how do I install from scratch xubuntu?

hi there
when restarting the pc hit esc or f2 or so to enter BIOS. there find something called boot sequence and activate cdrom as first device - that way the computer checks the cdrom drive before booting from the hard disk.

if you still experience trouble feel free to ask any questions here - that's what this place is for!

ANDREA

I tried that, my husband said to hit the little del key in the top right corner and the f1 key at the same time while it was first starting to boot, it still went in to red hat. I can't get rid of it!

ok well unfortunately there is no "one key" to get into the bios it's sometimes f2 or f3 or so ... what i do when i don't know which one it is well i just "slide" all the way across the top keys (esc, f1 thru f10 etc.) right at the start ... i know it's not the best answer but ok i don't know your computer model or anything so i don't really know which key it is. popular keys though are esc, f1, f2 and del. combinations of those are rather rare (del and f1 for instance) just try all of them at once :-) or well one after the other... then proceed as described above or ask me!

it's a compaq presario 1600s. it is an old laptop and was running windows 98. Should I try hitting the combination of keys before the big red compaq comes up on the screen or as I see it coming up? I am going to go try now to hit the keys before and will come back on and let you know........

right around when the compaq logo appears is the best time actually. i think i once owned a compaq and it was like f10 or so really weird but ok. just try and tell me what happened. once you're in the bios you'll find lots of options - you navigate with the arrow keys by the way, select with enter or so just play with the keys a bit. if all goes wrong you can always restore the original settings... when you set the boot order proceed to the last tab, save and close, and then it should load straight from the cd and tada you're all set!

redhat came up and told me to either hit enter and start it up or to go in and change the start up command but I don't know what drive the cd drive is, I think b but I am not sure. a is a floppy drive believe it or not and then c i know is the hard drive. I am unsure how to rewrite the command line to make it boot from the cd/dvd drive

ok i have the command line, what do I put after the word root?

ok husband said he would fix it when he got home about an hour and a half from now. Thanks for all your help!