Installing kubuntu on laptop with clean hdd (issues)
 

OK, last night I purchased a used laptop with vista installed. I had a spare 320gb hdd which I had previously 00' ed so I stuck that in and prepared to install kubuntu.

first attempt I created a bootable usb with kubuntu 10.10, after the initial menu I choose install and then I get what I think is some sort of graphics error or total crash as the screen just displays black anf white jagged lines.

I then burnt a cd to rule out usb issues, but got the same problem. I hit f6 in the install menu as per a post I've seen about the noapi option? But hitting esc doesn't exit theg menu, I pressed every button to get out pf this menu but can't.

So then I tried the alternate cd from kubuntu which is the txt installer, ran through that and all installed fine with no errors. It asked about grub and that oit should be safe to overwrite mbr as no other operating system is installed. I took out the cd as instructed and rebooted.

Error - ' no operating system installed'

I've had about enough already any ideas?

Laptop isn't an age old, intel core 2 duo 1'67, 2gb ram

EDIT:

here is a picture of the freeze or graphics error

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/641...9143614.th.jpg

Laptop
 

It sounds like your text-mode install went fine, but the grub install missed. Try using the install cd in live-cd mode and -re-install grub to the MBR on that hard drive and see if that allows you to boot from the HD into kubuntu.

Let us know what happens.

i was using the live-cd version of the install (i think im right in saying that), in the first 3 attempts, and that gave me the issues i mentioned. Are you saying try that method again now ive managed what looks like a full install ?

Im going to install kubuntu on this (another) machine now with which im running win7. and will possible install win7 first on the laptop and dual boot the same if it works

any other follow ups on this? i wiping another HDD i have and im going to try Mint istead

I had the same issue with the graphical install, turned out to be a bad image. Try redownloading the install image from a different mirror(source). I don't have any useful ideas on the "No OS installed" issue except maybe your selected a different harddrive, or the laptop isn't configured to boot from the HD you used? did you check the bios to ensure the HD is on the boot list?

Ok, we can clear up a bit of this.

Every installer can't manage your video card, whatever it is. So they call it vesa, and that barfs. put vga=ask on the boot line. You are giving a drive to this so use
sda1 /boot - about 100megs
sda2 swap - whatever your ram is
sda3 / on the rest

Personally I use sda4 as extended, and use a separate /home and leave room for a second distro. You can even use the same home directory for both systems often, by tweaking uids & gids; it's definitely not kosher, but it works.

Then lilo/grub on 1st boot device. Install whatever you are comfortable with, or want to try. Use
linux text

to boot the install. You should get a long period of installation. Then check grub/lilo before you shut down.

installed windows and tried running the live CD again, but it didnt work. should i try the alternative install (text) again and hope with windows being installed it will install GRUB correctly?

like i said i cant select any options prior to the live-CD install because it doesnt let me escape the menu of F6...

Yes, instead of hitting the return at the live cd prompt, type

linux text

That gets you into most of them. You will be in a non graphical install. What's going on is that there are 13 modes which every video card is supposed to have for compatibility reasons, and out of those, the install picks a vga one, which is non functional on your card.

so typing 'linux text' in kubuntu for example will be the same as running the 'alternate-cd' ? somehow i cant see how

linux mint doesnt even have a text installer, check on their website.

im just burning the alternate kubuntu with k3b, then will install that and see if i get the 'no operating system' error again, now that i have windows 7 on a partition.

its pretty gay that mint doesnt have a text install, as i wanted that on my laptop

Contents of GRUB

recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set cdfca33e=7c3e=4f2a=9b79=eb8c14bad\41a
linux /boot/vmlinux-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=cdfca33e=7c3e=4f2a=9b79=eb8c14bad\41a ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic

They install with scripts - bash, perl, python or whatever. Instead of using a graphical interface(X), they use an ncurses interface like you see on the pretty console programs.

FWIW
 

1). Back when I advised to reinstall grub, I meant to suggest installing ONLY grub over the install you already had, to renew the MBR on disk, not to reinstall the OS again.

As an alternative: there are live-cd and minimalist distributions that can be run (some are intended for this very purpose) to troubleshoot and fix these kinds of issues. Running Puppy Linux in memory alone, for example, is one options. Many of them can be run in text/console mode only. There are how-to documents available (Google is your friend) that show how to use these to refresh your grub install, troubleshoot broken XORG (video), and many other useful things.

2). I have the feeling that we are missing something here, and this specific hardware has a requirement that has not been discussed.

3). When the suggestion to run 'linux text' was made, I believe that they were talking about the boot/install menu during startup from a live-cd, not that this would run as a command under a booted Linux. I could be wrong.

4). You might try testing with a distribution that presents a more limited, but more general, X-windows interface to see if you get better results. DSL and Puppy come to mind, but there are several other options. In any case, once you get anything that looks good enough to use: make sure that you take time to record the settings and drivers used by X-windows and the video system. The information may be invaluable in getting your distribution of choice working they way you want it to.

5). I think you can get it working given time, but (not being at all critical here, we have NO idea about your time constraints or resources) you do not seem the most patient of people. At some point you may have to decide if your time is being well spent, and if it may be more efficient to allow someone with more time to burn to 'play' with it. It may be more trouble that it is worth to you, but a treasure for someone else. Only you can decide when you have reached that point.

i am patient but as an inexperienced linux user, how am i supposed to see whats freezing the system? nobody here has answered that question yet... there must be logs of errors and crashes.

as i have explained the install went fine, and i how was i supposed to install GRUB over the top without going into the install, cancelling and moving straight to the GRUB item in the list?

i cant see how i am being impatient, i have awaited responses each time, and edited my posts to add more information.

i cant try every single command available to the boot script, this is not logical. i need some sort of error log to see whats going wrong surely?

So you have a system? I thought you were talking about a (re)install. These 2 lines from your grub stuff:
1. Is your install on an ext partition, or is there some setup where you have a bit of a windows disk?

2. Change this line to
linux /boot/vmlinux-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=cdfca33e=7c3e=4f2a=9b79=eb8c14bad\41a ro.

The 'splash' tells it to cover the screen in some stupid splash screen, and the 'quiet' tells it not to tell you what's going on. You want that information.