9.10 won't install from usb boot

[cliffk]

i have a bootable usb flash drive with 9.10 ubuntu. i have a partitioned drive with a blank ext4 (37.25 GiB) partition that i made with GParted.

Once i invoke "install ubuntu 9.10", at step 4 of 7 i choose "Specify partitions manually (advanced)" because i don't want to "Erase and use the entire disk". The other option "Install them side by side, choosing between them each startup" also seems to want to change the partition table. Furthermore, i don't know what "them" is being referred to as installed "side-by-side".

After choosing "specify partitions manually" and selecting the ext4 partition a box pops up that says "No root file system is defined. Please correct this from the partitioning menu", to which i ask, what partitioning menu?

Is there some reason that i cannot install ubuntu to a partition. does it require the entire disk for installation? Or is there some partition menu where i can make the correction asked for? thanks for any help.

[Mighty_Joe]

After choosing "specify partitions manually" and selecting the ext4 partition

What do you mean "selecting"? Are you just clicking on it in the "Prepare partitions" screen?
You need to click in the "Change" button at the bottom of the "Prepare partitions" screen. That will bring up the options for that partition. The "Use as" selection should be "Do not use the partition". Click the drop-down and select "ext4". You should now be able to select the "Mount point". Select "/".

[cliffk]

thanks. that worked! :)

for the record, for anyone else....
once the ext4 partition was mounted (at "root", /), it warned that i had no swap partition. i assumed it was better to get one created now rather than later, so i looked at the swapfaq (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq) which suggested 2*RAM size for my situation. the faq also described creating a swap file in the existing partition, but the install asked for a separate swap partition (which i assume is safer anyway), so i went back, deleted the original ext4 and added a 1G swap (fs type is "swap") and a new ext4 from what remained.

free (http://linux.die.net/man/1/free) in a terminal window will give you your RAM size in case you don't remember.

if my additional actions were mistaken, let me know, but i successfully booted into my hd hosted system.