You need to boot from the cd you originally installed with. If you insert
the cd, turn the pc off, the restart it, it should/may work
automatically. Once the live cd boots, follow the prompts again to
install.

If you didn't set the BIOS to auto-boot from CD first, then you have push the F-key needed on that Dell to allow boot from CD to re-install on start-up.

Which: F1, F2, F3, F4 or any of the F keys?

I think someone the other day said it is F12.

It often says right on the screen which key to use to access the boot
menu - but, unfortunately, not always. A web search might help.

Finally got. I'm not going to do updates or change any of the features like
I did last time. I'll probably mess it up again before I figure out how to
use it. I'll checkout of here and stop bothering you guys, at least for a
while. I appreciate all the support.

There is no reason not to install the updates. Many plug security holes,
others are bug fixes and things to make Ubuntu work better. Nothing to mess
up. You click on the update notifier, add your password and wait for it to
finish.

Please do it! You'll run into more trouble if you neglect updating.

BM> Finally got. I'm not going to do updates or change any of the
BM> features like I did last time.

Updates *are* important and just because it messed up last time
doesn't mean it will mess up again. To use Ubuntu seriously you'll
need to get those updates at some point so might as well do it now
before you go much further

Don't know what I'm doing wrong. I reinstalled, I set a password, it asked
for it, it worked. I set up another acct. like I did last time. Now I'm
back to the root password saying "None" on the admin acct. - my primary
acct. So I'm working on another reinstall right now, writing thisk from my
Windows computer. When I get up again, I'll do the updates. It appears it's
not the updates that did it, but something else - probably the idiot
writing this.

There is no administrative account in (K)Ubuntu. When you are asked for the
root password you just type in the regular password of the first user
account. You are just an ordinary user until you use this, or use "sudo" in
a terminal window. Passwords from any accounts you set up after the
original account won't work - unless you have repeated the same password
for them of course. Its based on the security model that ordinary users
shouldn't be able to do admin tasks.

Please don't call your self an idiot! By choosing Ubuntu you have proven
yourself a very smart person.

I screwed up my first few installs of Ubuntu until I learned what
*not* to do. Stay with it and you'll get there too, and there's always
lots of help when you do have problems

Regarding getting on-line if Ubuntu does mess up and you don't have
another system handy, it's a whole lot quicker if you have a bootable
USB Flash drive rather than the CD, and Ubuntu will obligingly create
one very easily through 'Startup Disc Creator'.

Using 11.10, click on the 'Dash' icon and type Startup Disc Creator
into the search box. 10.04 and lower, click on [ System /
Administration ] to get to this.

BM> Don't know what I'm doing wrong.

You should be able to log in as any user provided you know user name and
the associated password. You cannot log in as root in Ubuntu. It is
disabled. You do not have to set up a second account for admin. The default
user can gain root privileges by using sudo or gksu.

You can create an account without access to sudo but would have to do that
specifically. Sudo is password protected and times out after awhile.

Tip: you can gain root privileges without using sudo each time, if you use
sudo su. That way you do not have type sudo before any commands.

Will you be having another person using the laptop? If not there is no need for
a separate account, in my opinion. Ubuntu is a distro that prefers one password
for user and admin, For instance, if I log into PcLinuxOS, I'll use my user
password, but if I run an Admin/Root service like Synaptic, I'll need that
password.
Perhaps others can explain it further, I hope it helps...

It's two different approaches to the same problem - how to stop people
who have no business altering the system itself from doing so. Each has
its pros and cons and there is no clear 'best' way of doing it.

The 'traditional' method, used by PCLOS and others, is to have one
account called 'root' with uber-powers to do the system administration
and then have user accounts which have either no, or only very limited,
rights to administer the system. If logged in as an ordinary user, the
system must be switched to using the root account using the 'su'
(substitute user) command or one of the graphical equivalents and the
root password.

The 'Ubuntu' method is to lock out the root account by not setting a
password on it (although it is possible to set one) and have one
ordinary user account endowed with the right to temporarily assume the
powers of root through the use of the 'sudo' (substitute user do)
command (or, again, one of the graphical equivalents) and their own
password.

You pays your money, you takes your choice.

I appreciate all your replies. I'm saving these emails and going back to
them and once in awhile I get it!

I'm not being a wise*** here. I am clueless to kernal, bios, sudos,
distros, wubu, etc. however, once in a while I figure some of it out, like
the iso, and last night, I don't know why, but c. beck said something about
a bootable CD and the function keys and I fumble around on the web and
learned the F2 was what I needed to push.

Another example of how green I am. I found something about changing the
password when we first messed with that in Ubuntu - it said use
Cntrl+Alt+F2 and that took me to a dark screen with a bunch of meaningless
(to me) code. There was a place for a login: to I put the password I used
when I installed unbuntu, the mouse doesn't work so I hit enter and it asks
for a password: so I enter the password and it starts all over again. I try
again and again. I'm stuck in this thing. I press all the keys and try key
combinations and finally the only way I know to escape is press the kill
button and restart. This is no big deal. Maybe I'll get there one day.
Right now I probably don't belong there. I have know idea what I'd find if
I got there, but I'm betting I wouldn't know what to do so I'd just press
the kill switch and hope nothing changed and if it did change I'd just do a
re-install.

Maybe I should have tried another OS, maybe there's something askew in that
laptop.

I know I have a big problem when I don't know what questions to ask. I
don't know the terminology, but I google stuff and I'll keep on. I have no
doubt if I stand in the rain long enough I'll get soaked, esp. with you
guys throws buckets on me.

None of us are born with the knowledge of how to work computers or the
intricacies of how they are put together / function. We all had to
start somewhere and groups like these are a good place to get advice
and assistance if/when stuck in a hole It all does drop into
place eventually and how far you go is purely up to how far you need
or want to go.

Yes, my wife will use the laptop and when my 2 granddaughters and daughter
come by they may use it. I used to think they messed it up, but I woke up -
it's a computer, you can unmess it. Unmessing brought me here to pester you
guys ... lol! One drives on...............

The great thing about Ubuntu ( and Linux in general ) is that users
are limited in what they can do to mess up as they will need to know
the system password to do anything that's likely to 'mess up', but
this doesn't get in the way of just *using* the PC. So, create a user
account for them if you wish but don't let them know your system
password ( i.e. the one you created when installing Ubuntu ).

I think loading the updates is a good idea, they are fully tested and
have been downloaded and installed many times by others to prove them
out too. Plugs holes others have run into before you.

When you did the Ctrl-alt-F2 what you happened was that you switched to
another of Linux's desktops, a command line one. Only one runs the nice
graphical desktop: it's Ctrl-alt-F7, desktop number 7.

While it didn't exactly say "enter username" thats what it wanted by
prompting with "login". When you enter it and press the "Enter" key then it
prompts for that user's password. To get back to your proper graphical
desktop it's Ctrl-alt-F7.

The best way to get a command line from your normal desktop is Alt-F2 (not
Ctrl-alt-F2) which just gives you one line to type in your command - no
login. If you get there by accident there is an "X" in the corner to close
that little window. Try typing df -H in such a window. It tells you how
much space is free in all your mounted drives: d for disk, f for free
space, (space) -H for show it in human readable form.

There are many, many fast and handy tricks like that, but just forget them
for now. When you are more familiar with Ubuntu you can gradually
accumulate a list of the ones you like and keep it by your keyboard.

I always told my students that using a computer is not rocket science. It's
just that you have to get a lot of little steps correct for it to work at
all. If you don't have every one of your ducks in a row it can be extremely
frustrating as nothing works. Computers have absolutely no sense of humour,
and usually wont help you correct your mistakes. Linux, especially the
'buntus, is much more helpful than Windows, but it can't work miracles...

Just a minor, pedantic, point. You only need to use CTRL-ALT-Fx when
switching from the graphical desktop to one of the command lines. To
switch between them or back to the graphical desktop, you only need use
ALT-Fx

Not that using CTRL-ALT-Fx hurts anything or is wrong as such :-)