[JoshRod]

Trying to install Ubuntu 8.04 onto my home PC with Windows XP on it. It comes to a screen that says, "Type 'Enter'." Then it says, "Type 'proceed' to install Ubuntu". Or something like that, it loads everything and then it just stops. Any ideas on how to actually install it? Also, it pops the DVD drive and disk out even when nothing's happening. It also says on the screen that it's a Dell System Restore DVD. Is this the actual DVD to install Ubuntu or no?

[lotuseclat79]

Hi JoshRod,

I never heard of any Ubuntu Live CD claim to be a Dell System Restore DVD - sounds like you are attempting to install Ubuntu from your computer's restore dvd from Dell.

Download Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) - the latest Live CD release, and burn the .iso image to a CD. Click on the download link in the left-hand panel.

-- Tom

[JoshRod]

Ugh, I have kind of another problem. I was re-installing Windows XP onto my home PC because I almost got a virus from MaCatte, so by accident, I left my flash drive in it and when it said which partition to install Windows on, deleted some to create a partition to use. And by accident, I chose F: drive. Any help would be appreciated.

[lotuseclat79]

What was on your flash drive? Was it just used for file storage and you lost those files or did it have a Linux distribution on it?

-- Tom

[JoshRod]

Originally Posted by lotuseclat79

What was on your flash drive? Was it just used for file storage and you lost those files or did it have a Linux distribution on it?

-- Tom

I got it fixed. Had to make it a partition; clicked on the wrong spot. One more thing, though. When writing ubuntu onto a CD, how would I do it? I downloaded Ubuntu 9.10 and do I have to burn the .rar file to a CD or what? If you could put it in steps, I'd appreciate it.

[lotuseclat79]

Hi JoshRod,

Where did you download from? The download file is a .iso file, not a .rar file.

If you downloaded Ubuntu 9.10, then you should have the file: ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso, and it should get the following output when you issue the command
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ls -lt ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso
-rw------- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 723488768 2009-10-28 17:14 ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso
which is 689.97265625 MB which makes it < 700 MB so it will fit into a CD. Note: 1MB = 1024*1024 bytes = 1048576 bytes. Just to reiterate, the download is a .iso file, not a .rar file.

Yes, you have to burn it to a CD (use brasero or Applications>Accessories>CD/DVD Creator), or alternatively you can burn it to a USB (use UBS Startup Disk Creator - System>System Administration>UBS Startup Disk Creator). However, if you choose this option, you must make certain in your BIOS that you can boot from a USB. If not, there is a way described at pendrivelinux.com where you can create a CD along with the USB that will transfer control to the USB from the CD in order to appear as if you had booted from the USB (same result).

You can use those graphical interfaces above, or choose the command line execution of brasero, and in that case read the man page for brasero by issuing the command:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ man brasero

How I do it: I use Ultimate Ubuntu 1.4 (available on CD) which is an Ubuntu 7.10 custom release mainly for gaming. Specifically, I use the cdrecord command:
First get into root by issuing the sudo -i command as follows below (your network should be disabled) - just right-click on the network icon in the main menu (top of screen), and unclick Enable Networking.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo -i
# cdrecord -scanbus
to find the CDROM device spec of the CD drive into which I will insert the blank CD (I have two devices on my system: 1) a DVD-RAM and 2) a CD device and I use the CD device for the burn operation.

Once the file ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso is located on my desktop, i.e. /home/ubuntu/Desktop, I issue the command:
# cdrecord -eject -v speed=4 dev=ATAPI:0,1,0 ./ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso
Note: the field above (0,1,0) is an example of the device spec and can vary with each reboot of Ultimate Ubuntu 1.4, so the next time it may be 2,1,0 which is why the command: cdrecord -scanbus must be run to verify the device spec on the system.

Note: the ATAPI interface has been deprecated and if you attempt this from Karmic 9.10, you may get a message to use OLDATAPI - and I do not know if this works.

-- Tom

[JoshRod]

Well, I'm doing this on Windows XP. When I took the ISO image file and burned it onto a disk using Nero 9, it had some errors. Should I re-download Ubuntu 9.10 and use a different burning software or what?

[lotuseclat79]

Hi JoshRod,

Store the .iso file you have in its own subdirectory somewhere. There is a file named MD5SUMS that you should download as well along with the .iso file. It is a text file and should tell you the result of the md5sum for the file you downloaded. If you don't have that file, then go get it from the Ubuntu site you downloaded the .iso file from.

Then run the command:
$ md5sum ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso
and see if the output is the same as what the MD5SUMS file tells you. If it is the same you do not have to redownload the .iso file again as the md5sum is verified.

The result from running the md5sum command you are looking for is:
8790491bfa9d00f283ed9dd2d77b3906 *ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso

I suppose it should not matter (that you are using Windows to burn the .iso image) as long as you choose to write the .iso image file as an image and not a data file. The .iso file has a complete ISO file system within it, so writing it as an image boots it up from the iso file system image, and writing it as data will not boot up.

If you get further problems burning the .iso file using Windows, then try doing from a Linux Live CD which usually has a Live/CD Creator where you just put the .iso file on your Desktop, and move the icon into the Live/CD Creator window, and click on write image or somthing like that.

-- Tom