Having real trouble getting Ubuntu Live CD to work

Borden

Borden

Borden

Soldato
Joined
14 Jul 2005
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Location
Surrey
Hi guys,

I'm really warming to the idea of dual booting with Ubuntu but wanted to try it from the Live CD first.

I downloaded the 64bit Dapper ISO and burnt it to disk. After booting to the cd i select to install it and then the kernel is loaded and a black screen comes up with a white underscore in the top left. The underscore blinks for a few seconds and then stays on and nothing happens. I tried the 32bit version and the same thing happened.

I then downloaded the Alternate 64bit install cd and booted from that. I tried installing in text mode and came to a point where i was told something along the lines of 'This CD does not have the appropriate files to install Ubuntu. Please insert a CD with the necessary files'.

That same thing happened when i tried installing in the non text mode (can't remember what it was called) and also when i tried installing the previous version of Ubuntu (5.10 or whatever).

Any help would be great. I presume it's a problem with my hardware that's causing it as my friend managed to install it with the same CD.

Thanks
 
may be try a couple of differnt live cd Distro's just to see what happens on the install
Ive tried quite a few and Knopppix was amongst one of the best (for me anyway) for sorting out hardware on boot.
And puppy is quite fun with verysmall download.
puppy
Knoppix
Kate OS
 
Last edited:
Yep, sounds like a hardware problem but we really need the details of your hardware to say anything constructive ;)
The best I can suggest off the top of my head is to when you get the CD boot menu (GRUB), highlight the first entry & press E. Then scroll to the bottom line & press N to start a new line. Type noapic here & press enter. Then press B.

What this does is to disable the ACPI power management features, & can help with more generic type problems.

-Leezer-
 
EKsparky said:
may be try a couple of differnt live cd Distro's just to see what happens on the install
Ive tried quite a few and Knopppix was amongst one of the best (for me anyway) for sorting out hardware on boot.
And puppy is quite fun with verysmall download.
puppy
Knoppix
Kate OS
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply, i'll try that :)

I'm just itching to try Linux though :p
 
leezer3 said:
Yep, sounds like a hardware problem but we really need the details of your hardware to say anything constructive ;)
The best I can suggest off the top of my head is to when you get the CD boot menu (GRUB), highlight the first entry & press E. Then scroll to the bottom line & press N to start a new line. Type noapic here & press enter. Then press B.

What this does is to disable the ACPI power management features, & can help with more generic type problems.

-Leezer-
Click to expand...
I'll try that as well :)

My specs are:

AMD 64 3500
Gigabyte K8nXP-SLi mobo
SLi 6600GT's
1GB ram
Raptor 36GB
Seagate 200GB
 
mark1 said:
I downloaded the 64bit Dapper ISO and burnt it to disk. After booting to the cd i select to install it and then the kernel is loaded and a black screen comes up with a white underscore in the top left. The underscore blinks for a few seconds and then stays on and nothing happens. I tried the 32bit version and the same thing happened.
Click to expand...
Ditto. I had to use the 'safe graphics mode' on the x86 version to get it working. The x64 version was a complete no go.
 
There are loads of reports on this not working very well, if at all.

I downloaded the x86_64 iso and it wouldn't even get to loading the live distro.. turns out you have to leave it for up to a half an hour for it to load (no idea why though) and it then boots to the live OS. From there you can, supposedly, install to your hard drive but when I tried it just threw a right paddy and crashed. I tried five of six times to install it, including using the alternate iso but to no avail.. I refuse to install the 32bit version purely because the x86_64 version should work if it's released to the public.
 
I would guess it's almost certainly the SLI cards causing your probs. Temporarily disable SLI in the BIOS & try again.


The X64 alternate worked perfectly for me, but I never tried the standard version. (I use the server install option & then add stuff in)

-Leezer-
 
leezer3 said:
I would guess it's almost certainly the SLI cards causing your probs. Temporarily disable SLI in the BIOS & try again.
Click to expand...
IIRC nVidia won't release SLi drivers for Linux. I'm guessing that you'll have to disable SLi in the BIOs whenever you want to use Linux (or BSD for that matter).
 
I managed to install Ubuntu with the 64bit alternate install cd. I first wanted to try it out live but it went straight to the installer so i just went ahead with it.

The problem i have now is that i boot up into GRUB and select to boot Linux but once the Ubuntu screen has finished loading files i get a black screen with the same underscore problem i had before.

Should i try the Alternate 32bit version and re-install it?

Thanks guys :)
 
BillytheImpaler said:
IIRC nVidia won't release SLi drivers for Linux. I'm guessing that you'll have to disable SLi in the BIOs whenever you want to use Linux (or BSD for that matter).
Click to expand...
GeForce and SLI on Linux

Nvidia was first to answer the challenge of dual-graphics arrays for Linux with the release of GeForce graphics drivers version 1.0-8174. Although this first introduction of Nvidia's patented Scalable Link Interface (SLI) parallel graphics processing solution was a landmark success for both Nvidia fans and Linux gamers alike.
Click to expand...
Not sure if it's true but found this on a linux benchmark post :D
 
So i installed the Alternate 32bit install which went fine with no errors. I get to grub and boot up but the same thing happens with the underscore. It even happens when i add the boot line 'noapic'.

What do i need to enter to get it working in safe graphics mode?

Thanks
 
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