In order to install ubuntu, you need to be connected to the internet for it to download all the extra packages. All it did was install the core utilities. Plus, if you are trying to install the latest version of ubuntu, 11.04 or 11.10, you need more ram. For any version or ubuntu after 9.10, you need at least a minimum of 1GB of system ram.

Do us a favor, download, puppy linux, burn to CD and run it on your laptop in live mode which means running the OS in ram rather then an installation. When booted, open a terminal and run this command:

#sudo lspci -v

Tell us your video controller information that it displays. Look at the "prefetchable" memory and tell us how big it is. If your video controller is using less then 256mb of video memory, us ubuntu 9.10 or 10.04 and increase your swap space.

Let us know what you did.

I tried DSL on an OLD toshiba laptop with 128mb of ram. This was the one I couldn't remember. The GUI is not all that great, yet good enough. It's better used as a terminal.

That maybe a permanent lock. Save your work if you can, shutdown the program and restart the machine. Once booted, try again.

This is why it is recommended to use 32bit systems. The 64bits are not that stable. You can install them on some machines but not all. Check the distros hardware support list to see what is supported.

Well I hope things work out for you. But yes, faster hard drive and use the EXT2 filesystem.

Yeah, if opensource can make games similar to the popular ones, that would be big. It may be tough to get game developers to opensource their games but there is no law for making replicants. At I think.