When trying to boot to a recently downloaded DVD Kubuntu 23.10 "Mantic Manticore" we're shown these choices:
Try or Install Kubuntu
Kubuntu (safe graphics)
OEM install (for manufacturers)
Test memory
Use the (U) & (D) keys to select which entry is highlighted Press enter to boot the selected OS, 'e' to edit the commands before booting or 'c' for a command-line.
We immediately had choices:
First, are we "trying" or "installing"?
Second, what exactly is meant by "safe graphics"?
"OEM install" didn't seem appropriate in this instance, but we tested the memory anyway, since it's been a long time since having done so (it tested fine).
Then: "Attempt interactive netboot from a URL? yes no (default yes:)"
On answering "yes" it proceeded to download a few thousand files and began to look more like an install than a trial, and we canceled out (Ctrl-Alt-Del).
WHEN do we get to choose WHICH we want, "Try" or "Install"?
Beyond that, there's a lot of questions for which I have no answers. I know just enough cli to get me in trouble.
Is there a safe, SIMPLE way to "Try" this distribution?
2024-10-06 EDIT:
Hi, guys - I'm back for another try at this.
I don't see how to edit this, so am adding it in here.
I tried booting to the DVD - a newer version this time, "Noble Numbat" 21.04.1 (who names these things?) and this time chose the "try or install".
After it finally finished expanding what it got from the DVD, I wound up with a screen full of these:
INIT:LINE 38:CAN'T OPEN /DEV/SDA: NO MEDIUM FOUND INIT:LINE 38:CAN'T OPEN /DEV/SDB: NO MEDIUM FOUND INIT:LINE 38:CAN'T OPEN /DEV/SDC: NO MEDIUM FOUND INIT:LINE 38:CAN'T OPEN /DEV/SDD: NO MEDIUM FOUND INIT:LINE 38:CAN'T OPEN /DEV/SDE: NO MEDIUM FOUND Etc. repeated down the screen 4 or 5 times,
and then:
Unable to find a medium containing a live file system. Attempt interactive netboot from a URL? YES NO (default YES):_
Regarding the optical media being invalid, is the use of the checksum no longer valid? The DVD passed that check O.K. Maybe bad download source?
I'm really baffled by the seeming sensitivity to a "timeout" issue - WHAT, pray tell, is "timing out"? The interactive netboot routine is reading the disk and recording it in RAM so I can get a look at it, except it doesn't.
What happened to the install routine simply using the information from the DVD as it comes -- and going to the "next step" when it has what it needs?
Has the concept of a "live DVD" gone the way of the Dodo?
I do not understand this.
Edit: Tuesday, October 22, 2024:
Hello - back again after perusing multiple pages and entries with various users trying various ways of getting around this problem of not having hardware that interfaces with USB2 or USB3 or just doesn't work with UEFI or various flavors of MB configurations.
'Scuse me, folks, but I mostly use my (openSuse) Linux system with the GUI, CLI not so much, don't really remember much of CLI. Now I'm forced to switch to some flavor of Ubuntu because of a requirement by a backup service that's holding my files and won't accommodate anything but Ubuntu. (I want my files back.)
So much for why I'm here.
I seem to remember one of the major assets of Linux was it's ability to be installed on almost anything, or nearly so, and mostly "just work". Now, here in the "future", we have an install routine for what has become a major distribution which defies installation for any but those who are proficient in diagnosing and re-setting up their computer to "work around" something that has forgotten how to "just work".
Question: Is this the first version of Kubuntu that has been this much of a pain to install? Or has this happened before? What are the chances that the folks creating the install disk will revise it so it "just works" again?
