Thanks, Bryan. Apparently nobody has anything to add . . . My friend downloaded the latest daily and still no dice. He's booting with a CD in a DVD device, and gets the initial menu -- install / check CD / etc. If you select any of those options, it fails as described below, because it can't see that same CD that it booted from. He demonstrated the problem to me on Sunday. Ends up at a busybox prompt. I tried a few incantations to query /dev/hdd but could not think of anything meaningful. So maybe as you say he should try 6.06 and see if it works any better. He was not dead set on 7.04. I'm happily running 7.04 now, but X was broken when I finished upgrading so I had to do a fresh install. I do my Linux desktop installs on a single partition, and keep all my "stuff" elsewhere, so I was able to trash that partition and start over. I've now learned that it's good to keep a list of the desired packages around so I can download them all at once. Still no &)(*#$#!!! MIDI capability for my sound card, and apparently nobody can recommend a sound card with decent drivers for MIDI. But I'm doing great with ripping and playing MP3s with grip and lame; that went really very smoothly once I knew the following: Encoder executable: /usr/bin/lame Encoder command-line: -m j --clipdetect --preset extreme -q 0 --vbr-new -V 0 -b %b %w %m Encode file extension: mp3 Encode file format: ~/mp3/%A/%d/%n.mp3 Thanks for the support, Vic ---- Bryan O'Neal wrote: Well, I see that there are only two real choices (not being masochistic enough to try and force a fix) You can either wait for the fixed install CD to be released, or install a prior version (like 6.06) and upgrade to 7.04. What does every one else say, is there an easer solution? -----Original Message----- From: plug-discuss-bounces@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us [mailto:plug-discuss-bounces@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us] On Behalf Of vodhner@cox.net Sent: Friday, May 04, 2007 1:23 PM To: Main PLUG discussion list Subject: Ubuntu PATA driver issue? A friend of mine (a very competent Windows-based engineer who tries Linux frequently but hasn't done real well yet) just tried to bring up Ubuntu and ran into this problem: > I decided to try ubuntu on my Linux system get an impression > of how it's presented to a generally knowledgeable but Linux > distro challenged user. > I was partway convinced when you made that choice and then > Michael Dell clinched it for me. > I downloaded the installation CD and tried running it "live" and > when that didn't work, I tried plunging ahead and told it to install. > In both cases I got the following message at the start of the > operation: > BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-3ubuntu3) Built-in shell (ash) > Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands. > /bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off > (initramfs) > When I researched this, I found that there are a LOT of reports of > this same problem. I've only gone through one support organization > so far but there responses seemed to be overwhelmingly arrogant. > Can you suggest a support URL that might be interested in resolving > a problem. > It appears that ubuntu 7.04 was released with bad pata (IDE) drivers > in the package. Any help will be highly appreciated. Vic --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss