Installing Gutsy Gibbon, Part 1

Some months ago, I ran the LiveCD version of Ubuntu Linux on a newish Compaq notebook computer. For the most part, it ran fine, and I found I really enjoyed using that dialect of Linux. Trouble came when it allowed me to fully install it on a USB-powered external drive. Too late, I discovered that that class of hard drive cannot boot computers. The Compaq got hung up in the nether lands -- neither able to boot from its primary hard drive nor from its external drive. After some Googling, I found a utility that cured the problem, and I stayed away from Linux...

...until now. Events transpired where in I came to have a spare notebook computer. I figured I could convert it to a Linux machine for experimentation and familiarization. For my wife's computing needs, Linux would do (she already uses FireFox).

First "problem" I came across was that I could not use the CD I had burned some months before: I had downloaded the 64-bit AMD version. So I waited the two hours for the 32-bit Intel version to download.

Getting the notebook computer to boot from the CD was the next problem. In the six years I've owned this Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600, I've never been able to change the boot order. During booting, a quick text message flashes on-screen, telling me to press F2 to change boot order. I press it, but boot up continues as normal.

This time I had an idea that I got from another computer. Instead of waiting for the message to appear, I held down F2 before it appeared. It worked!

I change the main boot device to CD, and then rebooted. This time Ubantu began its installation routine, displaying a scolling list of arcane Unix load commands. Some of which were suffixed with OK and some not.

Then the big moment, when the install switches from text to graphics mode. Then the big disappointment: the graphics display was screwed up.  The upper half consists of colors and squares, some of them blinking. The lower half of the screen in black. I waited, but eventual turned off the computer when the display didn't change.

Next step: ask at the Unbuntu forum if someone has a solution.