Ubuntu
grub2 package

I have a 5 year old laptop and am getting (initramfs) unable to find a medium containing a live file system. I have tried all the suggestions in previous questions

Asked by Sarah

I have a 5 year old laptop and want to remove Windows and install Ubuntu. I have been able to install it alongside windows, so I can dual boot, but would now like to go for a full installation.

However, when I select the "try ubuntu without installing" I get the message (initramfs) unable to find a medium containing a live file system.

I have tried all the suggestions in previous questions, and wonder how to proceed. I've tried burning another disk (3 in fact), and keep getting the same error message - although I can boot my laptop into Ubuntu fine as a dual boot.

I do have a partitioned disk - something else I was hoping to remove by installing Ubuntu.

I'm wondering if my laptop is just too old for Ubuntu, and if I should try something like damn small linux instead - but I do like Ubuntu.

Any advice appreciated. :-)

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Ubfan (ubfan1) said : 		#1

Did you md5sum the downloaded iso before burning?
Did you burn as slowly as possible?
Maybe a flakey CDROM, so if you have usb ports, try and set up a live media usb stick (1 or 2G will do).
The Ubuntu you have running may have a menu choice under System/Administrator/Startup disk creator
which makes creating the stick easy from the iso. (Well it should be easy, but using later isos than the installed system may not work).
5 yr old laptop should not be a problem, since you are already running Ubuntu.

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Sarah (netbimbette) said : 		#2

I've tried many burns to DVD, so I am pretty sure it is not that.

I think it may be a problem with my external CD drive. I cannot boot from usb, as my BIOS does not have that option. I tried this anyway, and it did not recognise my flash drive when booting up.

I just tried the alt download (basically Debian) and it would not recognise my CD drive after it got me to go through the keyboard check - it told me it needed the CD drivers. I got stuck at this point as I do not have a floppy drive, or drivers on floppy, as it was requesting. I also could not understand why - as I was booting from CD, it was suddenly not recognising it ... Heck, I do not even have the drivers for this on CD!

So now I am stuck. I have Ubuntu as a dual boot, but I really wanted it to wipe Windows and take over my system.

Back to the drawing board. Thanks for your post, and further help would really be appreciated!

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delance (olivier-delance) said : 		#3

The ISO image you burned to CD could be corrupted: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM It is not Debian installer who have to recognize external CD drive, but BIOS itself. If you got message "try Ubuntu without installing", it means the CD drive is recognized, as you booted from CD. So I have difficulties to understand your situation.
You could remove Windows partition, extend Ubuntu's one and move to single boot without booting from CD, but it should be cleaner.
You can boot to Ubuntu from hard disk, install packet "gparted", then replace Windows partition by a Ubuntu one (like ext4 format), add it on /etc/fstab, and rebuild Grub2 configuration file. But you will have a new Ubuntu partition instead of extending current one.

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Ubfan (ubfan1) said : 		#4

Sounds like your BIOS sees the usb-CDROM, but the initial ram disk does not. Just what version Ubuntu are you trying to install? I have a similar problem with a KNOPPIX based setup which does not see usb, which is what I want to use as my target, but I assumed that setup disk was old, or purposely restricted. All current Ubuntus should not have such a problem.

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