Installing Ubuntu on a new system

[Nils Kassube]

A. J. Rawls wrote:
> I want to try SUSE and Ubuntu, I built two systems and want to
> install the operating systems.  I did not partition or format the new
> hard disk drives.  

Usually you don't have to partition or format disks before you start the 
installation. It is done during the installation process anyway.

> I put the program CDs in the DVD drives and 
> started the systems.  The systems booted to a GRUB prompt.

Can you be more specific? What is the grub error message?

> How do I install the operating systems?  Websites for each operating
> system seem to be geared to installing on systems with Windoze
> already installed and talk about a graphical interface.  

I can't tell you about the Suse installation but the Ubuntu installation 
doesn't need Windows installed. You can just ignore the Windows part.

> Neither 
> system booted to a graphical interface.

There may be a problem with your hardware which may need some special 
configuration. Can you tell us more about your machine like 
manufacturer and model? Especially your RAM size might be a problem. 
The Ubuntu LiveCD needs at least 256MB for the installation. OTOH, if 
you only get a grub prompt, the boot process probably didn't proceed 
far enough for the RAM to be the problem.


Nils