Boot failure : No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found!

I've tried to install Ubuntu on a VMWare Virtual Machine, but it never gets past the bootloader :

ISOLINUX 4.01 debian-20100714 ETCD Copyright (C) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al
No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found!
boot: _

I've also tried to burn this .iso image to a CD and go from therem but I got the same problem.

Some more details :

• VMWare Server 2.0.2 Build 203138 on Windows 2008 R2
• ubuntu-10.10-desktop-i386.iso image used (downloaded yesterday evening)

If you are able to use a USB stick as installation media, then rename the following:

• isolinux --> syslinux (this is a folder)
• isolinux.bin --> syslinux.bin
• isolinux.cfg --> syslinux.cfg

This worked for me.

Original source: 1, 2

Two suggestions:

Suggestion 1:

If you are using a USB stick, make sure it is formatted as FAT16 (or just FAT), not as FAT32.

Suggestion 2:

Try entering mboot.c32 -c boot.cfg at the "boot:" prompt.

(Source)