I've been trying, unsuccessfully to install Kubuntu for about 2 or 3 weeks now and would really appreciate some help. Here's my situation.

Athlon 64 3500+ (AMD 64) Processor
1 GB PC3200 DDR RAM
MSI RS480M2-IL Motherboard
250 GB IDE Hard Drive (split into 2 partitions, the Windows Partition and the System Recovery Partition)

I downloaded the AMD64 specific iso from the Kubuntu website and eventually made both a DVD and a CD without any errors on it (although it definitely took a while to get a CD without any errors.

All the errors that I've received I've gotten when attempting to do anything with either the CD or DVD. For simplicity's sake, I will henceforward refer to just the CD but actually meaning either one.

I have two CD-ROM drives, the primary one is a LightScribe drive (meaning it can etch images into the face of a CD) and a second "normal" drive. The CD doesn't work in the primary drive. Whenever I try to boot the LiveCD from there it brings up several errors. Booting the LiveCD from the second drive, however, presents no problem.

So, once I boot from the LiveCD I try to install. I'm attempting to install onto my 20 GB external USB hard drive. First I format it to be Linux ext 3 using PartitionMagic in Windows. Then, when I'm in Kubuntu off the LiveCD I go through all the steps (language, keyboard setup, information, and Timezone). When I get to choosing where to install Kubuntu I've tried telling it to erase the entire drive (as there's nothing on there) and I've tried making my own partitions. When I make my own partitions I've tried making various combinations:
/, 512 MB swap
/, 512 MB swap, 100 MB /Boot
/, 100 MB Boot

All eventually give the same errors.

I'm able to choose any of those options get to the next screen. The default for where to install GRUB is (hd0) but I believe that's my IDE hard drive and (hd1) is actually my external hard drive. I don't know for sure as using fdisk simply lists sdX, hd#.

Anyways, I successfully install and it tells me to restart. I do. When it gets to the point where it says to take the CD out and close the tray (if any), I do. Then I press enter but nothing happens. I can wait a while and still nothing will happen. Thus, I'm forced to just shut off my computer.

When I first try to boot from the external hard drive I get a GRUB error 15. Then, I'll change the BIOS settings so that the external hard drive is first in the hard drive priority list over the IDE drive. Then I'll get either an error 18 or an error 2 depending on if I set up a /Boot partition.

I'm not sure what's wrong. I don't even get a command screen for GRUB, it just takes me right to the error screen. Something must be weird since this is just the standard Kubuntu installer.

I would love some help as I really want to have a portable Kubuntu but I'm having a lot of difficulties with it.

Thanks.

Hi

What does the error 15 say more exactly? This should give you some hint what is wrong. Error 18 usually only happens on old machines because of BIOS limitations (some BIOS could only read the first 512MB/8GB). If you can, try installing on an internal drive.