Ubuntu 10.04 install to Thinkpad

Question

I installed this program after clearing the drive to use for Ubuntu install from CD (to load on PC). Either way I turn on, alone with CD, or going to F6 and menu, each time, I see the Ubuntu logo and flashing dots underneath. Then at some point 3-4 minutes after, there is a little flash of red or white character junk in upper left quadrant of screen, then it all goes black and remains there until I take out the battery. The machine is IBM Pentium 4 and when on the menu, the memory and drive test were successful.

Now I have read all the info and forums and am really clueless where to go from here. I am really a new new new newbie to Ubuntu and cannot take too much technical instruction. I tried to load from CD, do install, can go to main menu. Stuff about grub, or exactly where to type and how to get there would really be helpful. I have been trying for two days non-stop. Thank you.

Answer 1

Your laptop model will be very helpful to diagnose this problem, as it sounds like it may be a video issue. Sometimes, changing the live CD boot options to framebuffer graphics will help older PCs boot properly.

Your two best sources for workarounds and HOWTOs will be the ThinkWiki wiki page and Google.

Answer 2

Which ThinkPad are you trying to install Ubuntu on?

Without this information, I cannot help any further.

What I suggest is that you look your model up on the ThinkPad ThinkWiki wiki website, where users post their experiences with installing Linux on ThinkPads. For most models there is very useful information.