That is an easy tenet to abide by if your hardware is 2 years old. But how about a Windoze box I bought at a fire-sale price 10 years ago from an on-line dealer well known for low prices and just as well known for low quality hardware?
Whatever was on its poor little hard drive has stopped booting a long time ago. So, Ubuntu Linux it is, right? Right!
Download the installer image, burn the CD, try to boot the computer - no go! All sorts of errors on reading the disk - looks like CD-ROM reader is not doing all that well.
Create bootable USB stick with same image. Try to boot the computer from USB - no go.
Ok, where's BIOS screen? This thing has some ancient VIA motherboard and I can't remember which keyboard key will drop me into BIOS screen on boot! I tried everything - ESC, all the Function keys, everything! For days I did this! Finally, I got it! Do you know what key does the trick on this one? "Delete"! Not even "Backspace" - unbelievable!
Ok, so the usual weird lineup of USB-related devices, like "USB-ZIP" are listed in BIOS setup. You just know right away that this ain't going to work - this thing can't possibly support USB boot. Sure enough - no dice.
Give up? No way! There's one last resort (before breaking open the case and trying a a different hard drive, etc.) - Plop Boot Manager. This software claims to enable USB booting on hardware that does not support it. Magic! Download, burn the image to CD, and try to boot the computer with it. It works! I guess with this boot loader being so tiny, even this dying CD-ROM drive has enough oomph to read it. USB stick with Ubuntu installer goes in, I choose "USB" from Plop menu and - voila! - i'm in Ubuntu Installer.
So, "Delete" to get in BIOS; Plos Boot Manager on CD; and Ubuntu installer on a USB stick. Oneiric Ocelot, here I come!
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