Thanks, everybody for your all input in this thread so far! > One result from Google [1] suggest that the computer is from 2002 and > that make more sense as it has a CD/DVD combo drive. > > [1] <a href="http://www.staschke.de/linux/md5400-eng.html#technik">http://www.staschke.de/linux/md5400-eng.html#technik</a> You are absolutely right, Jerry and Jonas, The laptop I refer to is a <a href="http://www.staschke.de/linux/md5400-eng.html#technik">MEDION MD5400 </a>- from 2002, NOT from 1992, as I incorrectly wrote yesterday late evening, in a sleepy state. Pls. accept my apologies for this sleepy mistake.... However it may be, link above is very relevant and useful for me. > Bas, do not know if you have a Karmic partition in your hard drive with > grub2. If you do, please boot from the hard drive Karmic, with the usb > drive inserted, check the following..... In my first message, Goh Lip, I was not very clear with respect to some essential software basics at the laptop. In January 2009,. I received this laptop with a totally disfunctional and viral WinXP configuration. Via a <a href="http://knoppix.net/">Knoppix live CD</a>, I made a backup of some essential files at a USB stick. Afterwords it was a big relief to totally whipe away all the Windows rubbish. Than, I managed to install Kubuntu 8.10 via a normal i386 image CD. A few months later, I upgraded the configuration successfully to Kubuntu 9.04 - Jaunty - which has functioned quite well. Last November, I tried to upgrade the configuration to 9.10. But I made one serious mistake: I tried to do so via a slow and unreliable WIFI connection. Somewhere halfway the upgrade process, this connection has been interrupted. Ever since that moment, I get the following feedback when I try to start the laptop: GRUB Loading stage1.5 GRUB Loading, please wait .... Error 15 After 'Error 15', the only thing I keep seeing is a blinkering cursor. At that point the upstart process of some unclear configuration between Jaunty and Karmic simply stagnates. Before the failed upgrade attempt, I had made a backup elsewhere of all the files at the laptop. That's why, I tried to 'install Kubuntu Karmic 'from scratch'. But apparently, the CD/DVD combo drive does not function any more really properly. A countless number of attempts to realise a 'fresh´ install simply failed sooner or later in the installation process. Also booting from CD was troublesome. Each time, I needed to again instruct BIOS to do so. > Bas, in case you don't have Karmic at hard drive, I suggest you > reinstall (not copy image) direct to your usb drive and set grub2 to > that usb. Boot using esc, F12, F8 or F10, whatever the case for your computer. As I mentioned above, there is no Karmic or Jaunty or any other OS via which I can access the HD directly. But because of some technical problem with the CD/ DVD combo drive, I do not manage to approach it neither via a Karmic image CD. Also the Knoppix CD does not function any more properly at that drive. Thatś why, I have been trying to boot from the USB drive with a view to installing from there Karmic at the HD. The laptop has 4 USB 2.0 access points. In the BIOS, I have put 'removable devices' aat the top of the list of items to boot from. When doing so after putting the USB stick in the laptop, the set-up software DOES recognise the presence of the USB stick. However, it still does not boot there. > One note from my experience running kubuntu from usb.... it is extremely slow..., it is not worth > the effort. Running dsl linux or puppy linux from usb is fast and good; very different from > running kubuntu or kubuntu netbook remix from usb. (may be good for internal flash drives) ... Exactly because of such consdierations, I do not consider running some Linux distro at the USB stick. On the other hand, I am wondering whether a bit of extra software could help solving the boot problem worked out above. At the USB stick, I have more than enough space for extra software in addition to the Karmic installation image. A 2nd option I am thinking about is simply replacing the CD/ DVD combo drive with some other 2nd hand device enabling me to boot from CD via the laptop. But I do not know yet, whether something like that is possible. Thanks for your feedback. Bas.