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My pc has no OS. I have tried loading Debian multiple versions of Ubuntu currently trying hearty heron but it has been on formatting drive for 36 hrs. Anyone have any ideas how I can get any version loaded so can get to current version of Ubuntu or Kubuntu?
My PC is a Toshiba laptop with 80 gig hard drive. Any help would be appreciated? I have used the live version and am really wanting to use fully installed version.
Last edited by Rick Kerans; 02-20-2013 at 04:29 PM.
Reason: More info
I have no OS on that PC. So how do I get version 10.4 downloaded and installed. I have tried creating bootable USB drive and that failed. Sorry such a newbie.
Please note that these links were on the helpful page that I linked to in post #2, suggesting that you did not read it.
Also when you have an error, don't say "it failed." Give us the details of what you tried, and the exact error message, if you want any meaningful help.
You might post some info on your hardware. How old is the machine? Have you checked the minimum hardware requirements for Ubuntu or other distributions? How did you try to create your bootable flash drive?
I have tried loading Debian multiple versions of Ubuntu currently trying hearty heron but it has been on formatting drive for 36 hrs.
It might be a good idea to take a look at that hard drive from the Live CD. An 80 GB HDD should partition and format in half an hour or less--likely less.
Google "troubleshoot hard drive linux" and you will find a number of articles (I did). You can pick the one that seems to meet your situation most handily. I looked at several of them and couldn't decide which one to suggest.
I received a version 12.04 in mail. Started the cd. I received the Ubuntu screen with the dots underneath it. Now I have the background on screen with a circle with black dots rotating around inside it. Is this installing or frozen. The live CDs I originally tried had bad files but that was why my XP was deleted. After checking the live disks the either had 1 to 3 bad files on them. they were from Linux Journal Mag. Is my system locked due to screen description or is it installing finally?
Tell us about your hardware (CPU, RAM, and video card in particular). It may be that your video card requires some extra steps, or that your PC does not meet the minimum hardware specs for Ubuntu. I really don't know...
It's not installing if you haven't asked it to and been asked various questions. It's obviously got stuck during the boot-up. I've had some bad experiences with magazine disks in the past: the best bet is to buy a disk from a proper dealer or download the file and create a disk or USB stick on your Mac.
We really do need to know which Toshiba model it is and how much memory it has to make any attempt at a diagnosis.
Satelite M115 is my laptop.
/dev/sda1 shows unknown 71.88 GiB boot
But shows no file system.
I have tried twice to create bootable USB from earlier link and have failed. I purchased cd from amazon still failing.
Ran test from live disk and hardware passes drivers except for wireless card passes yet can still get Internet with proprietary drivers
Last edited by Rick Kerans; 02-21-2013 at 11:56 PM.
Reason: More info
I googled "Satelite M115" and discovered there were a couple of different models of this laptop. Some have integrated Intel graphics (no special driver required) and some have ATI Radeon Xpress 200M graphics (which might require a special driver, but I don't know because I'm not an ATI graphics expert). I recommend to figure out which graphics card you have and then search for that specific card over at ubuntuforums.org.
Anyway, with such an old system, you'll definitely have better luck with Xubuntu or Lubuntu.
If it's old Intel graphics, then Ubuntu may fail to work. You could try
1. Press a key when you seethe symbol at the bottom of the screen, to get a menu.
2. Select the menu item you want, but don't press enter.
3. Press F6, followed by ESC
4. Type "xforcevesa" (no quotes) at the end of the displayed command and press enter.
But if you've only got 512MB of RAM, then Ubuntu probably won't install!
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