Installing UBUNTU on top of Red Hat older version

[mysorian]

Thank you for a very warm welcome. I am sure I am going to enjoy my interaction.

I have entered a problematic area and I would like your suggestions. I wanted to give away my computer to a friend, but I wanted to clean up the computer. I had forgotten that years ago I had Red Hat Linux on it. The system wanted me to enter username/passoword. I did not remember them.

I managed to get to the level where I could change the password and I was in bash# and could get to the CD-ROM folder. I made a CD after downloading the latest Ubuntu. I could display the files and folders but none of them could be executed except INSTALL. INSTALL required me to put in arguments which I don't quite understand.

The bios is set to read from CD drive but it comes up with Non-system disk error.
Now I can login with root as usrname and the password I recently changed.

Is this a lost cause?

[yancek]

If you are trying to replace Red Hat with Ubuntu and you get that error trying to boot you probably have a bad CD, a bad download, or a bad burn.

I made a CD after downloading the latest Ubuntu. I could display the files and folders but none of them could be executed except INSTALL.

If you can see folders/files from within Red Hat in your Ubuntu CD, it was burned as an image. Doesn't mean there were no errors. Did you do an md5checksum, burn at a load speed as an image?

I'm not sure what you are referring to in your last sentence? Boot into Red Hat. You might try the Ubuntu disk in another computer to see if it works. Could be a bad CD or CD drive?

[mysorian]

Thanks for replying to my post. I first tired it on my Windows 7 (x32) on a notebook. It worked as advertised.
But the cd does not work in my old Compaq computer.

I can get to the root and see that the cdrom is mounted and I can see all the files. It's a long time ago I worked with UNIX and it's very rusty. I need to search everything on the internet. That is why I joined the forum.

In the cdrom I see an install item. Looks like I can run it, but it is asking for some arguments. There's even an argument list. Blindly I tried several of those flags and I always get that the argument list contains too few items.

The details of Linux on the machine are as follows:

Red Hat Linux release 5.2 (Apollo) Kernel 2.0.36 on an i486=linux 5.2
using WPI CDD-820 ATAPI CDROM

p.s: The CD was downloaded using a Win 7 (x32) machine and written to cd.

[yancek]

Are you trying to install Ubuntu from within Red Hat? That won't work!

Are you using Ubuntu 11.04, the latest release. When I put an Ubuntu 10.10 CD in the drive and run the ls command on it this is what I get:

autorun.inf casper/ install/ md5sum.txt pool/ README.diskdefines usb-creator.exe
boot/ dists/ isolinux/ pics/ preseed/ ubuntu@ wubi.exe

Are those the folders/files you see? There may be some different as you may have a different version. You need to have the CD in the drive when you boot the machine, then you see the Ubuntu logo and finally get to an option to Try Ubuntu without installing or Install. Is that what you are doing?

If you are trying to install Ubuntu, the information on Red Hat isn't of any particualr use. If you want to keep Red Hat, you need to not install to the same partition.

Your Red Hat release looks like it is very old. Could you post some information on your computer, processor speed, Hard drive size, RAM.

[mysorian]

I see the same files in the cdrom but I cannot proceed further.

Install is the only item that elicits a response from the system.

I am in root@localhost cdrom#

Usage:
install [OPTION]...SOURCE DEST (1st format)
install [OPTION]...SOURCE .....DIRECTORY (2nd format)
install -d [OPTION]....DIRECTORY (3rd format)

etc

Any clue as to what I can do here?

[yancek]

I see the same files in the cdrom but I cannot proceed further.

If you see the same files I posted in my last post, then you are just accessing the cdrom with Ubuntu on it from Red Hat.

I am in root@localhost cdrom#

In Red Hat? I suppose because you would not see a prompt like that in Ubuntu. I've never seen the options you refer to on any Linux install, the install with options. Are you booting the computer with the Ubuntu CD in the drive? Is your BIOS set to boot the CDROM drive first? The method to install Linux from a CD is to boot the computer with the CD in the drive. If it doesn't boot the CD, either the CD is bad, you have a bad download or the drive isn't working. Any of these problems could lead to the output below which you posted in your original post.

The bios is set to read from CD drive but it comes up with Non-system disk error

[IzzieDee]

I have had trouble installing Ubuntu on an older computer (original OS Windows 9. You might want to try a different version of linux. I have put Puppy Linux on my oldest (sorry I do not remember the specifics). The Puppy PC is rather slow but it works very well for me. There are other small Linux versions (or is it flavors?). I currently use Mandriva Linux on another computer (originally with Windows XP).

[dE_logics]

Why not burn the disk from another PC?

[mysorian]

I like this community a lot. Simply put, it is vibrant.

It's worth a try (somewhat hesitant it will work). Perhaps the CDROM drive is bad or the BIOS is not doing what it should. Yes my BIOS is set to start from CD and the CD has the Ubuntu program.

If the CDROM drive is bad I should not be able to see the files in the CD. Should I?

I guess UBUNTU should really add a patch or something to make it installable from any computer. I have done troubleshooting with dozens of Microsoft Products, Oracle and unfortunately they all have problems when generations change although backward compatibility is a sacred Mantra.

I have clear messages from Red HAT Linux and at least guys with red hats should tell me how I can hack this one.

[mysorian]

If you see the same files I posted in my last post, then you are just accessing the cdrom with Ubuntu on it from Red Hat.



In Red Hat? I suppose because you would not see a prompt like that in Ubuntu. I've never seen the options you refer to on any Linux install, the install with options. Are you booting the computer with the Ubuntu CD in the drive? Is your BIOS set to boot the CDROM drive first? The method to install Linux from a CD is to boot the computer with the CD in the drive. If it doesn't boot the CD, either the CD is bad, you have a bad download or the drive isn't working. Any of these problems could lead to the output below which you posted in your original post.

If the CD drive is bad how come I can read the files. Why 'Install' in Ubuntu does not work?
Anybody knows about this in either Ubuntu or Red hat circles? I have posted to Ubuntu forum about this and so far no takers.