Live-CD of Kubuntu 8.10 hangs while loading on older PC

[Skara Brae]

Greetings to all,

This is my very first message on here, because I have an "issue" with a Live-CD that I would like to put here.

At work, they plan to sell our old computers (replaced by new ones running SLED 10 – not my favourite distro, but anything better than MS Windows.). The latest "batch" of these old computers is not so bad, so I plan to buy one (assuming they don't ask too much money).

Because of security matters, the harddrives will be reformatted and removed (which makes me wonder who of my computer-illiterate colleagues will then still be interested in buying a computer...). Since I know my way around with computers fairly well, including installing an OS, I plan to install *buntu on it (I am not at all a Linux expert, though).

Here are the specs:
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 (Northwood), 2.8 GHz
MOBO: Asus P4GE-VM (1x AGP, 3x PCI)
GPU: Intel 82845G Graphics Controller (onboard video)
RAM: 512 MB DDR-RAM
HD: 80 GB WesternDigital (IDE, not S-ATA)
ETHERNET: Intel(R) PRO/100 VE network adapter
AUDIO: AC'97 Audio Controller (onboard audio)
OS: MS Windows 2000 currently (which will be removed because of license matters, of course)

A live-CD of Kubuntu 8.10 that I made once (the CD-r is fine, for I used it to install Kubuntu on my main PC once) "hangs" when I use it on this PC a few times now, always with the same result: the loading stops at this screen:

[img width=400 height=300]http://i48.tinypic.com/2rh7i9v.jpg[/img] (I hope this works & is allowed?)

After this, nothing more happens. I do notice that the (PS/2) keyboard stops working, i.e. the lights of NumLock and Shift Lock do not turn on or off. The "USB-via-PS/2-adapter" mouse keeps on working fine, though.

I tried (older) live-CD's of Xubuntu 8.04 and of DSL 4.4.10, and these both load and run fine.

Does anyone have an idea why this Live-CD of 8.10 "hangs"?
A KDE4 issue?
The onboard video adapter?

Perhaps I can convince the IT-people to leave the HDD in the PC's and reformat them that way; then I could install Kubuntu on these PC's and convince my (interested) colleagues to buy a PC with Kubuntu on it... :-) We are now already working with SLED 10 w/ KDE for more than a year, so my colleagues already know their way around with KDE.

Many thanks for any help on this...

[Snowhog]

Re: Live-CD of Kubuntu 8.10 hangs while loading on older PC

I do notice that the (PS/2) keyboard stops working, i.e. the lights of NumLock and Shift Lock do not turn on or off.

Reboot and enter the BIOS setup. There is/will/should be a setting concerning PS/2 and 'legacy' or such wording. If it is enabled, disable it. If disabled, enable it. Save and continue to boot. See if that doesn't allow you to fully boot into Kubuntu and get to the Desktop.

[Skara Brae]

Re: Live-CD of Kubuntu 8.10 hangs while loading on older PC

Snowhog,

Thank you very much for your time to answer. I will see what that BIOS option does tomorrow and then report back in...

-oo-

Should I perhaps better get the latest version of Kubuntu, instead of "Intrepid"?

[Snowhog]

Re: Live-CD of Kubuntu 8.10 hangs while loading on older PC

Should I perhaps better get the latest version of Kubuntu, instead of "Intrepid"?

I would suggest downloading or obtaining the LiveCD of Jaunty (9.04). Intrepid was released (IIRC) with KDE 4.0, and that was buggy. Jaunty came with KDE 4.1 (again, IIRC), and was a lot more stable. Of course, once installed, it will update itself, and KDE will go to 4.2.x. Jaunty is a good release.

[Skara Brae]

Re: Live-CD of Kubuntu 8.10 hangs while loading on older PC

Reporting back in, with not much more success

I have switched the “USB legacy support” in the BIOS from Auto to Enabled to Disabled, every time with the same result: the "hanging" of Kubuntu with the screen shown in my first message...

I tried another computer with the same hardware specs, and there the desktop (or, at least, it was a screen with the live-CD wallpaper?) appears with a window saying:

"Logging in Ubuntu

A critical error occurred.
Please look at KDM's logfile(s) for more information
or contact your system administrator.
[OK]"

Uhhh. Okay.

( On a sidenote: on this second PC, Kubuntu asked me for
( a Username and Password...
( No matter what I could come up with, I always got the
( same window and error message:
(
( "A critical error occurred.
( Please look at KDM's logfile(s) for more information
( or contact your system administrator.
( [OK]"

All I could do is reboot the PC...

I tried a _third_ computer, this time with a P4 of 2.0 GHz (instead of 2.8 GHz) and 256 MB DDR-RAM (instead of 512), and with the same type of keyboard, mouse and motherboard (so, also an Asus P4GE-VM). Again, KDE 4.1 loading ends with the same screen I showed in my first message.

Later this afternoon, I put the live-CD into my "good" computer (the one with SLED 10), and it worked flawlessly, so clearly, it is not the CD-r.

Seems there is an "incompatibitilty" issue with these (older) computers. Darn.

I have a CD-rom with Ubuntu 7.10: just for "fun" I will try that out tomorrow and see what happens.

Is Gnome "better" than KDE?

I would suggest downloading or obtaining the LiveCD of Jaunty (9.04). Intrepid was released (IIRC) with KDE 4.0, and that was buggy. Jaunty came with KDE 4.1 (again, IIRC), and was a lot more stable.

Yes, I think I better try that and see how that goes. And why not Karmic Koala, since it is newer?

-oo-

I see the ISO of Jaunty (and of Karmic) is over 2 Gb. Is there no ISO that fits on a CD-r...?

[Snowhog]

Re: Live-CD of Kubuntu 8.10 hangs while loading on older PC

I see the ISO of Jaunty (and of Karmic) is over 2 Gb. Is there no live-CD that fits on a CD-r...?

That's the Alternate DVD .iso. That isn't the one you want. Choose the other one, for i386/AMD. It's under 700M and is the LiveCD .iso.

As to 'why not Karmic Koala, since it is newer?' You can try it, but you say you have an 'older' PC, so Karmic might not run on it.

[Skara Brae]

Re: Live-CD of Kubuntu 8.10 hangs while loading on older PC

Alternat DVD-iso. Sorry, my mistake!

Once again, thank you for your time, Snowhog.