I'm on an Amilo Series A Fujitsu-Siemens notebook with 223Mb of RAM, a RADEON IGP 320 graphics card and ATI U1/A3 Accelerated Graphics Port. I installed the Xubuntu "alternate" version because the other versions wouldn't install onto my system (perhaps because of the same graphics problem). After one hell of a battle with grub and with other aspects of the installation process, I was finally able to find the default username, to set a root password, and resolve other issues.

I realized after the installation that this version of Xubuntu is for servers and older machines, but it seems that it's more for servers than "older machines". That would explain why login is not graphical and also the difficulty in getting the GUI going.

I then did "apt-get install xubuntu-desktop" (shot in the dark)... and IT WORKED! However, when I do "gdm start" I get a blank black screen.

Can anybody offer a solution to this problem?

Many thanks.

Strange, I get a blank black screen when trying to install the Feisty Fawy and Dapper Drake versions "desktop" versions of Xubuntu. It begins to install, and then I get a blank screen (I think this corresponds to the moment where you should be getting an installation choice in GUI form)...

Note too that none of my Live Linux CDs work on this laptop.

Here's some more info on the laptop:
Fujitsu-Siemans Business PC for W2K/XP
Amilo A (A2000 40GB / A-7600 COMBO / 256MB)

It says 256MB of RAM, but all of the info I get via Windows shows 223MB of RAM!! Strange...

Any idea why this might be? Is there a version of Linux that I could install onto this laptop?