, i.e 9.04 netbook remix Ubuntu.

Can anyone shed any light on this please?

Laptop model: Compaq Presario R3000.

Hi and welcome to UF

Sounds like your keyboard & mouse aren't being recognized. Do you have another one you can plug in to see if that's the problem?

Hi and thanks for your reply. I've tried 13 Linux dristibutions over the past 48 hours, so I find it hard to believe that Ubuntu Netbook Edition would not recognise the keyboard, as the others have responded. Perhaps I'm wrong though.

Plus, I can scroll through the various options presented to me on the Live CD for Ubuntu Netbook Edition, but can't simply select them to progress. I press enter and the external CD drive, or internal (as I've tested both) seem to make 'reading noises' for one second, then stop.

I see. Are you using a usb stick or cd? What did you use to create it, and did you check the md5sum of the downloaded .iso?
HowToMD5SUM

If you could select anything I would have asked you to check the cd for defects. Did you burn it at the slowest speed possible?

Go into the bios and see if you can find an option to enable legacy usb keyboard support.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dutch70

I see. Are you using a usb stick or cd? What did you use to create it, and did you check the md5sum of the downloaded .iso?
HowToMD5SUM

If you could select anything I would have asked you to check the cd for defects. Did you burn it at the slowest speed possible?

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I'm using Brasero to burn the iso to CD-RW's.

Not checked MD5SUM as of yet, will do that with future tries. Like you said, if I could have selected that option to check Cd for defects I would have.

And I'm not burning at the slowest speed possible, at least I'm not sure. I'll check that also on my next burn.

Edit: Just checked MD5SUM (came out identical and fine) on Ubuntu Netbook 10.04 and I'm going to give it another go at booting from Live CD. I'll report back.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1744350