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Trying to install Ubuntu Kalin32bit 16.04on a old dell Inspiron 500m windows Xp. The DVD does not boot- error message:

WARNING: PAE disabled. Use parameter 'forcepae' at your own risk!
This kernel requires the following features not present in the CPU:
PAE
Unable to boot- please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU.

Shall I download a different version of Ubuntu? Don't know what PAE is!

AnotherKiwiGuy
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Ceramus
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    Possible duplicate of [System installation is stalled on Compaq Presario R3000](http://askubuntu.com/questions/619855/system-installation-is-stalled-on-compaq-presario-r3000) and [Basic desktop environment](http://askubuntu.com/questions/835609/basic-desktop-environment) The Dell Inspiron 500M is very low on RAM. Add more RAM, customize your installation in order to allow it to use less than the minimum required amount of RAM or stick with Windows XP. – karel Nov 13 '16 at 10:49
  • @karel: The Dell Inspiron 500m ships with a Pentium M CPU clocked at 400 MHz, which means it support PAE but doesn't advertise it. The `forcepae` boot option should work. See the other linked question. – David Foerster Nov 14 '16 at 01:55

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PAE is an acronym for Physical Address Extension.

This is a technology that was introduced in desktop CPU's around 1995, but was notoriously left out of or not displayed in the CPUID of a lot of mobile chips until around 2005.

Your Laptop (Dell Inspiron 500m), is showing you this error when trying to boot because your CPU lacks the PAE extension required to run this version of Ubuntu.

To be more specific, your CPU is probably the Intel Pentium M (Code Named "Banias"), which had a fault where internally, the CPU does actually support PAE, however due to either a fault or design error, it does not show this in the CPUID.

Unfortunately, there is no real way to fix this as it's a physical problem, but there may be other options (further reading)

This is not uncommon in older laptops.

You could perhaps try another another distro with a 486 non-PAE kernel. Maybe something like LMDE?

Good luck!

AnotherKiwiGuy
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