Installation Problem - Dashed/Dotted Blue Lines

Before I begin, I searched Google for the answer but an answer for this specific problem could not be found. I tried the advice from those threads ranging from:

[*] Using another USB drive
[*] Re-downloading the file again
[*] Using nomodeset

The problem I'm having when trying to install a clean copy of Zorion is a bunch of dotted/dashed lines appear at the top of the screen when you select an option from the installation menu. It doesn't matter what option I select, even when I press tab and type in nomodeset and hit enter the same lines appear and it will hang/crash on that screen. The only menu item that does not cause this is the memory test.

Here is a photo I took of the screen after I select 'install' (or any other option for that matter)




The laptop specs are as follows:

Dell Inspiron 1300
Pentium M 2.0Ghz 2MB cache 400FSB
2GB DDR2 667 Dual Channel RAM
Intel 915GM Graphics Card
60GB IDE 5400RPM HHD
Two partitions, one has XP the other has OpenSUSE
Wireless (currently unknown but stock adapter)
Trying to install Zorin 7 Core 32-Bit via a USB stick


All the advice I can get is appreciated, thanks!

Anyone?

Hi,

at the Zorin menu screen; press "Tab" and try typing "acpi=off" which may get you over the hurdle!.

Hope it helps.

Regards Wolfman

Wolfman wrote:Hi,

at the Zorin menu screen; press "Tab" and try typing "acpi=off" which may get you over the hurdle!.

Hope it helps.

Regards Wolfman

Hi Wolfman, tried it with no luck. (i typed it right after the two dashes. I also tried it again by leaving a space and also deleting the two dashes thinking maybe that is what I was suppose to do but still nothing. Same problem.) It freezes/crashes and I need to force shutdown the laptop to reboot it.

Does anyone actually know what the lines are?

Thanks again!

Hi,

I don't know what the lines are sorry!.

You said you are doing a USB install, did you do a clean format of the USB drive before you put Zorin 7 on it?, have you tried Zorin 6 and can you boot from that no problem?.

Here is a list of other options for you to try:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132

Hope it helps.

Regards Wolfman

Yes, I formatted both in FAT32 and NTFS just for the sake of it.

Nevermind. It was nice to find out that there was a distro that looks/worked like Windows thats all. Oh well.

Hi,

have you tried installing Zorin 6????. Zorin 7 might be a tad too heavy for your PC; I don't really know!.

Did you try any of the other options in the link I posted?.

Regards Wolfman

OK, well I'm back again, lol. I sat down and dedicated myself to finding a good distro that will run on my laptop with ease so I spent all last weekend trying to get any Linux distro to install with no luck!

I tried Linux Mint 15, Zorin OS 7, Zorin OS 6, Linux Lite and eventually I found and downloaded Zorin OS 5.2 from another website which failed to detect as a 'bootable disk.' I ended up installing Mint Debian which installed and ran fine, but other then that, any newer distros failed miserably.

Now after hours of pulling out my hair I eventually found out it has something to do with (crappy) Ubuntu forcing older hardware out of support - having a Non-PAE CPU, even though this cpu can easily handle games like GTA San Andreas and even pull off Windows 7 but oh-no, not good enough for Ubuntu as they are super duper extra special.

I'm sorry but please remind me what the whole point of Linux is meant to be if it requires Windows 8 hardware to work properly? (seen as Windows 8 no longer supports non-PAE CPU's.) I find that a little pathetic to be honest. A 2.0Ghz CPU is not good enough to run FireFox and calculator anymore? WOW! It's not like Linux has massively demanding game support or anything, what kind of joke is this meant to be? It looks like Ubuntu is becoming nothing but an over-bloated Windows Vista....

ANYWAYS, getting back to the point of this post. I currently have Zorin OS 5.2 downloaded, however I can not get it to work properly. Every time I burn it onto the USB as a bootable disk (FAT32) it just shows up on my laptop as No Bootable Image/Disk Found (or something to that effect.)

What am I doing wrong? Any tips or suggestions? If 5.2 also fails to install due to Ubuntu being super-duper exclusive and just plain lazy, then I give up on Linux completely and am just going back to Windows XP, at least this way I will get to enjoy my old games like San Andreas Multiplayer, Solider of Fortune 2, AoE2, etc etc...

Sorry for the long rant but after a month of hair pulling I'm just a little ticked off that's all. People said Windows was bad, well, goodbye Microsoft... hello Ubuntu!

Hi,

I think you are just copying the file to the USB stick maybe?.

Are you using Unetbootin to create your bootable USB stick?:

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

Take a look here which explains in detail how to create a USB bootable Ubuntu Linux stick from Windows:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/ ... on-windows

Let us know if this helps.

Regards Wolfman

Hi Wolfman,

I used PowerISO to create a bootable USB and it works just fine so I know its not that. Its just simply NONE of them installed on the laptop because of Ubuntu refusing to work with non-PAE CPU's. However I was not aware of this and it simply failed to let me know this was the problem. I ended up finding out on a Linux Mint forum that it was a hardware compatibility issue.

Regarding Zorin 5.2, I used PowerISO like I did with the other distros but it just fails to work when trying to boot. I will try using the software you have linked me to and let you know how it turns out.

I've checked youtube and I don't particularly like the look of 5.2, it looks bulky and c*** compared to OS 7 which is sleek and cool (mix of XP and Win 7.) Will the Zorin dev team ever work around the Non-PAE issue? Or is that it for people with older hardware?

Hi,

did you try Zorin 6 - 32 Bit version?. Zorin 5 is no longer supported!.

Regards Wolfman

Wolfman wrote:Hi,

did you try Zorin 6 - 32 Bit version?. Zorin 5 is no longer supported!.

Regards Wolfman

Hi Wolfman,

Thanks for the installer link, it helped Zorin 5.2 boot. At first I couldn't install it via Live mode as it kept saying 'installer has crashed' right before it completed the installation but I just restarted it and launched the installer directly and is now up and running!

I know Zorin 5.2 is no longer supported however I was getting really annoyed that I couldn't install any Ubuntu based OS's due to the non-PAE support in the newer versions. I have tried Zorin 6.4 (not quite sure if 6.0 is different) and that also failed to install due to me having a non-PAE CPU.

Seen as Zorin 5.2 is no longer supported it looks like I have no choice but to revert back to Windows XP.

Hi,

maybe you should try the Lite version of Zorin, if Zorin Lite isn't to your taste; I would opt for Lubuntu or Bodhi which are both meant for older PC's and might be what you need!. Zorin Lite is based on Lubuntu btw!.

http://zorin-os.com/free7.html
(Click on Lite)

http://www.lubuntu.net/

http://www.bodhilinux.com/

(Bodhi takes some getting used to btw!)

Regards Wolfman

Thanks Wolfman I never knew Zorin Lite was based of another distro, however after I googled it, Zorin Lite 7.1 is based of 13.04 which requires PAE.

Hi,

try "fake PAE":

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu-fake-PAE

Regards Wolfman

Hi Wolfman, thanks for the link. I'm downloading Zorin Lite 7.1 as we speak but I have one problem... I have no idea what the hell is being said in the guide you have linked me. It was clearly written for people who understand Linux limbo and sadly I am not one of them. It talks about installing Ubuntu and upgrading from there, I have no idea what that has to do with Zorin or how do go about that?

/little confused.

Hi,

if Zorin Lite doesn't work for you, try Xbuntu 12.04, it has non PAE support and should install!:

http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu-iso/CD ... 4/release/

Make sure you click on the x86 version!.

Regards Wolfman

I tried to install ZORIN on an IBM T41 thinkpad and got the message that the CPU has to support PAE . This is not mentioned in the specs.
Can you please give instructions what to do because previous versions were able to run on this machine.
I have now installed version 6.2 lite but I am affraid that when the next stable release comes there is no non-pae version anymore. Version 7.1-lite also requires pae while there is no reason for that.
Since I am technical lead of a PC community IBMPCPC we were considering advising ZORIN for those that do not want to invest in new hardware because of the end of XP.
Many of our members are 60+ and still using old hardware with Windows-XP.
In the ubuntu forum https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PAE I found a rather complicated way to bypass this construction.
Why cannot this be brought into the startup check. As mentioned in the ubuntu forum, the T41 and the like DO support PAE but do not TELL you they do as by that time already it was assumed nobody wanted to know a technoligy of 6 years back. Why now explicitely check an a flag like this.
I have the feeling the T41 and later Can support full ZORIN but how to get from a light package to a full version?
I installed the ZORIN extra's but is still is different.
My community is wants to stay away from command-line scripts.