ubuntu livecd

ringo747 · 14 Jul 2007 at 14:26

hi guys,

my pc with xp on it has crashed a while back and to avoid having to do a windows reinstall i thought about using a linux live cd to have a look through the other disks and move some files which i need urgently... i downloaded the latest ubuntu build for x86 architecture and burned the iso image to disk. When i try to boot ubuntu from the cd i get a black screen with all this meaningless data containing error messages like 'frozen....JKHJHKJHKJHK error' etc etc.

Why would i be getting all these errors when simply reading from the cd??

Im a linux noob but even still i don't think i am missing anything overly important!

ringo747 · 15 Jul 2007 at 13:37

hi guys, thanks for the responses - i am guessing it must be a dodgy burn as i do remember clicking on the 'verify cd contents' before doing the installation but it was the same error message both times. The machine i have is an AMD 64 bit and firstly i tried the AMD64 version of ubuntu but it didn't work - it said to use a different distribution. Perhaps the x86 version will work if i reburn the cd. Thanks

ringo747 · 15 Jul 2007 at 15:05

i have just reburned the disk image and have exactly the same problems as before...The error messages i am getting is something like this..

'1194.234234 ata3.00: revalidation failed (error=19)'
'1194.234234 ata3.00: SET of native returned 878273987 expected 23482039'

There are hundreds of lines being pumped out that look similar to the above. Any ideas??

ringo747 · 15 Jul 2007 at 17:36

hi, no checksum came with the download package - it was just an iso file. I used the same image file to install ubuntu onto vmware on my mac but just after burning it to a dvd to try on my pc it didnt work.

ringo747 · 16 Jul 2007 at 01:17

i have tried reburning the cds a few times now and it makes no difference - would there be something wrong with my pc that would make an installation go funny? Memory problems or anything like that?

ringo747 · 16 Jul 2007 at 01:36

Just running the test right now - already had a red memory error message. Would this probably indicate a RAM error and therefore be the reason why my PC is screwed up with windows??

ringo747 · 16 Jul 2007 at 12:14

hi, this morning i tried moving about my memory sticks to see if one was faulty but still had the same problem - unplugged one of my HDDs and rebooted and i can boot up now from the ubuntu cd no problem - didnt think a dodgy hard disk would make any odds!

ringo747 · 16 Jul 2007 at 14:18

yeah it connects via sata so could maybe be the leads - i am guessing that or else maybe loose RAM sticks... now that windows is up and running again i don't know if i can be bothered installing ubuntu but maybe doing it in a virtual machine would be as good a way as any. Thanks for the help guys

ringo747 · 22 Jul 2007 at 13:41

richardbirks said:
If it's a maxtor or seagate hard drive, then get yourself a copy of Seatools from Seagate's website.

It's a standalone iso you can boot into to run low level diagnostics on your HDD to see if it's healthy. Very handy

--
Richard

yeah its a maxtor so will give that a try - cheers