[ubuntu-uk] Running restore disc for Ubuntu

[Tony Travis]

Rowan wrote:
> Oh, absolutely, the applications are all in  the repositories, they have
> said so several times. But you can imagine how much angst I would
> generate trying to do it that way. I suspect that the trick is to catch
> one of the boot options when first powering up, before it goes into
> Ubuntu, perhaps with the disc already in the drive, like you said.

Hello, Rowan.

When your system boots, press the 'Esc' key at the GRUB boot 'menu' and 
you should be offered a list of Linux kernels to boot from: The kernel 
that your system was delivered with should be last on the list unless 
you have uninstalled it. Use the arrow keys to select the last kernel on 
the list (i.e. not the top one, which is booted by default).

If the original kernel boots, it will read modules from the library 
appropriate for that kernel and should load the custom module that was 
supplied with your original laptop configuration: Ubuntu/Debian never 
deletes a kernel package automatically because, as you have experienced, 
the new kernel may not work properly...

I agree with others here who suggest that you just install a 'standard' 
Ubuntu 8.10 from CD unless there is something *very* special about the 
system that was pre-installed on your laptop. Ubuntu 8.10 is quite good 
at detecting laptop hardware now and, as I mentioned in a previous post, 
there are plenty of bug reports about the Realtek driver in 8.04 LTS, 
which is the version you confirmed you are running on your laptop.

Bye,

	Tony.
-- 
Dr. A.J.Travis, University of Aberdeen, Rowett Institute of Nutrition
and Health, Greenburn Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen AB21 9SB, Scotland, UK
tel +44(0)1224 712751, fax +44(0)1224 716687, http://www.rowett.ac.uk
mailto:a.travis at abdn.ac.uk, http://bioinformatics.rri.sari.ac.uk/~ajt