install on Dell Inspiron 8200

Cannot install Zorin OS9 Core 32bit on Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop.

System:
Dell Inspiron 8200
CPU Pentium 4 @ 1.8 GHz
1 GB RAM
blank 30 GB HDD
Video card nVidia GeForce 4Go (listed in BIOS)

Before I started with all this, I was able use MS fdisk and format the drive before successfully loading Windows XP.
Then I used MS fdisk and reformatted the HDD before trying to install Zorin.

Initialisation:
Used MS fdisk (from W98 startup disk) to wipe HDD and set up Primary DOS partition
Formatted HDD with FAT32
30 GB HDD shows 28.6GB free space

During installation, screen has narrow black/white rectangles (7-8 columns) and about 20-25 rows of them.
Eventually blue Zorin Milky Way screen pops up and I can log in.
But nothing happens. I then get 'Internal Error' message and it asks if I want to send installation log file.
I click 'yes' and it asks for me to authenticate by entering my password.
Then I get internal error message again and this repeats forever.

My suspicion is that the video card is causing the error but that is what I have in the laptop.
I tried Linux Mint but I can't install that either.

What do you suggest?
I do not know anything about Linux.
I can get around in Windows and a little MSDOS.

In view of the specification of your Notebook I would try Zorin 9 Lite instead!

I tried Zorin Lite with similar results.
How can I determine what is causing the problem.
Is there a program that will run under MSDOS to check hardware compatibility?

Ok, have you tried (with Core) pressing F6 and choosing 'ACPI=Off' or 'nomodeset' at boot?

Also see if using decalman's text install method gives you a result:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8004&p=38810#p38810

I tried and hit F6 and placed 'x' next to 'nomodeset' by hitting enter but could not get back the the boot screen to select 'Install Zorin OS'. I hit 'Esc' and got back to the Boot screen, selected 'Install Zorin' and hit enter but nothing happened. What to do now?

I started over and tried pressing 'F6' and set both 'nomodeset' and 'no ACPI', and got further. Since I had tried installing 'Linux Mint 17 Qiana' earlier with no luck, I selected 'Replace with Zorin' on the Installation type screen and clicked on 'Install Now'. The pin-wheel is spinning........ Then it quit and I'm still on the 'Installation Type' screen. Now what to do?

Hi, I always find the best method of installation is to run the system in live mode and click on the 'install to hd' icon on the desktop. If you cannot get to a live environment then I doubt it will work well for you.
If you are having similar issues with Zorin 9 Lite then I respectfully suggest you look at the following systems:

LXLE (http://lxle.net) - warning this is currently only downloadable via torrent), or LinuxLite (https://www.linuxliteos.com/), Quelitu (http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/O ... 0669.shtml), and take a look at this Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweig ... stribution

I downloaded Lxle and tried to run it live using forcevesa safe mode. It loaded and there is no mouse control so I cannot do anything with it. I tried to load it live setting options to "ACPI=off" and "nomodeset" with the same results -- no mouse coutrol. I'm using a USB mouse on the laptop. The touch pad does not work either.
I tried Quelina also with no luck. My system is:
Dell Inspiron 8200 Laptop
CPU Pentium 4 @ 1.8 GHz
1 GB RAM
blank 30 GB HDD
Video card nVidia GeForce 4Go (listed in BIOS)

I'm about to give up on running Linux on this machine.

OK, you could try: Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux, Feather Linux - the latter will give you a very minimalistic desktop. You could try MacPup - a Mac look of Puppy Linux.
Another alternative could be SolydX which is Debian with light XFCE Desktop Environment. Vector Linux might work but no guarantees.

I tried SolydX but it froze up when I clicked on 'Menu' in the lower left corner. I hit 'ESC' and it eventually came back but none of the icons do anything. I looked at Damn Small Linux and went to the mirror and looked at the current folder and there are 3 '.iso' files: 'dsl-4.4.10-initrd.iso', 'dsl-4.4.10-syslinux.iso', and 'dsl-4.4.10.iso' and I don't know which one to download.

Does anybody have a distro that will run with this dumb nVidia GeForce 4Go card I have in my laptop?
Looks like XP or Windows 7 is my last resort. I know either one of those will work.
But I have enough computers with Windows on them. I was hoping this old laptop would take Linux so I could play with it. I don't want to do dual boot on my other machines.

Thanks for the help.
Bill

Hi

I think that it is difficult to help you by giving advice of any distro to be installed to your Dell's HDD if not having just the same laptop and distro and already solved the problem. What I can suggest you to do is, if you don't want to make a HDD dual boot to your other (Windows) machines, you could however make a full os. installation to some of those using a USB 3.0 drive (16 or 32Gb), if these can boot from a USB Drive. USB 2.0 port can also be used to connect the USB 3.0 drive. Make the installation to USB Drive selecting "Something else" and remember to format the USB to EXT 4 before installing.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4848

It does not do any changes to Windows partition on HDD if you install also the boot loader to the USB. Then you can start the Linux from BIOS boot order selection. You can try this using some small distro so that you see that it works. My suggestion is, additional to Swarf's list, that you download Elementary os 0.2 Luna to try that, which is only a 700 Mb distro. It downloads and installs in a short time and has a good speed performance also using a USB drive full installation. Luna is a Ubuntu 12.04 LTS derivative and comes with 3.2 kernel and very limited selection of pre-installed applications. It can be however upgraded to use 3.13 kernel and also the new versions of installed additional software using PPA's (Ubuntu 14.04 LTS). If everything works there you can go to more heavier distros (like Zorin 9 Core), but I think you have to have more than 1 Gb RAM and some more powerful CPU than Pentium 4 in that machine.

If USB installation does not work well, you can just shut down and pull out the USB Drive from the machine and nothing has changed in the Windows side.

I hope that this helps you to get a Linux os. working to play with at least in one or another of your machines.

One more I forgot to mention is Quelitu:

http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/O ... 0669.shtml

With regards to DSL it would be the last one you needed to download - you could also try Slitaz but I never had much success with it.

I had the same exact problem with the same exact computer. The problem was with the DVD disc. It had bad sectors due to be recorded at a fast writing rate. I created another boot DVD recorded at only 1x and then I could proceed with installation. One needs to write the ISO to DVD at a very slow writing speed.