wrote:

it doesn't use the boot loader installed with the unetbootin, so i'm guessing either my permissions won't let me install the boot loader, or i can't dual boot maybe?

U must change BIOS setting to allow boot from usb devices.

john you are making yourself look stupid by responding to posts with these answers
there are too many options for you yet none of them will work because
you are trying to do too much

you've used wubi before:
http://wubi-installer.org/
it will allow you to install ubuntu through windows ( provided you don't need permission to do so,) and will create a large single file which acts as a fake partition which will boot ubuntu through the windows bootloader

by the way your card has no openGL support (as far as i know) and your processor will struggle (obviously)
so by getting ubuntu or any other OS on your PC won't really make a difference aside from being able to use flash to play facebook games or something of the sort
and if dad finds out you went over his shoulders by working around his punishment, well, he has just inherited a nice video conversion machine. aren't I a devil for suggesting it? figure out the rest yourself

and for whoever keeps on telling him to change the bios to recognize usb booting, the PC has USB 1, and definitely will not recognize USB for booting considering its date

by the way, happy birthday