I recently decide to switch Os's from Windows XP to Ubuntu Hardy Heron on my Dell Inspiron 2600. I downloaded the iso and burned it on a CD on my other computer. When i tried to install it on my laptop hers what happened.
Put the CD in
Restarted my laptop and changed the boot order to CD first then hard drive
Got to the Ubuntu screen that has choices like "Install from cd", and "Check CD for defects"
I chose the option to install it from the CD
It loaded for a moment or two.
The screen went black, and stayed there forever till i restarted it and booted windows.
Please tell me what i have to do to install it.
Dan.

How much memory does the machine have? Since there is no swap partition on the disk yet the installer might be having trouble loading. If you have less than 1 GB RAM then this could be the problem. Not that it takes that much memory to run once there is a swap partition, it doesn't.

You could try a different distribution although Ubuntu is an excellent choice. (You might like Kubuntu better because the GUI is more like Windows but that is not the issue before us.)

It might help if you ran Windows and reduced the size of the Windows partition using the Windows disk administrator. Hopefully you could make at least 12 GB available on the disk which you could then divide into a 1 GB swap partition and an 11 GB Ubuntu system partition by running Ubuntu live, not the installer. If you can get the Ubuntu live running, even if it is running very slowly, we can then guide you through creating a swap partition on the disk. That should speed things up and maybe the installer would work.

Unless I just looked at the wrong specs, that is going to struggle. Biggest issue will be the video - which is probably what is causing the grief. The Ubuntu installer is pretty stupid in some (a lot of) ways - seems it can't handle shonky video, but the resulting system will work o.k. once you (manually) set it using i810.

I got Hardy working on an old(er) 1100, but it wasn't trivial. I wouldn't recommend it as a first Linux distro on that hardware.

Hi Dan,

I had the same problem as you, and have wasted several CDs before discovering (from the ArchLinux manual) that these are some typical reasons why your screen might go blank when you try to boot the kernel:

1. Your CD drive has a problem with Grub, and must use the isolinux image. (Out-of date, as newer Arch uses "isolinux" by default. Also, the bootloader is still Grub, I think, so someone goofed?)
2. Need to pass this to bootloader: ide-legacy (didn't work for me, and not sure if this is in the right format or if it should be part of a name-value pair; if so, the manual didn't give it that way)
3. For some older Intel CPUs, need to pass this: i915.modeset=0

For me, it was #3 that worked.

Incidentally, I was getting the same problem with various distros. The screen wouldn't necessarily go blank in the same exact place...or, more likely, the installers varied in how much info was printed to the screen when the kernel was being loaded...but in all cases I was able to get to the install menu, except for Fedora core (live CD), where the desktop never finished loading (no icons).

In ArchLinux, i915.modeset=0 worked as for loading the kernel without error, getting a shell, and using the setup program. (Haven't actually installed because at that point I had some place to go.)

Haven't tried i915.modeset=0 with other distros (Ubuntu, Fedora) yet, but I think it would work for them if the problem is the same, such as your post and others found here on LQ.

Anyone who tries this, could you please post back? And what distro it worked for?

F.Y.I., before I booted the kernel in ArchLinux, I had already created Linux and Linux swap partitions via (old) Knoppix (which was the only distro that booted completely without doing anything special). I don't know if that made a difference or not.

I have been trying without success to install Ubuntu on an Inspiron 2600. An earlier commenter is correct when he says the problem is with the video card. The problem is, I think, the install package is unable to determine the Dell's video card parameters.

I was able to install Debian 6 (squeeze) with no problem using a 'business' card version. Squeeze gives you the option of installing under 'graphical expert install' mode under its 'Advanced Options' menu, and when it comes to the point where Ubuntu hangs up, it gives you a list of video modes for you to select-from. A chose VESA 1024 X 768, and the installation process went forward swiftly and with no further hangup after that.

I read in another blog that you can install ubuntu on the Dell Inspiron 2600 if you attach a regular monitor for purposes of the installation (which it will, apparently recognize)... then go in to edit xorg.conf file after installation to the Dell's parameters and Ubuntu will work just fine after that. I also read that you can get the Dell to boot up in 'safe' mode and edit the xorg.conf file that way. I have yet to try either of those options however.

What one? the one from 3 years ago? or the one from nearly 1 year ago? Talk about bringing a thread back from the dead! If you install Squeeze it will work without a problem with the DebianLive DVD.

This thread has 2 different problems in it, apart from its age that is, so I would recommend you start your own next time so you don't mix your problem with someone else's (probably) completely different problem.

Considering the major changes in the Ubuntu installer over the last year there is little in common with the installer that this thread was started about.

I have tried for literally six hours to get squeeze to install using a DebianLive CD (the optical drive is a CD drive and won't read the DebianLive DVD), Netinst CD, and Business card CD. Not even close. It always goes blank and freezes up just before entering graphical mode. In rescue mode, I can get it to a terminal, but the rendering is so awful you can barely make out your text, half your text is off the screen, and lines of text typed wrap back over themselves at page's end. Useless.

I am starting a new thread to deal with the problem. Thanks for your help so far.