Ubuntu 'freezing' on install

Did you MD5 test the .iso image before you burned it to CD/DVD or wrote it to the USB flash drive? (See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM.) If not, please do that now. If that doesn't check out, you'll have to redownload the .iso image, MD5 test the new image, and (assuming the new one checks out) burn a new disc or write it to the USB flash drive again.

Did you verify that the live CD/DVD/USB was written correctly and is readable by the machine on which you're installing? To do that, boot from it, and immediately when you see the person and keyboard icons at the bottom center of the screen, press Spacebar, select your language, and select "Check disc for defects". (This goes for USB flash drives as well as CD's and DVD's.) If that doesn't check out, you'll have to burn a new disc or re-write the .iso image to the USB flash drive (and run this test on it again).

Eliah, Hello and thank you for taking the time to get back to me. I tried the first solution and it seems the diagnostics came back well. As for the second solution, I can not find the menu you are referring to. Once I boot from USB, I am give the options of 'boot normally from HD' or boot from Linux. After choosing the latter, I am taken straight into the installation process and can not find the 'person' or 'keyboard' icons? Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks again,

G.C.

You never see something that looks like this?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions#Ubuntu_CD_Advanced_Welcome_Page_Options

PS

Not sure if it helps but installation seems to hang at around 28% into the 'Configuring Target System'. The mouse pointer animation still spins and oddly, it looks like someone keeps turning up and down the brightness of the LCD - the brightness bar in the top right-hand corner is going crazy... Thanks again.

PPS

No never seen that screen... once I've booted from the USB I get the Ubuntu loading icon with the red dots and then it goes straight into the example OS with the 'install' icon on the desktop.

What happens if you hold down Shift while booting from the live USB flash drive?

Nothing - I used YUMI to create the bootable USB drive... It goes into a menu with the YUMI logo and gives me options of booting from USB or making a clean install to a hard-drive. Holding shift doesn't appear to do anything. Thanks.

Are you saying that the boot menu you get does *not* look like http://www.pendrivelinux.com/wp-content/uploads/YUMI-Boot-Menu.png?

Hmm nope! I only get 'Linux Distributions' - what's with that? Have I done the USB incorrectly?

No, that's fine. That's just because the only thing on the USB flash drive is a GNU/Linux distribution--the other categories are empty and thus not shown.

When you go to Linux distributions, I presume you can select Ubuntu. Immediately *after* you select Ubuntu, then start holding down Shift.