Alright, so my step-mom has always been skeptical about Linux, but she's fed up with XP running like crap on her laptop, so I suggested putting Linux on it so she could try it out, and she finally agreed.
Her laptop is an older Lenovo R60 ThinkPan, so I wanted to put Ultimate Edition 2.8 Lite on it, but quickly discovered that upon trying to load the LiveCD, it hangs. I tried over and over, and anywhere from the blank loading screen, to the screen with the Try or Install option, it would lock up and freeze, even the mouse won't move.
After no success with 2.8 Lite, I grabbed the base Ubuntu disk for 10.10....same result.....so I grabbed my old 6.10 Ubuntu disk (lol), same result.....I finally DLed the alternative 10.10 disk, and managed to install Ubuntu via the non-graphical installation process. I was ecstatic. Fired the laptop up, logged in, moved the mouse for 5 seconds, and bam, locked up. I rebooted, logged in, bam, same thing.
I assume it has something to do with the gnome display manager, or something of the sort, as it only seems to hang once gnome is invoked to some degree. So my question is, does anyone know what the heck is going on? and if so, is there any way to fix it? I would very much like to convert another skeptical mind to the world of Ubuntu, and not look like I blew things up for nothing.
EDIT: Just tried running the LiveCD for Damn Small Linux, and it too hangs after about 5-6 seconds, upon entering the desktop...
EDIT: Believe I solved it....after much googling, and trial and error tests, the battery is dead, which is somehow causing it to crash and hang. Removed the battery, so far, Ubuntu is updating, no lock-up's yet.
Tib