Ubuntu Install Taking hours!

[rael74]

Decided to take Linux Plunge...

 

Partitioned Hard Drive and trying to install latest Ubuntu release

from Boot CD... It is taking about an hour to get to the language

choice screen, and then just gives up.

 

Any solutions folks? - Installing onto a DELL Inspiron 1300.

 

Thanks

[SimpleSi]

The setup process seems to require the machine has a lot of RAM in it (>250MB ??)

 

I've used the alternate cd to install the previous release (6.06 Dapper ) on a low memory machine.

 

BTW the latest release (6.10 Edgy) seems to have a few bugs in it so I'd use Dapper if taking plunge for 1st time

 

regards

Simon

[Ric_]

Sometimes graphical Linux installs can take maasive amounts of RAM (as Simon has said).

 

There are usually boot options to run in text mode that you could try though... IIRC F1 at the boot menu will give some options.

[NetDiag]

Another way you could possibly do it is to install dapper and then use the Edgy Wiki to update the sources.list to Edgy repositories.

 

The sources.list can be found here : http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Edgy

 

then update using:

 

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade

 

It's not the best way of updating and you could still run into problems but it worked for me as I had problems with the graphical installer with garbled display even though I put in various options then theres the bugs in the partition manager!

 

Anyways, worth a try if you really want to see Edgy in action. However this upgrade technique works for some but not for others.

 

As for the bugs, they should be fixed shortly I would think. Keep your eyes peeling for Edgy updates.

[Geoff]

Noooo, I've found the dapper -> edgy upgrade to lead to brokenness.

 

If you wish to install on a low memory (less than 256mb) machine you must use the alternate CD and the text installer.

[OverWorked]

I had a similar problem a few months ago (there's a thread in here somewhere). I don't know if this is the cause of your problem.

 

It turned out that some of the repositories were innacessible (due to a bad router at my ISP). When I got access to the repositories again, Ubuntu installed in a few minutes.

 

I think Ubuntu has a really long timeout before giving up on a repository.

[Geoff]

You can ALT-F8 (I think? Might be another F key) and see a 'debug' log of the installation process if your using the text installer. It's quite obvious if the process is stuck trying to download.

[CyberNerd]

I had success on a p3 450 256mb.

with help from ubuntu forums and with xubuntu I did something along the lines of

 

 

sudo apt-get update
sudo  sed 's/dapper/edgy/g' > /etc/apt/sources
sudo mv /etc/apt/sources /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get -f install
sudo dpkg –configure -a

 

I then needed to re-install xserver-xorg, otherwise worked ok.

[rael74]

There was a boot option to run in 'safe grapics mode' and this seems to have speeded it up to a 'normal' running speed. It is only a 256RAM PC, but the default install option was taking hours really, now it takes minutes - Cheers guys.