12.04 Installation freezes at "Who are you"

[Gini1195]

I'm posting here rather than in the Installation section of the Forum, as I'm really a Ubuntu newbie. I've just tried to install Ubuntu 12.04 64 bit for dual booting with Win 7 on my laptop using the Live CD and beginning at the first Install screen (rather than going to the Ubuntu desktop). I was following an excellent tutorial and successfully shrunk my Windows partition. I created partition for root, boot, home and swap and placed GRUB in the Ubuntu /boot partition. I continue through to the installation process until the "Who are you" screen appeared, but I could not go on. The "continue" button was unresponsive (although I could go back). After a long wait I gave up and rebooted in Windows with no problem (because the MBR was unchanged, I believe). The new partitions are evident. 1. If I want to try the Ubuntu installation again, what should I do? Would I leave all the new partitions as is? Can I avoid the same freeze? I've read about using the command line for an apparently similar problem, but is this done from the Live CD? 2. I made a Macrium disk image prior to starting this. Would using this overwrite the new partitions I created and restore my hard drive, thereby reclaiming all the inaccessible space? I'm reluctant to compound the damage. Right now I can use the computer with Win 7, albeit with a reduced size hard drive. Thank you!

[Gini1195]

Can I avoid the same freeze? I've read about using the command line for an apparently similar problem, but is this done from the Live CD? Thank you!

Update: All Ubuntu partitions have been deleted and hard disk space has been reclaimed for Win 7. At this point I merely wish to know how I could successfully avoid the same problem should I try to reinstall Ubuntu. Thank you.

[Bashing-om]

Gini1195; Hi ! Welcome to the forum.

There may be any number of issues at play here.
The first that pops to mind-> did you set the boot flag on your /boot partition?
What is window's partitioning scheme-> dynamic ?
Is UEFI a factor ?
How large of disks are we looking at ? Particular care must be taken for disks larger then 2TB.

These links will assist in answering these questions and helping to get you up dual booting.
http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/05/17...and-windows-7/
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DualBoot/Windows
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...l booting UEFI
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...7#post12254717

You have come a long way and I admire your attempts as what you are doing is above "novice" levels. Look over the links, and by all means ask any questions. There are many here to assist you.

kind regards <==BDQ

[Gini1195]

Thanks for your reply! The first link you supplied is the tutorial I used for installation, and before even starting I'd already read the info in the remaining links except for the one about UEFI. If I understand correctly, I did set the boot flag in the boot partition. The difficulty is that the installation didn't finish, as it froze when I completed the "Who are you" entries. (Green tics appeared by user name and computer name. I chose to log in automatically with no password.) There was no error message, but copying files did not start, and there was no progress bar. Nothing appeared to happen, and eventually I gave up.
My disk uses the typical Windows basic partitions.
My hard drive is fairly small by today's standards. My system has a 200 MB partition, and the C drive is 232.67 GB with 172.31 free. I shrunk the Win 7 partition to 110 GB and I followed the tutorial guidelines carefully to create a 500MB boot partition, 4 GB swap, 20 GB root, and approx 119 GB home partition.
I know that I need to use Easy BCD to provide for the dual boot screen at startup. I never did this, as the installation didn't appear to complete.
I hope I've provided sufficient information. Any suggestions before I simply try again?

[Bashing-om]

I advise to try the installation again (pleased to no end ya done yer homework first ! )

I have seen a few cases of not using the password option causing some problems. This time install to use a pass word, if the installation is successful, can opt out later for pass word log in.
As you do not have a separate /boot partition ...grub should be installed to the MBR of sda ..the installer should take care of this/as a precaution-> last install/confirmation screen has an advanced tab (non disclosed locater for grub) ..click the advanced tab and make sure grub installs to sda. Ubuntu's grub will pick up the window os and chainload for the option to boot by choice.

I expect grub to install ,as provided above, with no need for any alteration.

This is your system, set up the way you want to use it ...but have you considered making up a shared partition between both windows and ubuntu ?

just try'n to help <==BDQ

[Gini1195]

As you do not have a separate /boot partition ... </blockquote>

I did create a separate (500MB) /boot partition, and for that reason I planned to use Easy BCD after the installation completed and rebooted into Windows. I will retry the installation and use a password as you suggested. I'll have to study up on having a shared partition, though. I'm not familiar with that setup. Thank you!

[Bashing-om]

Sorry not reading close 'nuff bout the /boot partition.
In the installer insure to set the boot flag in that partition only and double check the setting in that last confirmation screen(advanced tab). I am triple booting with multiple partitions on 3 disk ..booting sda ..and have had no grub problems at all ..sda1 is my /boot partition. Just make sure boot flag set to the /boot partition and should have no problems/check where the installer chooses to install grub (can be an issue with "defaulting").

hth <==BDQ

[Gini1195]

Sorry not reading close 'nuff bout the /boot partition.
In the installer insure to set the boot flag in that partition only and double check the setting in that last confirmation screen(advanced tab). I am triple booting with multiple partitions on 3 disk ..booting sda ..and have had no grub problems at all ..sda1 is my /boot partition. Just make sure boot flag set to the /boot partition and should have no problems/check where the installer chooses to install grub (can be an issue with "defaulting").

hth <==BDQ

My settings looked identical to this image below from the tutorial (except that the size of the /home partition was smaller), and I did select the "device for boot loader installation" as /dev/sda5 as shown. There was no "advanced tab", however, merely the Install now button on the lower right. Clicking that began the user info inputs of selecting geographical location and keyboard language, followed by the problem "Who are you" screen.

I might retry the whole installation again today. Thank you again for responding!

[AndyOpie150]

Before getting to far into messing with the partitions you might think about downloading this .iso https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair and putting on a cd. Just in case you make a mistake and mess up your boot and grub.


I messed mine up while trying to change my partitions (I'm a Linux newbie) and was stuck in grub rescue (can't give any grub commands in grub rescue). I had a Moderator link me to it and it worked great.

Not saying you will mess anything up, but it might come in handy. I tried Kubuntu which didn't allow to wipe and install in the Ubuntu partition (Lubuntu did), but instead wanted to install in the remaining Windows partition, so I had to wipe the Ubuntu partition and swap partition and start with a whole disk. After wiping everything I lost the boot.img and my grub (knew this would happen before I started with the wipe this time). I popped the Boot Repair CD back in, restarted my machine and let it fix the boot and grub. Then reboted into the Windows OS one more time before installing Kubuntu. After trying out Kubuntu I did the exact same thing to my disk (with confidence), then re-installed Ubuntu one last time (I liked it a little better for the easy of accomplishing tasks in the Gnome classic Desktop environment).

[Gini1195]

Looks like an excellent tool to have on hand. Thanks for the link!