When trying to install from liveCD-CD drive stops-monitor goes to blank screen with blinking cursor, which I can't do anything with.This machine did run Ubuntu 12.4-barely.Am I missing something?

Extremely difficult to give an answer with no more info than you provide.

What is your hardware, particularly the ram and video card/controller, cpu would be nice.

How did you get the image?

Did you check the md5sum?

How did you burn the disk?

When did the screen go to black?

HP Pavilion 7950-AMD Anthalon 1200 MHZ processor-40 G HDD-385 MB SDRAM-ATI
mach 64 based video card.


I downloaded the image and burned with Brasero.I don't have a clue to what
md5sum even is.The screen goes blank right after the HP Invent screen.

Well that could be the problem. You could have had a bad download.

md5sums are available for all install disks from any distro that is worth fooling with. If it doesn't match the image you got doesn't match the image that was sent.

We need to know this before anything else can be said.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM

You might also want to install a different burner. Brasero has never given me much trouble but has a bad reputation. I suggest Xfburn which really is, I think, about as good as they get.

Be sure when burning that you are burning it as an image and at the slowest speed setting you can.

Are you doing this as an experiment ?
Because, 12.04 is NOT going to run satisfactorily on
hardware of the specs you have described.
( Ask me how I know ! )
If you want a useful install, go for Lubuntu 10.04
You will also have to use an old Flash player like
ver 10.x on AMD Athlons due to lack of SSE2 support

I've tried a varified md5sum,different burner and an earlier (10.4)Lubuntu,and still nothing.
This machine did run Ubuntu 12.4 just recently.I only want to use it as a printer server
(without resorting to windows)any suggestions?

Are you able to boot from the Lubuntu LiveCD to try without installing ?
Are you able to boot from any other CD at all in this machine ?
FWIIW, I have had more success with pendrives than CDs.
Another thing that helps sometimes ( probably incase of insufficient RAM )
is to pre-format the HDD. Especially, create a swap-partition.

I would try a distro that doesn't use Plymouth by default.

All Ubuntu Family members are more resource hungry than most other distros using the same DE.

Try a couple of these. First link is for 32bit, second for 64bit.
http://live.debian.net/cdimage/relea...86/iso-hybrid/

http://live.debian.net/cdimage/relea...64/iso-hybrid/

I would recommend the ISO for Xfce. I think it may run on that much ram. I know it runs on 512. Will not have any or the many added Gnome packages included with Xubuntu. Just straight up Xfce4.8.

If you are a Lubuntu fan you will be disappointed with Lxde DE. Lubuntu is the nicest preconfigured Lxde you will find. I am not a fan of the Ubuntu family at all but Lubuntu is the best thing they have going for them. Really nice.

Debian Lxde is all right but it is straight up Lxde and pretty bare bones. Worked the last time I checked in when Wheezy was testing.

12.04 was based on Debian testing when Wheezy was Debian testing. As you were running it this may work.

One thing you may want to consider doing if you have another computer is burn this image to a disk and then installing it on a usb stick. I am not talking about putting the ISO on the stick. I mean formating the stick to ext4, making 2 partitions (/ and /home) and installing from the DVD. Then assuming the DVD will boot but won't install, you can boot to the DVD insert the stick in a usb port, and the dd command to copy the Stick to the hard drive

Another thing you could try if you want to stick with the Ubuntu family is to get the netinstall image. This is a text only installer and doesn't install much. It will give you a kernel, full file system and the APT system. It will boot to a tty login and you install the rest of the OS from there with apt-get.

The Ubuntu meta packages are quite a bit bigger than most distros use and this makes a netinstall some what easier. The meta package for most DEs includes all the xserver stuff you need to have graphics for the gui instead of just the DE packages. So one command should get you a working system.

If Ubuntu or any of the family members are still putting out an alt-install disk that would probably work for you too. It uses the Debian default installer with no live session.

Seeing how you had 12.04 running I think your problem is the Live Session is just too damned big for your meager ram. The alt-install disk would not be that heavy. Shouldn't be a lot heavier on your system than the netinstall image really (same installer).

Unlike the netinstall image it will install the entire OS. Also includes a menu option of booting to rescue mode to rescue a broken system. Will basically set up an chroot for you so you can deal with the broken system and fix it.

I would like to thank you all for your input and suggestions.unfortunately none worked-I could
have done something wrong.(probably!)What I ended up doing was re-installing Ubuntu 12.4(with no
problems),went straight to Software Center and installed LXDE Desktop Environment and updated
and tweaked everything from there.My intention was to install a stand alone LXDE O.S.(Lubuntu).
It is slow as Christmas,but I'm mainly using it as a printer server.It is a dinasour computer-but it
runs better than I expected.thanks again!

What matters is that you have a running system. Good work.

There are always different ways to get to the same result. Just keep poking at a problem and you will, eventually, have a result at least similar to what you wanted in the first place.

You get better at poking with practice.