Patrick, 'OS Install Mode' needs to be off to see more than 256MB. My guess is that you have dodgy RAM above the 256MB address space, which you are hiding with the 'OS Install Mode'. Try running the memtest86+ utility from the Ubuntu boot machine. If that shows up flawed memory, try swapping around the SIMMs around in different slots - sometimes you can get subtle timing issues depending on which one is seen first on the memory buses.
Regards, Martin martinvisse...@gmail.com On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 4:17 PM, elliott-brennan <m...@elliott-brennan.id.au > wrote: > Hi Glenn, > > That's the problem. It won't allow me to install without switching it on! > > :( > > The install failed frequently: > > Freezes for in excess of 30 minutes, > > Claims that it couldn't install various packages etc > > This was the case even though I tried both GUI and text installations and > burnt the ISO to disc three times more. > > As soon as I turned on 'OS Install Mode', it was a clean install within a > reasonable length of time. > > It's been suggested to me that I check out the BIOS version and consider > updating it if necessary. If I can bring myself to spend more time on it I > may just do that. > > Pity, because the machine is in excellent condition (I was given two but > the > second one has some wonky capacitors - slight bulging) > > Regards, > > Patrick > > > > On 27/03/2009, Glen Turner <g...@gdt.id.au> wrote: > > > > elliott-brennan wrote: > > > >> What the hell has this been created for? > >> > > > > For installing Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 on machines > > with more the 2GB of RAM. For Linux you can leave > > Dell's "OS Install Mode" off. > > > > -- > > Glen Turner <http://www.gdt.id.au/~gdt/<http://www.gdt.id.au/%7Egdt/> > > > > > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ > Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html > -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
