Ubuntu

Win95 machine will not run ubuntu from Cd

Asked by JHuberman

I am trying to run Ubuntu on an old 386 computer that can currently run Win98
   Pentium II-MMX memory 131872K memory i440BX chipset
   Award Plug & Play BIOS 1998

I boot from the CD and get the Ubuntu screen
I select Start or Install
it loads Kernal 100%
Then says 1998 BIOS fails test 2000 cutoff apci force is required...
Another nice Ubuntu screen which then goes to
BusyBox 1.3 and I get the following errors:
(initramfs) [ 409.066218] ata2.01: revalidation failed (errno=-5)
 [ 414.398096] ata2.01: revalidation failed (errno=-5)
 [ 419.562541] ata2.01: revalidation failed (errno=-5)
Then I am left in the BusyBox command screen

I would like to load Ubuntu on the hard drive

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Verne Janke (vejan) said : 		#1

is the hard drive partition properly?
how much video ram does the video card have?
does the video card supported by ubuntu?

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JHuberman (joseph-treklite) said : 		#2

It is difficult for me to know the answers to your questions, but I will try my best...

is the hard drive partition properly?
    It will currently run Win98 if I boot from the hard drive.
how much video ram does the video card have?
    8 meg
does the video card supported by ubuntu?
    Diamond Multimedia Card Stealth II G460 ver 1.2 I get the ununtu splash screens without a problem

I believe the issue is the the BIOS which is: Award Modular BIOS v4.15 PG copyright 1994-1998
The first error ubuntu reports is:
    0.0000000 BIOS age 1998 BIOS fails cutoff (2000) ACPI=force is required to enable APCI

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Jon Cummings (markinchina2003) said : 		#3

I had similar problems with old computers like yours and often the problem was solved by removing the old cd-rom drive and plugging in a new one to see if this solved the problem and most often it did.
If not,then take out the ram and clean the brass contacts with an ink rubber,then carefully put them back in,this often solves the problem as well.
Good luck and I admire your patience playing around with those old dinosaurs! Jon.

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socomhacker239 (deeznuts-abc) said : 		#4

um... im not sure if any of these awnsers will work i had the same problem my bios was to old it would not istall what you have to do is when your at the ubuntu screen hit f6 (other options) and disable acpi then go to install ubuntu then imeditely update it then it should work fine but if you install it an dont update it,it wont work so yea thats what fixed my problem but every time i restart the computer it just flashes the acpi=force error but other then that it works really great but i still want to update my bios if anyone can help me with that i missed the bios cutoff by 1 year my computer was made in 1999 ive put more ram and 3 extra hard drives an more since then though.

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Jim Hutchinson (jphutch) said : 		#5

With respect to the OP's problem, I think it's simply not enough RAM. The live CD needs 384MB of RAM. It looks like you have 128MB. That isn't enough to run any flavor of Ubuntu on a live CD. I believe you can install Xubuntu but will need the alternate CD.

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