Linux doesn’t run

When I boot into linux (Ubuntu, I'm not sure which version, a recent one) I get this error:

"
Oh no! Something has gone wrong.
A problem has occurred and the system can't recover. Please contact a system administrator.
"

I understand that I should boot from a DVD or USB-stick. But that doesn't work so well on this machine, it's an old one. Let me say, I'm going to try all that soon.