hello everyone!

i am having a problem installing ubuntu 10.10. i had windows vista and used ubuntu inside windows with no problem. then, i wanted to reset my vista to its factory conditions (just to clean up space and get rid of hidden or unnecessary things) using the recovery disk - and the recovery disk partially worked, removed my os and didn't 'restore' anything. so i decided to just go all the way to ubuntu anyway, which was the plan all along, just sooner now.

i have the disk and i can easily make it to the 'try ubuntu' feature. however, when i try to actually install ubuntu, i make it all the way to the 'who are you page?' but the 'forward' button isn't accessible (which is how i noticed something might be wrong). this happens whether i try to install after trying ubuntu or if i try to direcly install without trying it first. i fill in the data, the installation says it's copying files, etc... and then, when it's done, it says 'ready when you are'. that's it. i can't click on 'forward', and none of the 'information about ubuntu' features and pics scroll by while the setup is taking place. i can't do anything at this point. the system isn't really frozen but it just does nothing. (i thought i might have to restart the computer but the only options i have are 'hibernate' and 'suspend'. also, once i manually restart everything it reloads all over again. when i take the disk out and restart, i see NOTHING. the vaio logo comes on, then the screen goes black and i see the cursor prompt but nothing else at all and i can't do anything at all. i can't even access the bios during the initial start up before, during or after the vaio logo flash.)

clearly, there is a problem.

i thought it might be my disk, and since i have the setup on my pendrive as well and can make it to the 'try ubuntu' feature, maybe it's also possible to run the install from the pendrive while in 'try ubuntu'. after all, there is the 'install ubuntu' feature in the 'try ubuntu' setup on the desktop.

is this possible? and if yes, how do i do it? (or better, if you know how to fix the problem with the installation from the disk, wonderful! )

and since i can't access the bios i can't run the initial installation from the pendrive. my vaio is about 3-4 years old, but i don't know if it even had the usb boot feature anyway.

even with all this trouble (going on day 3), i do NOT want to go back to closed source stuff. i want ubuntu.

if anyone can help me, a lowly newbie, out i'd be very happy and grateful. i hope i gave enough information regarding the problem. please be gentle with me.

thanks!
brad

Try accessing bios without pendrive and just before save and exit plug it in.

at this point, i am unable to access any bios at all. at which point should i try to access the bios in the suggestion you gave me? i'll try it if i know how/when i'm supposed to do it. but as of now, no matter what i try to do, i can not access any bios at all. it has to be there, though, because i can still boot off of a disk, right? still, nothing i try will allow me to get into the bios.

and thank you.

okay, i just got into bios. it worked this time and all the previous attempts did not. i'm going to see what i can do from here and then get back to you.

thanks again!

okay, i changed the bios to boot first from an external device and enabled it, but when it boots this time from the pendrive (the external device) it says 'disk error'. does this mean that the pendrive has a corrupt file on it or that my computer just doesn't want to play nice?

i took the pendrive out, and let ubuntu start from the disk. while it was doing that i put the pendrive back in and it ran the setup from the pendrive! BUT - i ended up with the same problem that i had before that i described in the original post. i get to the 'who are you?' page, the forward button IS NOT clickable, i don't see any of the setup graphics or information, the 'copying files...' text appears at the bottom, and then it says 'ready when you are'. what do i do at this point? i can't access anything else at all.

since i was looking for a way to install ubuntu off of my pendrive and i found a way to do that, i'm going to mark this as solved. however, the problem of not being able to finish the installation process, no matter which method i use, still persists. i'll start another thread to directly address that issue.