Am building a new computer which has a Gigabyte GA-P35-S3G mobo, Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 processor, Diamond Viper X1650 Pro 8X AGP video, and a Thermaltake 500W PSU.

So far, in addition to the above, have only connected a CDRom to run setup CD's and a series of HDD's, one of which came out of a Dell 4500 with XP Pro already installed on it. Interestingly the latter was able to boot and run XP at least to a screen that says that I need to register/validate. (I supose it realizes that it is in a different hardware setup, but at least it booted!)

Have tried to use an XP Home install CD and an Ubuntu 8.04 desktop CD. The XP install CD gets as far as the partitioning screen and can see the four (linux, although it calls them "Unknown format") partitions. I don't need to install XP since this HDD already has Ubuntu installed and if I go any further with the XP install it will want to format the entire disk (since it will not be able to read C. I just am testing the hardware to see that everything is "seen".

For all of the hdd's, the Ubunutu (virtual desktop) install, however, gets through the screen with the moving bar (activity indicator), then the bar that starts filling from the left and when it fills all the way to the right, switches to the next step in the install but at that point the screen goes dark and in a bit the CD stops reading.

Why can windows see the partitions, but Ubunutu cannot?

Why is Ubunutu shutting down?

TIA

I do not use Ubuntu...but are you sure virtual desktop is the correct distro choice?

I would have thought a different name would be the way to go.

2) In the meantime you may be better off downloading a Ubuntu live cd....that way you can test if it detects your hardware.

3) We can give better clues when we examine the output of lspci and look at your boot up messages...from a live cd....but I am guessing you have chosen a emulator edition of Ubuntu....which needs to run from an emulator....and not a traditional hard drive install.

an example of a real d/load is

ubuntu-8.04.1-dvd-i386.iso
My ISP does not have any isos called vmware,vbox or win4lin so if I have been mislead can you name the full name of your iso please

Aus9,

I'm probably incorrectly describing the Ubuntu CD. It was mailed to me by Canonical and is entitled: "Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition."

When it boots, you get several choices, the first being to install the virtual desktop, the second being a full install. Both go black and do not complete the install.

OK, it appears that the culprit is a mismatch between the video card and CRT. I found a 7.10 Ubuntu CD with a boot into safe video option. It brings up the live cd desktop just fine. Thanks for all your help.