Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

[kanwar07]

Hey all,

Since I had success installing and dual booting Kubuntu 9.04 Jaunty with XP on my laptop, I decided to try it on my desktop. I installed Windows, partitioned everything correctly, and then went to install Kubuntu. After the usual load screens, it just seemed to STOP. Everything was black, no error messages, no blinking cursor, nothing. I tried rebooting with keyboard commands (ctrl + alt + del and the such) but nothing. Was forced to hard-power down.

I am running:
HP Pavillion 753n Desktop
2.53 gHz
500GB Seagate IDE Drive
60GB Maxtor IDE Drive (as a backup)
1GB Ram
Integrated graphics card


If there is any more information I can provide, please let me know. I will try to run Kubuntu live and do the memory test as well so I can rule out any hardware problems.

*EDIT* Just a note, I left about 100GB free on the 500GB hard drive for if/when I decide to try to dual-boot with Kubuntu. I need Windows to work on my paper tonight, but I have all of next week off before my next college semester so I can experiment then. I'm willing to try whatever means necessary

[kevinc]

Re: Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

Is the desktop running Windows Vista?
Do you know how the 500G disk is partitioned?

I think that running the Jaunty CD as a live CD will give you a good idea about the hardware.
I have a vague idea that the installation procedure recommends disconnecting external hardware, like the 60G disk for backup during installation. Was Jaunty installed onto the 100G free partition? You should be able to see this with the live CD.

I presume you used the same CD to install on your notebook and your desktop?

[kanwar07]

Re: Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

Is the desktop running Windows Vista?
Do you know how the 500G disk is partitioned?

I think that running the Jaunty CD as a live CD will give you a good idea about the hardware.
I have a vague idea that the installation procedure recommends disconnecting external hardware, like the 60G disk for backup during installation. Was Jaunty installed onto the 100G free partition? You should be able to see this with the live CD.

I presume you used the same CD to install on your notebook and your desktop?

Desktop is not running windows Vista. I have the 500G partitioned right now into 350 for Windows XP, the rest is just blank space.

My partitioning setup originally was just 50/50. 250 gigs windows, 250 for linux, including the swap area.

The 60gb isnt an external drive, it is an internal drive that I am using for the purpose of a backup drive.

I don't have anything installed on the 100gb partition right now, thats why I said I left it blank if/when I want to install Kubuntu.

And yes I used the same cd to install onto my laptop and desktop. Ran memtest on the desktop and everything is fine.

Maybe my original post wasnt clear enough, let me re-list the steps I took:

1) COMPLETELY wiped out everything on my computer, after backing up.
2) Out of my 500 GB HDD, I partitoned 250 GB out for WINDOWS XP SP2 HOME EDITION.
3) Installed XP on that partition, without any problems.
4) Restarted computer after inserting Kubuntu CD (I don't know if the CD I have is a live cd or just the install. I just downloaded + burned the default image they present to me on the Kubuntu site).
5) Proceeded to install Kubuntu. I set up the language, keyboard layout, etc. It got to the point where it was actually going to INSTALL the system and just completely hung.

The system hung for 5 or more minutes before I had to hard-power down the computer.

If that does not clarify my steps then I'm not sure what other details I can include.



*EDIT* I want to note that I tried to install UBUNTU as well, and it got to the point in the install where it was installing the BASE system and it gave me an error that it cannot install the BASE system. Does the hardware difference between laptop and desktop have anything to do with why it is not installing?

[Fintan]

Re: Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

Did you burn your cd at less than 8x? Sometimes that helps. For some reason *ubuntu cd's don't like being burned at faster speeds.

I use the alternate cd:
http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/kubuntu/9.04/ (burned at 4x) for installation

[kanwar07]

Re: Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

Did you burn your cd at less than 8x? Sometimes that helps. For some reason *ubuntu cd's don't like being burned at faster speeds.

I use the alternate cd:
http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/kubuntu/9.04/ (burned at 4x) for installation

The UBUNTU CD that I attempted to install was an official CD which I had ordered a few years back (5.10). The KUBUNTU CD I burned, I believe, was at a speed slightly higher than 8x.

Could the CD be the problem if my laptop read it and installed it perfectly fine? The Laptop only has a DVD-R/CD-RW drive, my desktop is DVD-RW so its a bit more advanced...

Any other suggestions? And what is different about the alternate CD? Will I still be able to install Kubuntu as easily as I did on my laptop?

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

The KUBUNTU CD I burned, I believe, was at a speed slightly higher than 8x.

That's a known source of problems -- the recommendation is 4X, painful as the wait can be.

Also, there is an old resolved bug -- it is possible, but not common, to find an optical drive that *buntu simply does not see:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ev/+bug/143958

[kanwar07]

Re: Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

Well it must see it if I was able to load the CD, and it got through to a certain part in the install....it loaded well through the install and never gave me any error messages so I'm not sure how to proceed.

Is it recommended that I download the alternate install ISO? What is different about it? And I will burn at 1x just to be safe. Silly that the *buntus have that problem....

[kanwar07]

Re: Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

I am reburning the Kubuntu CD as we speak. My burners lowest speed is 8x so that is what I am using. I will attempt to install Kubuntu and let you guys know if there is any good news. I am going to take out the CD burner from my old comp and put it in my new case because I know it can burn as low as 2x, and if I have a problem with this burn then I can use that drive..

Will post back with results, and hopefully I can get some more suggestions!

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

I normally use the Alternate Install version of the CD, and in your situation I would check "format the partition" during the installation, so it overwrites whatever was in the partition previously.

Did you provide a swap partition? Supposedly it is non-essential, but if you ever want to suspend to disk or hibernate, you'll need it.

[kanwar07]

Re: Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

I normally use the Alternate Install version of the CD, and in your situation I would check "format the partition" during the installation, so it overwrites whatever was in the partition previously.

Did you provide a swap partition? Supposedly it is non-essential, but if you ever want to suspend to disk or hibernate, you'll need it.

As I stated in my original post I successfully installed and dual-booted Kubuntu 9.04 with XP SP2 on my laptop. I did everything as needed, as far as creating the swap partitions and whatnot. I installed XP first because it writes to the MBR and then installed Kubuntu.

As of last night I burned a brand new disc, and I woke up not too long ago and immediately ran "check cd integrity" scan....this is a BRAND NEW burn at 8x and it found errors in 17 files!

I'm not sure if this will stop me from completely my install successfully but I will try.

And can someone explain what the difference is in the alternate CD?

I also want to note that I am using Verbatim brand CD-R's, which have never given me a problem in the past, and I am using a Lite-On DVD-RW Drive (don't have the model number atm). Its lowest speed is 8x, highest is 56x.

[kanwar07]

Re: Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

I am getting an error that says [###.######]Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block ######, and the ##'s keep changing. I am really getting frustrated that Kubuntu is SO picky about burning the cd's that it is causing me all sorts of problems. I have been burning cd's for years since CD burners used to cost $500, and I have NEVER had this sort of problem.

Also another error SQUASHFS error: Unable to read page, block 290d005a, size e2f9

If I cant solve it I am going to give up on linux for the time being. This is ridiculous.

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

Linux Live CDs are all very "picky" -- they use extreme compression to get as much stuff on the CD as possible, and so it has to burn and write perfectly -- zero errors are tolerated. It is way different than music or videos, which can tolerate errors that you will not notice. That is why the burn speed needs to be set down to 4X.

I don't know whether you can get the result with 8X or not -- sorry.

The Alternate Install CD runs in text mode, and does not show a Desktop Environment GUI at all -- it is only for installing the OS, not for demonstrating it. For that reason, it has more of the KDE packages already included on it.

[kanwar07]

Re: Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

Linux Live CDs are all very "picky" -- they use extreme compression to get as much stuff on the CD as possible, and so it has to burn and write perfectly -- zero errors are tolerated. It is way different than music or videos, which can tolerate errors that you will not notice. That is why the burn speed needs to be set down to 4X.

I don't know whether you can get the result with 8X or not -- sorry.

The Alternate Install CD runs in text mode, and does not show a Desktop Environment GUI at all -- it is only for installing the OS, not for demonstrating it. For that reason, it has more of the KDE packages already included on it.

Most excellent. I downloaded the CD and I'm burning a few others files to free up space on my HDD, so I will burn it and try it today.

I will make sure to burn it on the slowest speed possible using the other CD burner I have and I will post back my results here .

Hopefully all goes well!!

[kanwar07]

Re: Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

OK So I downloaded the alternate boot file, burned at 4X, and I STILL got an error!

This is my error:
./install/netboot/ubuntu-install/i386/boot-screens/po4a.cfg failed MD5 checksum verification.

I got this error when checking the cd for integrity.

Maybe I have found an error in the ISO's and its not just my computer? Is it a bug perhaps?

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/udev/+bug/143958"]As per this link in a previous post[/url] I read around but I did not get any error that my CD drive isn't detected. It said it was not able to copy from the CD, and to verify that the CD was in the drive.

Can anyone else think of a solution? I have ordered an official CD from canonical and until that time I am not wasting any more CD-R's burning the same thing over and over....

What baffles me is it worked PERFECT on my laptop....so maybe I should try using another optical drive to install? I have a regulard DVD-ROM drive but it is terribly slow...and I have a few more drives I would be able to try.

I will poke around and post my results. My case can handle 3 5 1/2" drives so I can mount 3 at a time and see which is detected...

[dibl]

Re: Kubuntu won't install on my Desktop

Maybe I have found an error in the ISO's and its not just my computer? Is it a bug perhaps?

No, that is very unlikely.

Did you check the md5 sum on the ISO file before you burned it? Obviously the burned CD showed a mismatch after it was burned. You can check the md5 sum on the file after you have downloaded it -- maybe there is some issue with your file downloads -- that would explain bad CDs. There have been occasional posts from guys who repetitively got a md5 sum mismatch on their downloaded files -- something hinky with the internet connection, maybe.