11.04 install problems.

[andy_england1985]

Someone, please help me out. I've been trying to install Kubuntu 11.04 on my desktop PC. Usually, this is as simple as putting the CD in and running the installer, but I've had nothing but problems with this version. First of all, I tried the Live CD, which would only get to the desktop on a few occasions, the rest of the time it failed to load with a kernel panic. Tried running the installer when it did get to the desktop, installer failed - not sure if it's a bug with manual partitioning or something else, but part of the installer crashed and it hadn't installed properly. So, I downloaded the Alternative CD in the hope of getting round these problems. No such luck. I get a message half way through the installation asking me to insert the CD, which is already in. It sounds like this bug:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ty/+bug/726581
Sadly, the solution listed there requires a command line and, as I can't get to a Kubuntu desktop and I can't see anywhere to perform this ln -s cdrom command with the Alternative CD, I'm at a loss. I also tried using the PLP Boot loader to boot the Alternative CD version off a USB stick (the comp is too old to have a boot from USB in the BIOS menu), but that freezes upon loading the distro.

I'm all out of ideas now. Been using Kubuntu since 5.10 and never had any problems installing. This is just ridiculous! Does anyone have a solution, please?

Thanks in advance.

[oshunluvr]

Re: 11.04 install problems.

First step is #1 on this post:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3099811.0

Have you tried CRTL-ALT-F1 while installing from the Alternate CD to see if you can get to the tty1 terminal before it stops?

Also - some details about your hardware might be helpful.

[andy_england1985]

Re: 11.04 install problems.

Apologies for the late reply. I tried to get to a terminal with Ctrl Alt F1, but no luck, I'm afraid.
Detailed specs are a bit hard to give, as the computer's old (ish) and I can't just go to a terminal and dump the contents of ls-whatever, but:

Intel Celeron 1 Ghz
512 MB RAM
120 GB hard drive
ATI Radeon 256-bit graphics card (don't recall model number - sorry - but it works fine with the official ATI driver and the open source one in previous versions of Ubuntu)

I appreciate that it's not a spring chicken, but it's worked fine with Ubuntus before. The CD was burned slowly and I checked it for errors - none found. The previous install was 9.10. Is there no other way to get a terminal before it complains that the CD isn't there (which it is)?

[yardbird]

Re: 11.04 install problems.

I had a machine that did this exact same kind of behavior. I created a bootable USB drive and it installed without a problem.

If you can boot from USB and if you have a USB thumb drive you can spare, you already have the iso so it would only take a few minutes. I have no idea why it worked out from the USB flash drive and failed from the optical drive, but it did to me exactly what you're describing.

[andy_england1985]

Re: 11.04 install problems.

HI, Yardbird. It's too old to have a USB boot option in the BIOS, so I tried PLP Boot Loader, which allows you to boot off a USB stick. Unfortunately, there's a bug in it which causes the boot process to freeze, so I can't boot from USB either. This is the most annoying problem I've ever had with *buntus since I started six years ago. It seems like a massive regression and it's one of the many little niggles that put people off using Linux. If I were starting out with Linux now, I would have given up.

[The Liquidator]

Re: 11.04 install problems.

Hi Andy

Have you tried installing an earlier version, say 10.04 (or 10.10)?

I would not normally recommend it but if it's just the installer it may be worth getting 10.10, installing it, and then upgrading to 11.04 over the net.

[andy_england1985]

Re: 11.04 install problems.

Hi, thanks for the reply. I had considered going back to an earlier version, but then I checked the forums and Google and found that people had experienced similar problems with the 'please insert the cd labelled...' message in previous versions. It seems like some people have also had problems going via the upgrade route, too.

[The Liquidator]

Re: 11.04 install problems.

What exactly is currently installed on the machine - is it 9.10, or is everything messed up?

[andy_england1985]

Re: 11.04 install problems.

All messed up! I went for a clean install. The disk is split between Windows XP and my Linux partitions, but GRUB isn't installed properly and there's no working Linux system installed now. It just boots to a GRUB command line.

[The Liquidator]

Re: 11.04 install problems.

Okay

Do you have your original 9.10 media? If you can reinstate that it would be a start.

At this point I don't think you can entirely rule out CD read error, given the differing points at which the install failed. Basic stuff but have you changed your brand of CDs since your last successful install? What burn speed did you use to make the CD - it's usually the slower the better (I suspect you already know this).

Also, have you tried to install kubuntu from within windows with Wubi?

[andy_england1985]

Re: 11.04 install problems.

Thanks for your help, everyone. Wubi was a no-go, as I couldn't easily get back into Windows. I installed Trisquel, which is based on Ubuntu, I believe. Still have problems with it - no proprietary firmware installed for my wifi usb, so no Internet at the moment - but I'm working on that. With luck, I should have a working system before long. Thanks once again.