[askn]

I have an older pentium 1 PC labtop that is completely formatted. I wanted to install Unbuntu Linux 7.04 on the machine but I am unable to install it because I can't run the start.exe file. The message I am getting is "This program cannot be run in DOS mode".

Can I get some help!!!!

[arochester]

Ubuntu doesn't have a start.exe. Can you change the BIOS to boot from the CD? If not you will need to create a boot floppy - which will then start up the CD-Rom, or use a program such as SmartBootManager.

With older machines the important thing is the amount of RAM. How much RAM have you got? Haw big is the Hard Drive?

[dodgyphil]

Have a look in your bios. You enter bios using F10 or delete or F1 key ( it should state which key during the first part of the boot sequence ). If a boot from CDROM opton is available make sure it is enabled.
Xubuntu tends to be less resource hungry than Ubuntu so you may want to try that first.

As your experience grows there are bunches of low resource hungry distro to try DSL Puppy etc.

PhilD

[Danltn]

Ensure " Boot from CD " is enabled in your BIOS. Get to this by F2, F8 (sometimes with Alt) sometimes F12/10 or Del

Just try it all

I advise you use Xubuntu however, it runs off a KDE backend and requires about half the amount of RAM. The download link can be found here http://www.ubuntu.org

[anujtenani]

just boot from the cd and follow instructions

enable boot from cd in the bios
enter bios by pressing esc or f2 ,or f8 , or f10 (depend on your computer manufacturer )