Can't install Ubuntu, please help

[roguemirror]

Well, I installed Ubuntu on my netbook for the first time a couple of days ago and I really really liked it for some reason and I learned a lot my first couple of days using it, but now I want to put it on my desktop, so this time I downloaded the desktop version of it and burnt it to a disc. This time it boots off the disc and it shows a little icon with color than my monitor goes black. I thought maybe it's because I'm using a tv as the monitor, so I restarted with a "real" monitor, same problem. Than I tried a 3rd monitor that's like 5 years old, same problem. I really want to get it working on my desktop it was so much fun exploring and learning everything from trial and error, and from what I'm to understand I haven't even scratched the surface of it all. I'm using a pretty old compaq sr1910nx. Nvidia geforce 6150 le, if that's of any help. If anyone can help me solve this problem I would really appreciate it, I've been trying different things for the last few hours and I just cant figure it out. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

[elija]

This can happen with the Live CD if your graphics card or monitor doesn't report it's capabilities properly. The best way to deal with this is to install from the alternate CD. If you still have the problem after installation, it is a lot easier to sort out.

[roguemirror]

Oh, is there anywhere I can download the alternative cd? I googled it and cant quite figure out how to get it


Thanks for your reply by the way

[elija]

Have a look at Alternative downloads | Ubuntu

[roguemirror]

Ok, I downloaded the alternate download, and I was able to install it this time with a dual boot option of booting ubuntu or win xp. So it installed fine, booted to the OS selector and when I tried to boot ubuntu my screen went black, just like it did before, but this time i heard that little bongo start up sound from ubuntu. Any ideas why my screen still is going black, or anyway to fix it?

[roguemirror]

This can happen with the Live CD if your graphics card or monitor doesn't report it's capabilities properly. The best way to deal with this is to install from the alternate CD. If you still have the problem after installation, it is a lot easier to sort out.

Now that it's installed, it doesn't really change anything, because i cant access any kind of display, literally as soon as i choose to boot ubuntu it goes black, so how can i install drivers or anything. Please, someone help, I've just quit smoking today and I planned on using ubuntu to keep me occupied!


Oh another thing worth mentioning is that when i press ctrl+alt+f1 after I hear the drum start up sound, I still cant see any display.

[roguemirror]

Ok, so after googling around for a while I found someone suggesting this to someone -

You could try choosing the "vesa" driver. That could help.

The poster said that worked. So i googled how to enable vesa drivers in ubuntu, and someone wrote just boot up into vesa with the option. Now my problem is I dont see that option, or anything having to do with vesa drivers, I dont even know if this is my problem lol



Ugh, im starting to think getting linux on my computer wont happen

[hatebreed]

I believe the option is xdriver=vesa or xforcevesa. when you get the the grub menu highlight the ubuntu and hit e, the on the linux line at the end add the xdriver=vesa. report with results.

[elija]

I'm afraid that if you can't see anything, even after pressing Ctrl + Alt + F1, I'm out of ideas for Ubuntu. Everything I can try relies on you being able to see stuff

Still Ubuntu is not Linux, Ubuntu is a Linux Distribution and if one doesn't work for you others might. Have a go with some of these:

Simply Mepis
Zenwalk
Open SUSE
Fedora

In fact have a look at distro watch for more distros than you can shake a hard drive at.

[edit]Beaten to it by hatebreed. That is of course worth a try first and if it works you should be able to get the nvidia drivers installed [/edit]

[roguemirror]

I believe the option is xdriver=vesa or xforcevesa. when you get the the grub menu highlight the ubuntu and hit e, the on the linux line at the end add the xdriver=vesa. report with results.

After I did that like 1 milisecond before i heard the bongo start up drum it flashed a message really fast ( like subliminal fast) and it said something along the lines of nforce error parsing, there was more but it flashed really fast so i couldnt see it all



oh yea, and than my monitor turned off again haha

Thanks for your help guys I really appreciate it all, really wish i can just get this to work on my desktop!