I have recently acquired a copy of Xandros 2.0.
Unfortunately I am unable to even install it. It loads on startup and gets to the xandros splash screen, a message appears in the top left corner of the screen telling me the kernal is loading at which point it simply hangs.

Thanks in advance

Bad CD? (did you check the MD5 sum before burning? Did you burn the ISO properly)? Dirty CD (have you looked for fingerprints or other marks)? CD-ROM dead (have you tried the CD in another machine, or in another CD-ROM drive if you have one)?

Have you tried pressing SHIFT where suggested, and tried some of the boot options? According to The Xandros Getting Started Guide, you should:
Which version have you "acquired"? If the Deluxe, you should be able to install from within Windows, if Windows is available on that machine.

Since your "acquisition" (have you noticed that I don't like the sound of that?) should have bought you 30 days of tech support, have you emailed Xandros?

You might also check the Xandros Forums where I'm sure that many people have encountered this problem (I saw at least 4, just on the first page).

Thanks for your reply...

My "aquisition" of the software was via a PC Magazine purchase, the full version of xandros came free with it. So sorry you didn't like my terminoligy, next time I'll email you a draft before posting to make sure you're happy with it.

Not everyone is a pirate.

I'll check out the links you provided, all hardware queries you submitted are ok.

Does the magazine have a forum? If there were any oddities about the mag's version (I frequent the Linux Format magazine forums, so I know this can happen), they would be the best people to help you solve it.

... Not everyone is a pirate, but there's no reason to leave the implication open if one is not, now, is there? No reason not to say that the distro came with a magazine's coverdisk in the first place, and many forums have strict rules about answering questions about illegally-acquired software. Since there are few legal ways to "acquire" Xandros for free (comparatively speaking), it's not terribly surprising that someone might wonder.

Sorry if I offended you with my concern.

And of course, had you said about the mag in the first place, I would have suggested the mag's forums in the first post, which might have saved some time, as well.

The pc magazine is called Australian PC Authority, April 2004 issue.
I'll check it out and see if they have their own forum, I never even thought of that.
Thanks for your help.