Reinstall Ubuntu error. No root file system(?)

[n1ahh]

I followed instructions in other threads for reinstalling Ubuntu and hit an error that I do not understand. The situation is as follows.


Partitions:
/dev/sda type size used
/dev/sda1 fat 32 5239mb 4099mb
/dev/sda2 ntfs 67077mb 44900 mb
/dev/sda5 ext3 84654 mb 3000 mb
/dev/sda6 swap 30067mb 0 mb

/dev/sdb fat 32 8019 mb 753 mb

From the above I think the ubuntu is in /dev/sda5. /dev/sdb is the thumb drive I am booting from. The computer is an Acer Aspire which has no CD/DVD so I am using a thumb drive as the boot source. No problem there.

I used the manual option and tried both the delete and edit options (independently of course) on /dev/sda5. When I go to the next screen, I get the error

"No root file system is defined. Please correct this from the partitioning menu."

I do not understand this. How should I proceed?

The problem is the result of trying to enable wifi hardware on an Acer Aspire. I followed the directions specified in another thread and it failed. It also "broke" my USB ports under Ubuntu. I am dual boot as you can see and all is well under the xp partition. I decided to reinstall ubuntu to get the usb ports working again before trying the wifi problem again.

Any help appreciated.

[Neo_The_User]

Boot LiveCD and open up terminal



sudo fdisk /dev/sda
a
5
w

[n1ahh]

Thanks for the quick reply and assistance.

Tried fdisk as recommended. No change.

"When I did the Fdisk, I got the following error:
rereading the partition table failed with error 16: device or resource busy. the kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at next reboot"

I assumed this ment that the process would complete ok, but not be shown until the next reboot.

I rebooted, went to install and worked my way to step 4 which is the partition table. It held the same data as it did originally. Partition 5 appeared unchanged. I tried both edit and delete and got the same "no boot.." error.

I repeated this process several times to verify my steps. Same result each time.

I rebooted into the ubuntu partition and it worked. Fdisk did not seem to have an effect.

So I am stick again at the same point in the process.

???

n1ahh

[louieb]

Just a wild guess that you chose the manual partition option. You need to click on sda5, choose edit, and select / (root) as its mount point. Then you should be good to go.

[Neo_The_User]

Terminal from livecd:



sudo cfdisk


Take the boot flag off sdb. Use Up, down, right, left arrows to navigate.

[Corbin Dallas]

Why do you have a 30GB swap? Do you have TONS of memory available? or was this a typo?

In my experience, swaps should be 1 to 2GB.

30GB of swap may cause some issues.

[Neo_The_User]

Why do you have a 30GB swap? Do you have TONS of memory available? or was this a typo?

In my experience, swaps should be 1 to 2GB.

30GB of swap may cause some issues.

Hahahaha! Yeah I didn't notice that before. Thats hilarious! 30GB swap! :lolflag: :biggrin: That would be... 15 GB of RAM to be exact. Must have one hell of a HP server computer!