Building the New Server - Part 2 - Installing the Operating System

A couple of weeks ago, I prepared a USB flash drive as bootable with the Ubuntu 6.10 Server install files ready to go. I tried it out on my Dell at work, and it booted. However, I wasn't able to get my son's computer (which has a USB boot option in the BIOS) to work with it, and this new computer had the same problem (and I think a very similar BIOS).

So, I had to go a little ghetto (is this an offensive use of the word?) and wire up an internal CD-ROM drive as an external.

Dog not included
Looks a little cheesy, but it worked.

The install went great. I used pretty much all defaults except for the hostname. Since the BIOS recognized the full disk drive size, I didn't have to do any special partitioning to see all of it.

The install finished, and I booted up the system for the first time. Well, at least I tried to. Soon after GRUB started, the box would reboot. How frustrating! I tried booting the CD-ROM again, and it came up no problem.

As usual, a quick Google search found both the problem and the solution. A guy named Joel posted this quick note that talks about the VIA processor not being fully 686 compatible, and how the Ubuntu server version uses a special kernel that calls the very instruction that the VIA can't handle. His easy instructions walked me through how to boot from the CD in rescue mode and switch the kernel with these two commands:

apt-get install linux-386
apt-get remove linux-server

Now, it boots, and I'm ready to start the configuration, again.