[SOLVED] Need help reinstalling ubuntu

[hibajugalala]

I'm dual booting Windows Vista and ubuntu.
I screwed up my ubuntu a while ago and i need to reinstall it.
I don't want to screw up my windows vista and I do not have a windows vista disc.

[taurus]

Boot from the LiveCD. When you get to the partition screen, pick Manual and tell the installer to mount the old Ubuntu partition to / and format it. Again, make sure you mount the right partition to / or the installer will complain about no root filesystem. You don't have to do anything with the swap partition since the installer knows how to handle that.

[hibajugalala]

How do i check what partition my ubuntu is on?

[taurus]

What's the output of this command from a terminal from the LiveCD?

Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal

sudo fdisk -l

[chex_m8]

you can use the live cd and go into Gparted or open terminal and type sudo fdisk -l.

[hibajugalala]

the output is:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x26e271ab

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1529 12281661 27 Unknown
/dev/sda2 * 1530 15979 116068352 6 FAT16
/dev/sda3 15979 16810 6668160 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 16811 30401 109169707+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 16811 29843 104687541 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 29844 30401 4482103+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

[taurus]

the output is:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x26e271ab

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1529 12281661 27 Unknown
/dev/sda2 * 1530 15979 116068352 6 FAT16
/dev/sda3 15979 16810 6668160 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 16811 30401 109169707+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 16811 29843 104687541 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 29844 30401 4482103+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

/dev/sda5 is the one you want to mount to / while /dev/sda6 is your swap partition.

[hibajugalala]

Should i delete the partition?
or how should i edit it?
I don't wanna screw up this pc...i just got it

[solomonhomicz]

I also messed up my ubuntu. I am dual booting with XP. Right now Ubuntu 8.04 will only run about a minute before total system shutdown (if you're fast you might be able to open a terminal and type two commands), I went to reinstall with the live cd and I experienced total system shutdown just at the time when I reached the partitioning gui in the installer (right after selecting time zone).


There are two kernel versions listed in the grub menu at startup and both crash the same. I went to a wifi spot to update after the original installation (which worked great barring some initial troubles with dialup) and after much hair pulling acguired a connection, I was forced to leave and stop the update download, after this the problems started when I restarted and went to connect the wireless drivers were gone and then crash. Now it crashes no matter what.

Any suggestions? My computer: Toshiba M35X, 1.5g Intel Celeron M, Atheros wifi, 160g samsung HD, 1g RAM (XP is the first OS loaded on the hard drive, but is shown as "Other Operating System:" in the grub menu)

A comprehensive How-To on the grub bootloader would be cool.

Good Ubunday

[taurus]

Should i delete the partition?
or how should i edit it?
I don't wanna screw up this pc...i just got it

I thought you want to reinstall Ubuntu on top of the same partition that you had Ubuntu before?

[hibajugalala]

ye oh true...i thought i had to edit it in someway

[hibajugalala]

Thank you all so very much!!!

Thank you taurus for helping me :)

[solomonhomicz]

That was the plan but part way through the instllation dialouge my computer shuts down, turns off instantly and unexpectedly.
This is picking the install option imediately after the cd first boots. I'm going to try starting up ubuntu from the live cd and then try to install.

I'm a little leery of this problem because eveytime my computer crashes there's one hell of a clunk from the hard drive.

[raunhar]

I am also trying to reinstall UBUNTU 8.10 . Win XP is already there as I need a dual boot machine. When i go to manual partition, i select the partition on which UBUNTU was installed. How Do I format that particular partition through the installer CD.
There are three partitions on the disk: NTFS for Win XP, FAT32 for backup disk and the unknow partition for ubuntu.

Pl. suggest