9.10 Live CD/partitioning issues

[ZebaSz]

I was trying to install Karmic on my pc (I'm not patient enough to wait for Lucid). It has to be a dual boot with windows (don't ask why).
I had a Live CD my brother had used on his own pc, so I tried it on mine. However, I couldn't get past the main options menu.
I tried every possible mode. Nothing.
I was told to use noapic acpi=off by some guys. Nothing.
I tried Wubi. Still nothing.
I decided to use the alternative CD. It worked fine until the partitioning part. My disk (160 GB HDD) was already partitioned like this:

sda1 - ~40 GB, NTFS (windows)
~40 GB - free
sda5 - ~80 GB, FAT32 (documents and other stuff)

I need to keep the same partitions, and use the free one for ubuntu. Through guided partitioning, I got:

sda1 - ~40 GB, NTFS
sda6 - ~39 GB, ext4
sda7 - 1.8 GB, swap
sda5 - ~80 GB, FAT32

But when I told it to apply, I got an error, and I couldn't continue. I tried many times, but it didn't work. I had to leave the partitions where they were. I took some pictures to show you. Any ideas?

[carl4926]

My concern would be that you could not get the Live CD to a desktop. It suggests to me you need to invest some time in establishing why that is the case, before using a basic text installer to partition and install.

I would need to see
fdisk -l
To provide advice properly. If you can't boot the Ubuntu CD to do that, try Parted Magic.

[ZebaSz]

I would need to see
fdisk -l
To provide advice properly.

Now that's what I call a prompt response...
Please excuse my complete lack of knowledge whatsoever, but how do I do that? Should I boot from the CD to a terminal or something?

[carl4926]

You did say you couldn't get to a desktop using the Live CD didn't you?

That's why I suggested Parted Magic
http://partedmagic.com/download.html

Yes, boot to a desktop and in a terminal do fdisk -l
In parted M, the terminal is called RoxTerm and is already root.

[ZebaSz]

And it keeps getting worse...
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1558261/DSC02006.JPG
Note that I followed the Parted Magic instructions for a Live USB (I have a Kingston 2 GB stick).
Now what? Maybe the BIOS has something wrong?

[carl4926]

I have a guide to using it here
http://forums.opensuse.org/information-new-users/unreviewed-how-faq/427176-using-parted-magic-introduction.html#post2077128

different forum
I'm an admin at openSUSE

[ZebaSz]

But I get an error before the menu. I already provided a photo.

[carl4926]

But I get an error before the menu. I already provided a photo.
I see no photo

[ZebaSz]

I see no photo

Really?
Either ways, it just says:
SYSLINUX 3.85 2010-02-20 CBIOS Load error - Boot error

[carl4926]

I googled and found this:
http://www.slax.org/forum.php?action=view&parentID=34341

I take it you can't use a cd?

[ZebaSz]

It's not that I can't, but I'd rather not burn more CDs. I already have both Karmic Live and Alternative CDs.

[ZebaSz]

...help?
What should I do, now that Lucid's out?
I did get to delete the ext3 and swap empty partitions through Windows.

[carl4926]

I still have no idea where you are at. What you have installed... etc.,

Please post
fdisk -l

Have you actually installed Karmic?

[ZebaSz]

No, I already said that I could partition with the alt cd, but then it told me there had been an error, and wouldn't let me move on.
And I still get "CBIOS Load Error - Boot Error" with Parted Magic. Maybe a BIOS setting is wrong? The USB/CD is clearly detected, but maybe there's something misconfiged.

[carl4926]

So are you saying you don't have a live cd that you can boot successfully ?
I mean a cd not a usb!

[ZebaSz]

I can't from Karmic Live. Installation through Alternative CD gets stuck at formatting. I didn't burn a CD with Parted Magic, I used a USB.

[carl4926]

Why not download Lucid, you wanted that anyway didn't you?

[ZebaSz]

I have the Lucid Live now, but I get the strangest error possible:
"(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system"
This appears when I choose to boot live, to install or to checksum, or if I use noapic acpi=off. Memtest86+ is ok though, I tested my PC and it passed.

[carl4926]

Please check this:
http://ubuntu-ky.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8362552

which leads to this:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/udev/+bug/143958
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Have you tried any other distros?
Eg: Fedora, openSUSE ?

[ZebaSz]

Boy, this is endless...but I'll try until I do it...or I call the IT guys.
Either ways, I checked the bug. I did "cd dev", and then "ls". Thought it could be useful. I will attach a photo with the list.
Then, I tried "mount /dev/scd0 /cdrom", but I got:

mount: mounting /dev/scd0 on /cdrom failed: Invalid argument

And no, I haven't tried other distros yet. But I found out about Ubuntu first, and I already tried it at my brother's PC. Also, I heard it was the most user-friendly. Besides, I'm almost certain it's something BIOS-related.

Edit: Wubi adds no entry to the MBR...

[ZebaSz]

I might have found a reason for the problem I found with the alt CD (partitioning issue). Messing around with *******, I found the LDM. I took a snapshot. Apparently, the partitions I had before were kinda weird (I changed a lot of stuff on my PC, I used to have Win98 for a particular program). This is the current state of my HDD (and yes, I speak spanish):

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1558261/Dibujo.bmp

Either ways, the free space is enclosed in an extended partition. Can that affect anything? And if it does, is there any way to fix that with *******? (I still can't boot from the Live CD/Parted Magic USB)

[scradock]

I might have found a reason for the problem I found with the alt CD (partitioning issue). Messing around with *******, I found the LDM. I took a snapshot. Apparently, the partitions I had before were kinda weird (I changed a lot of stuff on my PC, I used to have Win98 for a particular program). This is the current state of my HDD (and yes, I speak spanish):

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1558261/Dibujo.bmp

Either ways, the free space is enclosed in an extended partition. Can that affect anything? And if it does, is there any way to fix that with *******? (I still can't boot from the Live CD/Parted Magic USB)
The state of your partitions should NOT affect the ability of the LiveCD to run; the whole point of the LiveCD is that it doesn't use the hard drive until you tell it to install.

Did you check your BIOS to see that "CD" is first in the Boot Order? Or even present in the list?

[ZebaSz]

The state of your partitions should NOT affect the ability of the LiveCD to run; the whole point of the LiveCD is that it doesn't use the hard drive until you tell it to install.

Did you check your BIOS to see that "CD" is first in the Boot Order? Or even present in the list?

That's not what I meant. If you read back, you'll see I had problems trying to format that free space into ext4 with the alternative CD.
And I can't boot from the Live, but I can from the Alternative.
Again, my question is: can that extended partition affect the alternative CD's attempt to partition it with ext4? Ultimately, is there any way I can shrink it (so the free space is outside of it) through Windows?

[ZebaSz]

Thanks to some help from another forum, I managed to remove the free space from the extended partition. Formatting issues are gone, but the installer returns a new error:

The debootstrap program exited with an error (return value 137).
Check /var/log/syslog or see virtual console 4 for the details.
I forgot to check the syslog, but I did take a picture of console 4. Here's the link to it. (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1558261/DSC02105.JPG)
Any ideas?