An unrecoverable processor error has been encountered when install Ubuntu on VPC 2007

I encountered the above error when installing Ubuntu 8.04.1 Desktop version on a Windows Vista Ultimate host PC using Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. To complete the install, I had to do the following…

• From the main CD menu, press F4-Modes
• Select Safe Graphics Mode
• Press F6-Other Options
• The boot options line will read ‘Boot Options eed boot=casper only-ubiquity initrd=/casper/initrd.gz quiet splash –‘. Change this to be ‘Boot Options eed boot=casper only-ubiquity initrd=/casper/initrd.gz vga=791 noreplace-paravirt -‘.

Note – the only change that is required is the nonreplace-paravirt option, but the vga=791 entry will allow faster loading due to not having to scan graphic modes.

Another option is to use the Open Source VirtualBox which can be downloaded at VirtualBox.org. When using this virutalization program, which runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris, I did not have to use any parameters or optional settings.