Trouble upgrading from Ubuntu 8.04.

[deucemagnet]

I have an old IBM Netvista running Hardy Heron, and I've been trying to upgrade to Ubuntu 9.04. I insert the CD, restart the computer, and I get the screen to choose a language from, then the screen to choose "Install Ubuntu" from, then the progress bar, then, when the progress bar is about done, my screen goes blank, the CD slowly winds down then stops, and the machine is DIW.

I tried installing Linux Mint, and it did almost the same damn thing. Splash screen, progress bar, blank screen, CD winds down to a stop, DIW.

Any suggestions? I can't recall the machine's specs off of the top of my head since it's been awhile since I've worked on it, but I'll get them if it will help.

[canetoad]

1. What about other CDs?

Games, software etc? Do they run OK? If not your player may be hosed, the cable all crispy or the connector loose.

[deucemagnet]

2. This machine has both a CD-ROM and a DVD-RW.

Both play other CDs just fine, and I get the same symptoms regardless of which one I try to install Ubuntu from.

[deucemagnet]

3. Update.

It turns out I'm not the only one having trouble installing linux on a Netvista. It looks like the crux of the problem is incompatibility with the new linux kernel. Others in a similar situation were able to work around this by adding "noapic" and/or "nolapic" to the kernel boot parameters or updating or changing the BIOS, but none of that worked for me.

So, ultimately, after trying a dozen different things with a half a dozen different distros, I ended up reinstalling Hardy Heron. :crazy: