[DC LoCo] FWD: Question from a newbie

[Kevin Cole]

Hi,

I've got a cow-orker who's been fooling w/ Ubuntu on his own at home, but
keeps getting stuck. Unfortunately, he seems resistant to providing
physical access to his hardware.  So, any theories based on what he's
written below?

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Ubunu Help Again
Date: 	Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:33:46 -0700 (PDT)
From: 	David Pancost <david_pancost at yahoo.com>
To: 	Kevin Cole <kjcole at ubuntu.com>

Kevin, the Gally boxes don't have the horses to run Ubuntu, so I've
bought a Dell Inspiron 530 with free open source dos, figuring I'd
install Ubuntu & go about my business.  But I can't install Ubuntu.
When I boot up with Ubuntu in the optical drive, it begins fine & then
stops.  What I see is  v1.1.

Busybox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-5Ubuntu12) Builtin shell (ash)
"(initramfs)" & the direction to type help.

When I do, I get a list of commands beginning ".:alias break cdchdir
command continue echo available" and a bunch more, but before I can copy
them, I start getting bunch readouts like (   854.4845046) ala 2.00:
status {DRDY}

What can I do to install Ubuntu or should I box this thing up & send it
back to Dell?

Thanks,
Dave