Need Help Installing Ubuntu With External Monitor

[LinuxNewb]

My laptop screen is quite broken, the only part I can visibly make out is about an inch or so square in the upper left hand corner. When I boot up the Live USB Stick to a Live Ubuntu I can hear the ubuntu sound and see the ubuntu logo in the upper left corner along with the upper taskbar and the background screen.

I do not know what to do to get it to project onto my external monitor so I can install it. Is there something I can add to the boot line? or perhaps something I can do via keyboard that will switch it? and if I do it in the live version, when I install will I have to repeat the procedure?

I should also say that I can get the bootmenu and the ubuntu loading screen on my external monitor, along with the command prompt.. but if I type in startx my screen starts flashing colors.

[LinuxNewb]

^bump

Could definitely use some help with this

[Bemk]

Most laptops have a key on the keyboard that enables the port. On my laptop it is FN+F5 and my netbook uses the same combination.
I suggest you look at your keyboard, and try some of the FN keys. Sometimes there is also a wlan-kard enable/disable function in there. Please be aware of this (it usually has the icon of an antenna).

The key you need is probably an icon of two screens next to each other.
I cannot be sure this will work, as every type of laptop is different.

[LinuxNewb]

Yeah, I am aware of the key, I used it to switch my old vista installation over to the external monitor. My current windows 7 installation outputted to the external monitor without having to press this key which was good. When the computer boots up I can see everything on the external monitor. When I boot to the usb key I see the language select and the ubuntu options, when I load up into live mode I get the flashing colors on the screen and when I press Ctrl-Alt-F1 I can see the command line on the external monitor. I don't think it is an issue of my laptop outputing the display through the VGA port to the external monitor. I think it is more of an issue that the ubuntu live cd doesn't have support for external monitors. I can see the ubuntu white symbol along with the ubuntu loading screen but as soon as the desktop shows up I get the flashing screen on the external monitor,the screen on my laptop shows the desktop properly (at least the tiny little bit that I can see does).

[Bemk]

If you can see the terminal through the external monitor, I suppose you could try an alternate install cd, and run that. It is a non-graphic installer, which still works quite similar to the graphic installer. The main difference is the use of the mouse.

I often see that LiveCDs don't support all of the hardware of the full install. I think it is because of the lack of space on a CD, but it is worth a shot, I suppose.

[LinuxNewb]

Never even thought about the text based installer, I will give that a try and report back

[Bemk]

On the download page there always was a link on the right side of the page, for the alternate iso. I don't know how it is now, as I haven't taken a look, and I am not going to, because I have too much homework to focus on right now.

[coopstah13]

Complete Download Options List | Ubuntu

[LinuxNewb]

thanks for the link downloaded the torrent from ubuntu.com and used usb-creator from my jaunty installation on my netbook to create a bootable usb key.

booted up with the key, selected language and then selected install and ended up with this error

[     1.537292] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,1)

got a similar error when trying to check the disk for defects

[     1.185297] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,1)

Is this because the .iso was built only for CD's and not USB keys? or is it perhaps a corrupt download?

[Bemk]

Doesn't the ISO come with self check functionality? I suppose you use that first. (somewhere in the boot menu).