Help? ...we are running out of disks....

[matukat]

Hi all,
We are trying to install Ubuntu to a laptop with no hard drive, but with a usb enclosure with a hard drive. We have run Ubuntu live and Puppy linux on the machine and it works.
We have had trouble with the download and creation of the install disk. We have one disk that ALMOST works. Finds the hard drive... sometimes... it started to format and hung and that hard drive now doesn't seem to work... so, we put in another and it's finding that, but the one disk that we burned that almost works just keeps hanging. We have used Nero, iso recorder, infra recorder, the md5 or whatever it is called to verify the disk. We tried to make an install of Kubuntu, Freespire, Mandriva, and Ubuntu and none of the disks work in that laptop.....AAARRRRGHHH....
Anyone know what might be wrong here? Do we need to "extract" files after downloading the iso file? We have been trying to just burn the iso with an image burner and it sure isn't working...
Thanks for any help!
Randy

[Giles]

You mention using md5sum to verify the disk. To clarify, though, is that to verify that the image on the burned disk is the same as the image in the file you downloaded? Or to verify that the file downloaded is the same as the one on the server?

Giles

[matukat]

Hi Giles,
Thanks for responding. It's to check that the file is the same as it is on the server. ( edit- this is after the download, but before burning the disk ) I believe it generates a check sum number and it has to match what the file is "supposed" to be.

[Jonathan183]

For Ubuntu check here ... burn the image at the lowest speed you can and run the installation media integrity check when you boot from the CD.

[matukat]

Thank you Jonathan,
Did all that. Just burned and checked Ubuntu 8.04 and it won't boot up on the laptop. Put it in one of the cd drives on this puter and "explored" it. It's all there, but it's got wubi and a bunch of other stuff that is extra. ( the hash file for checking it is in there as a text file for example.) The laptop has no system at all, so it needs to boot from the cd and install. Now we have another partially formated drive that windows can't see when you plug into the usb on this one......(this is number 2) I even tried running Puppy on my thumb drive and having the usb enclosure on the on the other usb and that didn't seem to work at all...... erk , erk, erk, twitch...spazz....erk.....er....sorry, having computer caused convulsions now...... I can at least run it with Puppy and get online and read e-mail etc. It will even play a youtube vid but it won't go full screen with it......sigh. I am on my wifes desktop. We have other puters in storage, but we now live in a little trailer, so having the laptop (which gathered dust for 2 years after I bought it) working becomes important now....
best,
Randy
-wife has gotten the live part of the "almost works" cd to run and is trying to get it to install from there now......

[Jonathan183]

Try booting another computer using the live CD and do the install media check from the boot menu ...

If you can't get the live CD to boot on the laptop give the alternate CD a try ... I think Ubuntu now refers to it as the text based installer CD.

btw ... what is the spec of the machine & does it meet the minimum system requirements ?

[yancek]

As others have suggested, you need to download whatever iso image (Ubuntu in your case), do the md5 checksum to verify good download, burn the image at slow speed (4x - 8x), insert into CD drive and should be able to see several folders/files as opposed to the one image you downloaded as.

Do you have the laptop set to boot first from CD in BIOS? What type of laptop and what hardware do you have. Wubi is used to install on windows partition??

[matukat]

TY again Jonathan-
The puter is a Micron Transport P111 with a half gig of ram. Puppy runs fine from a thumb drive on it, but won't save files for some reason. (Maybe operator error...) I bought it off of Craiglist over 2 years ago. No hard drive, no tray for the hard drive. Thought I'd just get a hard drive and install and then install an OS. I had run live CDs in it, so knew it was ok. Well, so I thought. Has a password locked bios and the switch to clear cmos may be under the keyboard. I don't really want to remove the keyboard. I have worked more with desktops than laptops and the little touchy keyboards "skeer" me....
Will go try the "text based" install in a bit.
best,
Randy

[matukat]

TY Yancek, Did all that and only one disk even opens like an install disk. With all the others, a cursor just sits on the screen or....it sits there for a minute or so and we get the "operating system not found" message. I am downloading the text version from Utah now.
Best,
Randy

[matukat]

The "alternate" text version checked on md5sum and burned and it won't boot either......arrrrrrrgh. I think I am going to have to wait for the CD from the Ubuntu folks..... Ugh. My wife's puter has a disabled floppy drive, so I can't even try to get some kind of boot disk in the floppy to access the c. Time to go out into the storm........
Thanks for trying folks.