I had the pleasure of installing Ubuntu onto two old computers this weekend. One laptop and one desktop. Both resistant to Doctor Dion’s orders.
The Ubuntu graphical installer is poor at detecting and setting up old graphics cards and monitors. It is a strange and frustrating problem because once Ubuntu is installed it detects and configures them effortlessly. The installation issue shows itself through symptoms which include any of the following:
- A perpetually blank screen that prevents any set-up questions from being answered
- A continuously moving animated gif that suggests “something amazing is about to happen“; which it is – the computer is about to get a boot from its frustrated user!
- An error message that reads
vesamenu.c32: attempted DOS system call boot:
Whatever the symptom, I am sure that it will have prompted you to clean your disc, to clean your disc drive, to re-download your installation iso, to reburn it at increasingly slower speeds, to Google umpteen times with search terms like:

















