First of all, let me tell you what I'm working with --
EVGA 113-M2-E113 AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8200 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retailhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2RPR10664GK - RetailEVGA 7800GT video card.
74gb WD Raptor as the main HDD.
ASUS 20X SATA DVD-RW Drive Lightscribe (DRW2014L1T)2407FPW in DVI mode.
Now, my fun begins..
I first started using Ubuntu 8.10 w/ Boxee. Took some convincing to get it to run; Having both the 7800gt installed as well as the onboard, caused problems with the nvidia driver. Eventually got that going, got Boxee running, was not happy. This is included in my topic to simply let you know I have succeeded and getting to the desktop before.
Today I decide to try LMCE - I download the DVD via ThePirateBay to save bandwidth. I grab the AMD64 (LinuxMCE-DVD-amd64-rc2.iso) version since I am using AMD, and a 64 bit processor. Obvious, right. I burn the DVD with the afformention ASUS drive, then move the drive to the future media PC, and boot from it.
It won't get to the install screen - at this point, the 7800gt wasn't in, and the comp was going black after loading the DVD, from what I could see. After some troubleshooting, I eventually throw my 7800gt in. (was never originally planning on using it in the PC) and I finally get to the installer. It doesn't work. I google around, and find out I need to hit F6 at startup and include "all_generic_ide" to the boot string.
The installation seems to all complete, and I get to where I am told to remove the dvd from the drive, and hit enter. Upon restart, it gets through the grub count down, and then to the Kubuntu boot progress bar screen. From here, it sticks at what I would guess to be 1%. A picture for your viewing pleasure:
If I do nothing for a few minutes it bounces over to :
BusyBox V 1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-5 ubuntu7) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
(initramfs) _
I restart numerous times, and for the life of me cannot get it to go beyond this. I try using onboard video, and it blacks out after the grub screen.
I google some more, and find some info semi-related to this - but mainly everything is related to the AV installer which is after the Kubuntu progress bar, from what I can guess. I have tried even hitting the 1-7 numbers, holding shift and pressing 2, etc.. can't get anything different to come up. I've also tried using a VGA -> DVI adapter. Tried connecting via VGA. Nothing changed.
Really out of ideas here. So please oh please oh great ones, guide my way..