From openSUSE to Ubuntu?

**LowSky** · February 23rd, 2009

Originally Posted by blnl

I just tried installing Ubuntu 8.10, but it didn't work for me.

However, when I selected the Manual partitioning, it listed all my existing partitions correctly. I'm not really in the mood for setting all mounts and file systems (I have 11 partitions on 4 HDDs), so I aborted the installation.

This is unfortunate, but I'll try installing Ubuntu again when the next release gets out.

How did it not work? It did what it was supposed to but you didn't feel like partitioning, so who's fault is that?

**blnl** · February 27th, 2009

Sorry LowSky, I really do not understand the Ubuntu partitioning philosophy.

Correct me if I'm wrong.
Ubuntu offers several different Guided partitioning options:
o Guided - resize DISK(###), partition # and use free space
o Guided - use entire disk
o Guided - use the largest continuous free space

So, why were these options not available for me?

I was only offered the "Guided - use entire disk" option.

Another thing that I did not mention is that I already have the linux partitions ready (swap, /, /home). I expected from Ubuntu to recognize them and offer me the choice of partitioning.
That is in fact what openSUSE does. I never manually partition or mount my drives in openSUSE. Once the partitions are in place it offers me the choice with correctly mounted partitions.
Therefore, I expected from Ubuntu to do a similar thing. I'm sorry if I'm spoiled by openSUSE.

Also, on the Official Ubuntu Documentation web-page I was reading about partitioning. Since it mentions a fully automatic mode, I expected it to do that as well.

partman

Allows the user to partition disks attached to the system, create file systems on the selected partitions, and attach them to the mountpoints. Included are also interesting features like a fully automatic mode or LVM support. This is the preferred partitioning tool in Ubuntu.

The main reason that I aborted the installation is because I did not get all expected Guided options. Thus, I thought that something is wrong.

So if you say that the partitioning options I got are perfectly normal, I'm prepared to try again (although the partitioning is not fully automatic).

**Ben Page** · February 27th, 2009

Use manual partitioning option, select the partition you like to install Ubuntu to and mount it as "root" and mark the checkbox to format it, and do the same thing with the Home partition (just select the desired partition and right click - edit). I always do the manual partitioning (because of dualboot with 7).

**mister_pink** · February 27th, 2009

It's normal for it to not offer you all the guided or automatic partitioning options. The installer is quite conservative - if it doesn't fully know whats going on it won't offer options that might break things. If you have a really simple partitioning scheme that it understands then it will offer more options.

But seriously, manual partitioning takes about 30 seconds. I've never used anything else.

**RyanVanDiemen** · February 27th, 2009

Originally Posted by blnl

I expected from Ubuntu to recognize them and offer me the choice of partitioning.
That is in fact what openSUSE does. I never manually partition or mount my drives in openSUSE. Once the partitions are in place it offers me the choice with correctly mounted partitions.
Therefore, I expected from Ubuntu to do a similar thing. I'm sorry if I'm spoiled by openSUSE.

Well, once you move from OpenSUSE to Ubuntu you will find many things that Ubuntu lacks compared to OpenSUSE. For one thing, there`s nothing as yast in Ubuntu... I`m not saying Ubuntu is not a good system (I`m using it myself; KDE4), but mentioning your issues with installer, you will find more things once you`re using the system. Anyway, considering your computer`s HW, Ubuntu (gnome) is the best option for you. It`s really good (and stable) system.