Ubuntu 12.04 is out now, perfectly in-time with the arrival of my brand new Dell Vostro 3550. Preatty happy about its Win7 Pro performance I was just waiting for the latest Ubuntu release (which is, fortunately, a LTS too!) to use Linux as first OS and relegate Win into a VM (I'll try to run the original Win7 as DomU with Xen soon!)
Download was really fast (I'm wondering how many mirrors Canonical and the community setup for this release!) and the iso was soon "burned" into a USB dongle with my nettop Ubuntu version Startup Disk Creator (I have no luck with unetbootin under Windows).
Now it's time to see is 12.04 works with my laptop. I've plug the USB dongle into one free slot and turn on the system..
Instead of the standard Ubuntu screen, after the Dell BIOS splash, I got only a black screen with the "Machine Check Error" messages!
Bad.. really bad..
First thing to do is, of course, google for the error. Someone says it's due UEFI, someone says it's due recent BIOS update (however, with other hardware), someone says...
wait..
what? after plugging the USB dongle into Win7 (and thus installing the driver) the problem disappear?? naaaaa... it's impossible! why installing a driver in Win7 should resolve this kind of problem?
Well.. I didn't find a better solution so I try this one.. and it works!!!!
I don't really know why (maybe Win7 "marks" the USB dongle somehow and the BIOS is happy with that..) but what really matter is that it works..
well no, what really matters is that a USB dongle does NOT works out of the box but, I think due BIOS restrictions, requires the intervention of Win7.. bad, bad news
I hope that in the next days I'll find "why" and "how" it works
So can you clearly state the steps you have done to reach it ?
RispondiEliminaI've got also win7 and ubuntu 12.04 cd.
yes, of couse:
Elimina1) download ubuntu (alternate, for me) .iso
2) with a ubuntu box I've created a bootable USB dongle
3) I've start my Vostro laptop with this dongle
4) Machine Check Error appear. I've repeated step 3 and 4 at least 4 or 5 times
5) boot Win7 and insert the dongle. Wait for Win7 to install it's driver and recognise the drive
6) reboot the laptop with the USB dongle in it. Now it works!
maybe it's just a coincidence but it's the only way I've found to install 12.04 from USB (I didn't try with a CD)
HTH,
Andrea