Weird problem with live disk install

Weird problem with live disk install. Downloaded the ubuntu 10.04 iso file
,checked the CRC it's good , burned the disk, rebooted the computer, things statup
as usual then the compuiter hangs up nothing.. I have tried load in on a older
dell same problem as the newer HP.. Pulled out a disk I used to setup the older
HP that is currently running my mill, same problem.. Pulled out an old ubuntu 8.04.4
disk it to has problems I get the ubuntu 8 desktop but it also scerws up on bolth machines!

This used to be a easy process bur now fails any sugestons as to where the problem
may be and how to fix it?

The HP has 2 GB of memory the Dell 1GB
Even stranger is that I had Ubuntu 8 working on the dell
when I tried to install 10 and things went wrong. At first I
though it may be a CD disk reader problem but that now
seems unlikly

How do I force a boot to the Grub menue?

Andy Pugh wrote:

One possibility, how much memory is in the machines? There was a curious problem that if there was more than 3.5GB then the installer would fetch a "large memory" kernel, losing all the LinuxCNC stuff.

It is not that problem, the installation suceeds but you then find that because it detected large memory, it substitutes the pae kernel for the rtai one

.... rebooted the computer, things statup
as usual then the compuiter hangs up nothing.....

What exactly do you get and at what stage of the boot. If you have a splash screen up, press esc so you can see the messages underneath

regards

OK

Step 1 apply power to machine with live disk in drive

Step 2 drive reads disk and loads the fist part of the install
giving a wine colored splash with a keyboard = man
icon.
Step 3 I press the keyboard space bar and I get several options
with the try unbuntu without installing option highlighted.

Step 4 I press the enter key and I get aselect language screen
defaulted to English,

Step 5 I press enter it retuns to the several options screen with the
try unbuntu without installing option highlighted.

Step 6 I press enter the screen gose blank the CD drive begins
reading the disk for perhaps a minute

Step 7 The drive then stops the screen remains blank,The machine
hangs nothing eles happens the end!

Additional observations: If i select memory test this works. If iselect boot from hard disk
this also works. If iselect the disk test this hangs like the try with out instaling selection.

Hi

I don't know what your computers are exactly.

On newer computers, sometimes the LiveCD cannot recognise any drives. This can usually be resolved by ensuring that SATA is in AHCI mode in BIOS.
It happens with a few of the Ubuntu CDs, not just the Linuxcnc Live CD.

regards

This machine is a HP Pavilion a1600n. I took a look at it's BIOS.
There are SATA drives but I found no AHCI mode in the BIOS .

The Dell that was working is a Opiplex GX620 I will take a look at
its BIOS to see what it's settings are and try installing on it again.

This was such an easy and reliable process in the past how can
it have become such a problem?

garymcrobertpdx wrote:

This machine is a HP Pavilion a1600n. I took a look at it's BIOS.
There are SATA drives but I found no AHCI mode in the BIOS .

The Dell that was working is a Opiplex GX620 I will take a look at
its BIOS to see what it's settings are and try installing on it again.

This was such an easy and reliable process in the past how can
it have become such a problem?

10.04 with our RTAI kernel can have problems with certain video cards and especially
with monitors that have odd resolutions. This is a fairly well-documented
problem. So, one thing to try us a different monitor. 1280 x 1024 seem to
always work. Possibly you can force your monitor to report a lower
native resolution.

(I think there was an update to the stock 10.04 to make this work better, but it
either isn't compatible with our kernel or just wasn't included in our distro.)

Jon

It appears that you are correcty about the video cuasing this trouble
I grabed an old vintage Matrox 4Mb video card from my junk box and
instaled it. This works but not well the screen refresh is screwed up
but the live disk now works. I ran a latency test the computer looked
good for linuxcnc use.

The video is still not good enough for regular use but now the nature
of the problem is knowen. I do not have a monitor capable of 1280
x 1024 nor dose the matrox board support that res.

So how do I fix this problem Im not keen on shelving two otherwise
good computers or aquiring another monitor. I would consiter buying
another PCI video card if it would fix this.