Kernal Panic when loading Ubunu 9.10 Live CD on Dell

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I have picked up a Dell Dimension 2400 from somebody and was thinking of making it a dual-boot machine. a 60GB Partition for Ubuntu 9.10 and a 20GB Partition for Windows XP. However if I try to boot from the Ubuntu Live CD it will go into Kernel Panic on the flashing penguin screen. I tried some of the options that can be put to use by pressing the F6 Button at the Live CD Boot Screen but no luck. Any help.

How much RAM the machine has? I think the live cd needs at least 384MB. If it's fewer than that, you'll have to use the alternate CD.

512MB PC3200 DDR Ram

Did you try F4 > Safe graphics mode too?

Yes

Try an older version or try a Fedora or Slackware boot disk and see if it panics

Maybe bad RAM, or bad disc. If other ones work, probably corrupt disk.
(Bad Ubuntu CD or Hard drive)
I'm glad this is one of those times I can't blame it on Windows or VISTA.
Then again, how is the HD partition formatted? NTFS might be problems for Linux.

That's the crap you get from buying a Dell. Only IDIOTS buy Dell. Next time, buy your computer from Asus or Lenovo.

He refurbishes used computers. He did not buy from Dell, let alone your suggested sources. And he is not an idiot. He is providing a service to people who cannot afford new machines. He's also reusing and re-purposing earths limited resources. He is a business man that is to be commended for his actions.

So dont call him names.

Hmm 845GV? Try changing the amount of RAM allocated to video in the BIOS. I think there's a long standing problem linux has with Intel's early IGPs. Are you using the latest BIOS? You may want to check out Dell's site for updates.

If that doesn't work I think you really should look at the general stability of that machine. Test the RAM, and if you can boot Windows, run some CPU stress tests too. Also have a look at the voltage in the BIOS, PSU is one of the easier thing to break.

Anyone could do that. Heh. Too bad no one (in their right mind, anyways) wants a computer with Ubuntu on it. I would put Windows XP on it.

When you purchase a new computer from one of the box stores, it comes with a bunch of shareware and demos preinstalled. Norton Antivirus comes to mind. Now the way things are arranged is that Norton, or whatever company, pass the OEM of the computer a certain dollar figure to install that software. It might be 10 bucks.. might be 20. Depends.

What this effects is a subsidy of the cost of the operating system, be it xp, vista or windows seven. In essence you are not paying for windows at all. This allows the vendor to charge say, 400 dollars for a low end computer. Even less in the case of netbooks, right? Norton for example is working on a gamble that you will purchase their lease when the demo runs out of time, and they'll make money on the back end.

Everybody involved wins that way. MS gets paid for windows, the vendor gets to sell cheap, and the software house stands a good chance of making a long term contract.

Unfortunately it doesnt work that way for independents nor resellers. Software houses are not interested in calculating risk/profit ratios for small time operations. Right off the bat when you sell a refurbished computer you'd have at least a 130 dollar cost for xp, and most places selling it online are considerably more than that. Amazon is over 200 for a new xp licence.

So assuming you got the old computer for 20 bucks, spend four hours doing various things like cleaning it, installing windows, and configuring drivers and whatnot at 20 bucks an hour(you have to cover costs for your store, fuel costs, and pay for labour).. tack 130 more on that or more(for the licence). 150 costs + 80 labour and a tiny profit.. say 20 bucks thats 250 bucks just for the machine. You still have to sell them incidentals like a monitor, and keyboard/mouse. People are just going to go buy a net-book from best buy.

Or a mini tower from Costco. Maybe you had to pay 200+ bucks for that licence.

And then they do something dumb and come back screaming for you to fix it.

So instead you say screw it windows, put a linux on it, use the 'no virus scanner needed' angle as a sales pitch, select supported hardware and charge them 125 bucks. 80 labour, 20 profit, and 20 cost for the used machine. 125 is a much easier sale than 250.

Maybe they'll still come back angry, but they were going to do that anyway when they failed to update their virus scanner and caught something.


I think as a result of your being relatively new around here the mods are being rather gentle with you. Its not really kosher to call people names nor to denigrate them with aspirations against their sanity. You've done that what.. five times now this week? You can get away with a lot at wrong planet(I should know) but name calling is over the line of good taste. You might want to tone it down a bit.

Following Cloudwalkers and Fuzzies advice I flashed the BIOS and ran memtester386. I came out good but now it freezes when it tries to partition the drive.

Qparted sometimes freezes, not sure why, it should have a help if you are
supposed to do things in a certain order. I also don't like how it makes the
processes unavailable to use when I want to use them.

Probably something wrong with the HD.

I think there are some Microsoft salesmen on here.
This is not mine but all you need to know to tell them where to go today!
http://www.vanwensveen.nl/rants/microsoft/IhateMS.html
http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Issues/Busi ... Microsoft/

Switch to the alternate 32 bit install cd if you are not using it.

Microsoft should make insulting Windows 7 illegal. They are the gods of computing!