I have tried several different distros - but none seems to work. The pc is a HP mini 1000 with 16 Gb flashdisk, 1 Gb ram, American keyboard. It had an Win Xp installed when it was bought. Later it worked with an Ubuntu. My older son, who owned the pc before me, will not give me his password. He wanted me to install a fresh, new Linux (wonder what secrets he will hide :-)).

I have now tried to install Ubuntu, Knoppix, PcLinux, Mandriva, Feodora and a few more, using the universal usb installer. Ubuntu, Slacks and Mandriva works fine from the usb-key. But when I try to install to the minis flashdisk, it freezes.

Ubuntu stops during the install process just after I have selected the keybord (I have tried default English and Danish).

Mandriva lets me format the flashdisk, but freezes with white screen just before the install is finished. There after Mandriva can start booting from the minis flashdisk, but it stops for a long time showing the startup screen. After very long time I get a terminal screen asking for login name and password. (I guess Mandriva wants the password from my sons Linux installation).

What do I do next?

/ Allan

The HP Mini 1000 should work ok with Ubuntu. In this thread a few people say it works right out of the box:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=979417
HP apparently offered Ubuntu as an option for the Mini 1000:
http://gerry.ws/2008/10/340/hp-mini-...as-ubuntu.html
See this for installing Ubuntu from the usb drive:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...n/FromUSBStick
Or you could try UNetbootin:
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
Or you could just ask your son how he managed to install linux on the HP Mini 1000.

And welcome to the LQ forums!

Hi
Thank you for the answer - I have tried most of your suggestions, but finally I found an Ubuntu clone which works without any trouble - even the airbourne internet started without my interaction:
http://www.jolicloud.com/

It is a distro which is aimed directly at netbooks.

regards
Allan

Glad you had success with Jolicloud!
So how do you like Jolicloud anyway? I had read some articles about it a while back; but I have not heard much about it lately.
There are other distros that are specialized for netbooks and mobile devices. You may want to checkout Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR), Moblin, and Meego:
http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook/get-ubuntu/download
http://moblin.org/
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=moblin
http://meego.com/
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=meego
Since linux is open source, and free as in freedom software, these projects are borrowing heavily from each other from what I have read. This should serve to benefit all netbook and mobile device users who want to use linux.