Can't install from Mint 10 downloaded image

[brucknerian]

I have 2 computers. New runs happily on Mint 9 main. Old is dual boot WindowsXP/Ubuntu 8.04 and I wish to install Mint. I downloaded both Mint 10 CD and DVD image iso files, checked md5sum and burned CD/DVD as appropriate. Computer is set to boot first from DVD ROM drive.

When I try either the burned CD or DVD I see the first few screens as far as one where there is reference to "Casper" and then message "Ready" but nothing further. The DVD flickers on and off for another 3-4 minutes with the drive either running or stationary but nothing showing on the monitor. Finally the disc is auto ejected, nothing further happens and I have to use the computer reset button to bring it back to life.

Both the discs work fine in my new computer - I can boot from them, run Mint 10 from disc or whatever.

Now the bits I really don't understand! A commercially produced Mint 9 disc doesn't work in my old computer either - symptoms are exactly as I've described above. But both a disc produced from an old downloaded Mint 8 image and a commercial Ubuntu 8.04 disc will work perfectly normally on the old computer.

It doesn't seem to make sense that I can run Mint 8/Ubuntu 8 in my old computer but not Mint 9 (downloaded or commercial disc) or Mint 10 or am I doing something stupid?

Would much appreciate some assistance.

Charles

[StanTheMan]

You don't say if you are using 32-bit or 64-bit systems, or what bit system your ISO s were.

[brucknerian]

All were 32 bit systems. To summarise - I can boot and run live CD based on Mint 8 or Ubuntu 8.04 with no problem but not Mint 9, 10 or Ubuntu 10.04.

I've tried to boot in compatibility mode with no success. I've also tried tabbing down in the first screen to get to a command line and then played around with removing "quietsplash" or changing to "nosplash" as suggested elsewhere for similar sounding problems but again no success.

The only other comment to add is that there is a single bright multicoloured flash from the monitor immediately before the system hangs up and this makes me wonder if there is some incompatibility between my graphics card (Nvidia Gelforce 2 Ti) and the later releases - I've seen some references to Nvidia cards in release notes although mine doesn't to be one of those mentioned.

I guess I'm fortunate that this is only a back up machine and not my main computer and the easiest course of action is just to install Mint 8 and live with that. I guess I'm being a bit cynical when I feel that "progress" in computing is often made at the expense of what already exists but I would have hoped that an 8 year old computer that runs Mint 8 happily could be upgraded to Mint 9 etc without major issues - that's life I suppose.

To end more positively - I think Mint is brilliant and I'll be running it on any machine I ever have - even if it has to be an old version!

Charles

[wayne128]

Your description makes me think of one possibility, that is your old DVD might have read error, in particular at outside diameters of the DVD disk. So when you load in a smaller iso reading might be good but when iso is bigger, error can become too much for its hardware to error corrected itself.

If you want to investigate further, you can try installing on Old computer using USB stick., hopefully your 8-yo comp can boot from USB.

[gazza]

Looking at some obvious factors here, The old machine runs Mint 8 and ubuntu Karmic , Mint 8 is based on Karmic , so no surprise there. I notice no info what so ever on the actual hardware, cpu, graphics card, motherboard, ram (especially ram) and any other special things about the machine.

I was referred to this thread by a person with 'similar' issues, and I'm fairly sure we identified his issue a S3 ProSavage DDR 32 Mb graphics card. His issue by the way was Mint 9 worked, Mint 10 didn't. But that is by the by.

Did you look at the MINIMUM requirements for an install, things like minimum 512meg of ram... etc

Also I had to inform this 'other' person that as New Versions of any Operating System are released, there is a drop off of support for old hardware in order to incorporate new modules for New hardware. This is an ongoing thing, and Not just the Operating System , but also the kernel which is the core of all Linux OS's drops support for old hardware in order to fit new hardware in.

IF the kernel was to contain all the modules for All old hardware and the OS was to have all drivers , it would be a minimum of a Two DVD set. So as you can see, progress does leave the old steam engines behind in order to cater to the new electric trains.....

[brucknerian]

Many thanks to wayne128 and gazza for their helpful comments.

I did try 2 different DVDs and 4 different CDs on 2 drives so I don't think a read error could be involved.

I'm sorry I didn't include any hardware details but I had satisfied myself that my system met or bettered the minimum requirements and there is nothing special about the hardware. As the machine is basically only used for backup purposes I'm going to call it quits on this now and just run it on Mint 8, so I don't want any readers to waste any more of their time on it thanks.

I understand gazza's comments about progress of course but I guess it's a matter of opinion whether or not an 8 year old machine ought to be regarded as obsolescent. I have no idea what percentage of world computer users are using what might be regarded as "electric trains" but I bet it's not that high and if Linux is only aiming at these users then maybe it's another factor in the low share of the "OS market". Let's hope that when Mint 23 or whatever comes out that there a few machines that can run it .....

Seriously, perhaps it might not be a bad idea for Mint/Ubuntu release notes to mention that there may be problems with older setups as there's nothing whatsoever there along those lines now. For example, the release notes for both Lynx and Meerkat have only a single system requirement - for 256 MB RAM (not 512 MB gazza) and even then they state that the system will perform adequately after a slow install. Perhaps a few more realistic comments (in the notes) wouldn't come amiss?

[DrHu]

I understand gazza's comments about progress of course but I guess it's a matter of opinion whether or not an 8 year old machine ought to be regarded as obsolescent.

I guess it's a matter of opinion whether or not an 8 year old machine ought to be regarded as obsolescent..
Only in the OSS world is that even a consideration, except they are trending towards follow
You are kidding (I think) or you are behind the curve, everyone understands commercially that anything over 2 years old is passe
--I have a 20year old machine, Pentium equivalent, and am satisfied if I can get close to the latest Linux distribution installed

• Just look at end of life support for various OS's available or even Ubuntu's LTS support levels of Mints' similar offerings, as they follow Ubuntu's lead apart from their Debian or alternate desktop versions (xfce, lxde)

http://www.linuxmint.com/oldreleases.php
I would suggest this, as a possible method of getting an install to work

• Take the latest version you have working on the main computer newer hardware, clone the installed system, eg. clonezila and try to install that version onto the old computer
  --what would be different
  kernel version (layer processor)
  graphics card (later processor)
  RAM size, should not make much difference
  hard drive size, should not make much difference, providing the partition you install into is big enough

http://clonezilla.org/

Otherwise you are indeed stuck with lack of supprt using the latest versions of the kernel
--altough Graphics card and RAM shouldn't matter much, providing you can locate the appropriate driver from the nvidia site, and install it, or try generic VGA mode, in order to get a graphics screen

• If it does hang up because of the kernel, that is more of a problem
  --you could also try installing the older kernel and going for a kernel update, there are some instructions on these forums for that purpose, eg Mint 8xx to 10xx

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