• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Partition problem installing Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
deadlysyn

deadlysyn

Folding Team Content Editor, Who Dolk'd my stars S
​
Joined
Mar 31, 2005
Location
Stealing your megahurtz at night
I have been trying to figure out how to install Ubuntu for quite a while now. The previous problem I had been having was with the Dapper release. The problem I was having was nothing would happen when I clicked on the install Icon. I had started researching and found out there was some kind of problem with the Dapper installer, so I decided to wait for Edgy to come out. It was finally released about a week or so ago, I found a torrent, burnt the ISO, and proceeded to attempt the install. I have no problems getting through the installer, up until I get to the part about the partition table. I have a 10 Gb HDD, which I have a 8 GB partition and a 1.8 Gb partition. I also have a 20 Gb HDD which I am using for storage and my W2K swapfile. I have W2K installed and running on the 8 Gb (or so, don't really remember exact number) partition, and I want to install Ubuntu on the smaller partition. I have tried setting up the 1.8 Gb partition as "/" and was hoping that I would be able to use the 20 Gb as "swap" although I am worried that I may end up losing all the data I have on that HDD. As many times as I have tried to set up the first partition as "/", it still keeps telling me that I have to set up a partition as root. Now that I have tried working with the partition table in Ubuntu, Partition Magic is telling me that I have completely messed up the partition table on that HDD, and that I should reformat and repartition. W2K disk management is showing both partitions as working perfectly and healthy. Is there something I am doing wrong, and where am I actually supposed to designate which partition or drive is root and swap? I have tried checking the install guide at www.ubuntuguides.org did not find a guide for setting up a dual boot. If anyone is actually willing to read through this whole post, and have an answer that might be of some help, I will be extremely grateful. Thanks for any help in advance.
 
First of all, you won't be able to use a single partition on the 20GB disk for both File storage and swap. Linux uses a swap partition, you hand it the partition, and Linux has it's way with it. If you do select your entire 20GB drive as a swap partition, you will lose all of the data on there.

As for the cryptic error message about not having root configured, I bet your problem is simply that your root partition is too small, or, it is just complaining (perhaps in a weird way?) that your swap partition is not of type 82 (linux swap)
 
Ok that makes sense. Is there any special reason that Partition Magic might be saying that the smaller HDD's partition table is bad, even though both Ubuntu and Windows are seeing it as no problems? Is it maybe the fact that PM might not want to work with it because something else had attempted to rearrange the Partition table? Also if I set up the Partitions on the 20 Gig drive, will I still be able to boot Ubuntu, or is it best on a separate partition on the first drive?
 
Partition Magic will complain if the harddrive geometry changes.. this can happen if you mess with your harddrive settings in BIOS, update your BIOS, BIOS's harddrive autodetect guesses wrong, etc. May also happen if Windows or Linux didn't start and stop their partitions on a cylinder boundary. It's nothing to worry about, modern OSes can handle these issues.

If you put linux on the 20GB drive, I would recommend installing the Linux bootloader on the 20GB disk. Change BIOS to boot off of the 20GB disk. If Linux detected the Windows partition, then it should give the option to boot Windows or Linux.

If it doesn't detect windows, you can either modify the bootloader, or change what drive to boot off in BIOS each time.
 
If I remember correctly Grub is the Ubuntu bootloader, although I may be wrong. So I would be best off installing that on the same drive as Ubuntu? Should I put the Ubuntu partition at the beginning of that particular drive, or would it make a difference if it was at the end? Sorry for all the questions, but I am very new to Linux, and wanting to try it out for something new.
 
deadlysyn said:
I have been trying to figure out how to install Ubuntu for quite a while now. The previous problem I had been having was with the Dapper release. The problem I was having was nothing would happen when I clicked on the install Icon. I had started researching and found out there was some kind of problem with the Dapper installer, so I decided to wait for Edgy to come out. It was finally released about a week or so ago, I found a torrent, burnt the ISO, and proceeded to attempt the install. I have no problems getting through the installer, up until I get to the part about the partition table. I have a 10 Gb HDD, which I have a 8 GB partition and a 1.8 Gb partition. I also have a 20 Gb HDD which I am using for storage and my W2K swapfile. I have W2K installed and running on the 8 Gb (or so, don't really remember exact number) partition, and I want to install Ubuntu on the smaller partition. I have tried setting up the 1.8 Gb partition as "/" and was hoping that I would be able to use the 20 Gb as "swap" although I am worried that I may end up losing all the data I have on that HDD. As many times as I have tried to set up the first partition as "/", it still keeps telling me that I have to set up a partition as root. Now that I have tried working with the partition table in Ubuntu, Partition Magic is telling me that I have completely messed up the partition table on that HDD, and that I should reformat and repartition. W2K disk management is showing both partitions as working perfectly and healthy. Is there something I am doing wrong, and where am I actually supposed to designate which partition or drive is root and swap? I have tried checking the install guide at www.ubuntuguides.org did not find a guide for setting up a dual boot. If anyone is actually willing to read through this whole post, and have an answer that might be of some help, I will be extremely grateful. Thanks for any help in advance.
Click to expand...

Hmm.., this may help or may not. I have dual booting on two (2) boxes, a X2 4200+ and a Athlon64 3000+. I installed Ubuntu64 (Dapper Drake) on both by simply putting the live CD in my Optical drive, answered a few questions (password, name, etc) and let it go from there. I tried to use the same CD's (Ubuntu64) and Ubuntu32 on my PD 805 (obviously not at the same time), but I guess the mobo wasn't Linux compatible. (Asrock 775DUAL-VSTA, it wouldn't take either Ubuntu's) I installed Ubuntu32 on my P4 alone because it only has a 40 GB hard drive.
I've got the Linux version of F@H on the P4 and it cranks out the WU's about the same as WinXP. ( I don't think Linux is as fast as WinXP though <shrug>, I haven't tested it with any reliability) Yeah, I know a AMD X2 4200+ is faster than a P4 2.60. I have the Linux F@H on the 4200+ box also and I haven't benched either one yet.
Edit: I think the experts out there recommend defragging your hard drive before trying to install a dual boot system. (makes sense to me) Does anybody out there know about switching hard drives from a machine that accepts Linux to one that doesn't ? ( I know it wouldn't work with WinXP, no activation bullcrap in Ubuntu) Can sombody, please, tell me the advantages from going Dapper to Edgy ?
 
Last edited:
Grub is the bootloader used by Ubuntu. I would install it on the same harddrive, if you split up the boot sector from the OS install, then both become useless without eachother. It does not matter where you install Linux on a disk, but if this is an older machine, you will want to have a small /boot partition under the 1024 cylinder boundary.

jws2346: I'm not sure why you would defrag your harddisk before installing Linux; Linux would go on a completely different partition, whether or not the windows partition is fragmented is irrelevant.

I've switched harddrives between completely different machines before with no issues. When the office firewall at work failed (capacitors blew up), I pulled the harddrive and network cards, put them into another box (old box was a P3, new box is a P4, booted it up, and everything worked just fine. As long as you haven't custom-compiled the kernel to exclude anything, then it should work just fine. I have yet to run across a motherboard that doesn't work in Linux though.

I've heard that people upgrading to Edgy are having problems; but I haven't attempted it yet. I think it's only an issue for people upgrading though.
 
su root said:
Grub is the bootloader used by Ubuntu. I would install it on the same harddrive, if you split up the boot sector from the OS install, then both become useless without eachother. It does not matter where you install Linux on a disk, but if this is an older machine, you will want to have a small /boot partition under the 1024 cylinder boundary.

jws2346: I'm not sure why you would defrag your harddisk before installing Linux; Linux would go on a completely different partition, whether or not the windows partition is fragmented is irrelevant.

I've switched harddrives between completely different machines before with no issues. When the office firewall at work failed (capacitors blew up), I pulled the hard drive and network cards, put them into another box (old box was a P3, new box is a P4, booted it up, and everything worked just fine. As ong as you haven't custom-compiled the kernel to exclude anything, then it should work just fine. I have yet to run across a motherboard that doesn't work in Linux though.

I've heard that people upgrading to Edgy are having problems; but I haven't attempted it yet. I think it's only an issue for people upgrading though.
Click to expand...

I think the idea behind defrag is, when you start installation of Linux for a dual boot on the same HD (it is originally a Windows partition to begin with), you have optimum disk space. (files are compacted) I know you don't wind up with more disk space, but your HD space is suppose to be more optimum. (at least that's what the "geeks" at Microsoft say) So I do think it's relevant whether the Windows partition is fragmented to begin. Not being an expert I can only do what is recommended by the experts.
As far as switching components:
I switched a DVD writer and a Tt Big Typhoon HSF from my PD 805 to my Athlon 64 3000+.
When I booted the machines the PD 805 said I needed to reactivate WinXP again within 3 days and the AMD Athlon 64 3000+ didn't say squat? (go figure) I've switch HD's with Linux to different machines, but always to a machine that would take Linux to start with. What I was wondering if you could take a HD out of one machine (that installed Linux) and install it into another machine that wouldn't take Linux to begin with.:confused:
 
Has anybody installed the new Ubuntu EdgyEft? I just installed it on my P4 2.60 GHz and it seems to be faster booting and shutdown. Are their any other differences from Dapper ?
Edit: I did a "clean install", I didn't have any problems. :)
 
su root said:
jws2346: I'm not sure why you would defrag your harddisk before installing Linux; Linux would go on a completely different partition, whether or not the windows partition is fragmented is irrelevant.
Click to expand...

I think he means if you wanted to RESIZE an existing Win partition, and subsequently install Linux there ;)
 
jws2346 said:
Has anybody installed the new Ubuntu EdgyEft? I just installed it on my P4 2.60 GHz and it seems to be faster booting and shutdown. Are their any other differences from Dapper ?
Click to expand...
Check the release notes... http://www.ubuntu.com/download/releasenotes/610

I've got some time today, so I'll probably format and install edgy.

Misfit138: Ok, if you are doing partition resizing, then defragmenting could help (so the partitioner doesn't have to do it), but if you aren't touching the partition, then there's no need.
 
su root said:
Check the release notes... http://www.ubuntu.com/download/releasenotes/610

I've got some time today, so I'll probably format and install edgy.

Misfit138: Ok, if you are doing partition resizing, then defragmenting could help (so the partitioner doesn't have to do it), but if you aren't touching the partition, then there's no need.
Click to expand...

Thank su root: I went to the site you suggested and I found out a lot about EdgyEft. Have you heard anything about trouble upgrading from Dapper? I did like you, a clean install on my P4. I read somewhere, I can't remember where, that it was a pain to simply apt-get dist-upgrade from Dapper. <shrug>
Oh yeah, I was the dummy with the question about defrag. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
su root said:
Misfit138: Ok, if you are doing partition resizing, then defragmenting could help (so the partitioner doesn't have to do it), but if you aren't touching the partition, then there's no need.
Click to expand...

Exactly :)
 
su root said:
I've formatted to Edgy now, no issues so far. Here's a link to a slashdot article on it, but it basically points to the ubuntu forums for issues.

http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/06/10/28/239258.shtml

And the official way to upgrade can be found here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=286599
Click to expand...

I think reformatting and clean install is the best way to go. I know it's a pain in the butt for some people, but always do some form of backup and save you're original program disks. ( serial #'s too) :bang head

Edgy does seem to boot faster. I reformatted and clean installed it to my Athlon 64 3000+ and I'm running F@H 24/7. No problems yet. ( fingers crossed) :)
 
jws2346 said:
I think reformatting and clean install is the best way to go. I know it's a pain in the butt for some people, but always do some form of backup and save you're original program disks. ( serial #'s too) :bang head
Click to expand...
What I do is save all of my files on my file server or in my home directory. Then, to format, all I need to do is:
* copy my entire home directory to my fileserver
* tar up all the files in /etc, and copy it to my fileserver
* run 'dpkg --get-selections > installed-software' and copy that file over.

Then format, reinstall, copy my home directory back, reinstall all of my software, either individually, or by running:
# dpkg --set-selections < installed-software
# dselect

Then if I need any configs, I have all of the configs in /etc, so I can just copy my xconfigs back in place and my multi-monitor setup is back and working.

By coping my home directory, and all of my dotfiles and dotdirectories back in place, I can just fire up Opera or Thunderbird or any other program I regularly use, and it's already configured. Really cuts down on the amount of reconfiguration time in a new OS.
 
su root said:
Grub is the bootloader used by Ubuntu. I would install it on the same harddrive, if you split up the boot sector from the OS install, then both become useless without eachother. It does not matter where you install Linux on a disk, but if this is an older machine, you will want to have a small /boot partition under the 1024 cylinder boundary.
Click to expand...
Well the system is a PIII with an Asus CUSL2 board, so do I need to worry about the cylinder boundary thing? Also what would be a good way to just increase the size of that smaller partition on the first drive, since Edgy will not install to a 1.8 Gb partition? I am thinking about setting up the second HDD with a 5Gb partition for swap, since I do use it for the swap file for W2K, and also for some storage. I am having a hard time understanding how to use GParted, which is the Partition manager in Ubuntu, and Partition Magic seems to be telling me that the file system on the first drive is harshed, I can't seem to do it within Windoze. Is there any other way that I can do this? It seems it would just be easier to install Ubuntu on the first HDD, even if on the second partition.
 
Now that I look back at it, the cause of this entire thread is an error message... I remember reading about that issue on the release notes known issues:
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/releasenotes/610#head-ffc2b2285bd1df460d1ff8aa353c716f9151ceb2 said:
The advanced partitioning mode of the installer on the desktop CD has trouble reusing an existing root file system, and will incorrectly claim "No root file system". Since you must reformat the root file system for use by the installer in any case, you can easily work around this problem by deleting and re-creating the partition in question in the advanced partitioner. https://launchpad.net/bugs/67130
Click to expand...

As per your questions: I've still seen the cylinder boundary issue persist in newer machines, any systems I build, I always build boot(ext2, 100M), swap (1GB), and root(reiser). If it's a server, I'll put more partitions in.

5GB of swap is overkill unless you have a specific use for it. It can't be used for both Windows swap and Linux swap at the same time. The rule of thumb is 2x how much ram you have in the system, but honestly, if you ever end up using 3x your RAM size, you are doing something wrong.
 
I have 320 MB ram in that particular system, so I would be better off only doing a 640MB partition? Or would 1 Gig be safe?
From what I get from what you had just posted, using advanced options while trying to install, I delete the partition and then recreate it, and all should be well. I hope I am going in the right direction now. I was so put off by this error message, that I was about to give up on Ubuntu, but it looks like there is hope again. Also, instead of using GRUB, could I possibly edit the W2K bootloader to include Edgy, instead of having to move my Windows partition? Is there any possibility that Windows would automatically detect Ubuntu and give me the option anyway?

Thank you so much Su Root, you have already been so helpful. I hope that someday I will be as knowledeable in Alt. OS's so that I may too be able to help as much as you have.
 
If you install grub to the partition on which linux resides instead of to the MBR, you can have the windows bootloader boot linux, however there is no chance windows will automatically detect linux and allow you to boot it. You will have to edit C:\boot.ini. Also, I don't think this would solve the problem (although I think it's unlikely that you would experience it) as I believe the kernel must be in the proper location. As for swap, 640M or 1G would both probably be fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Tyerker
Screwed up an attempted dual install (kind of)
Replies
2
Views
701
Tyerker
Tyerker
ihrsetrdr
When you need a Windows install...
Replies
5
Views
2K
knoober
knoober
ihrsetrdr
Recovering a deleted partition
Replies
5
Views
524
ihrsetrdr
ihrsetrdr
c627627
What is the LONGEST you can disable downloading Windows 10/11 updates and how?
Replies
12
Views
693
Janus67
Janus67
M
How difficult is it to run 24 GB of fast RAM on X58? (X58 / Socket 1366 / Westmere)
Replies
9
Views
185
freeagent
freeagent
Back