[PLUG] Ubuntu Installation Problems

[Richard C. Steffens]

As I mentioned earlier, my sister recently replace her PC with a Mac. I 
now have a spare Sempron 2400+. I upgraded the memory from 256 MB to 
1.256 GB.

I decided to use the box to try out other distros. I started by burning 
Ubuntu 10. When I boot from that CD I got a message that talked about 
"init: ureadahead-other main process (971) terminated with status 4". 
That message repeated two more times, the only difference was that the 
971 was replaced by 972 and 973, respectively.

I Googled that error message and found that there was some disagreement 
as to whether the problem was with plymouth or the kernel.

Being more interested in seeing the machine do something, I downloaded 
and burned a CD of Ubuntu 9. This time the machine booted from the CD 
and, with my agreement, proceeded to wipe XP from the drive and begin 
the install. I've got it hooked up with a KVM switch so while it was 
working I went back to this machine. I checked back every so often and 
saw when it was 60 something % finished, and then again when it was 74% 
finished. It stayed at 74% for some time. Finally, I heard the drive 
stop seeking and looked again. All that was there was the background 
image, the one that looks like sun on a sand dune.

I took the CD out and rebooted, hoping to find that it would just start 
up, but apparently the installer hadn't finished.

So I rebooted with the CD, figuring that I'd have to at least do some of 
it over again. I got the message:

Boot from CD:
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

Several attempts always gave the same result. So, I thought I'd try the 
Ubuntu 10 CD again. I get the same DISK BOOT FAILURE message on that 
one, too.

Does this sound like a bad CD drive?

I had removed the CD burner from the box and installed in this machine 
since all I had in it was a CD reader. I put that reader into the new 
box. I don't recall having any trouble with it as a CD reader over the 
last couple of years.

-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens