Installing UNR 10.10 alongside Windows XP

[pauloz]

Hi

I know my problem is similar to others I've read but being new to UNR and not being tech savvy, I need to explain my situation:

When I get to the "Allocate Drive Space" section, I have only 2 options, namely "Erase and use the entire disk", which alarms me because I want to install UNR alongside Windows XP on my ASUS Eee PC 1005HA. The other option is "Specify partitions manually (advanced)". For obvious reasons, I am reluctant to try this.

I have a C Drive (Windows) and a D Drive (mainly for Backup of Windows). Each drive is about 72GB with about 60GB free on my D Drive. Obviously, this is where I would like to install UNR, but will I have to clear my D Drive completely? I still have about 27GB free on my C Drive.

Can anybody out there take me through step by step instructions to fix this problem? I am very reluctant to dispense with UNR just for this reason. I managed to install Ubuntu Desktop on a friend's ancient PC and it works like a new computer, so you can imagine how impressed I am with it.

Thanks in advance

pauloz

[kansasnoob]

Begin by booting the Live CD/USB and choosing to "Try Ubuntu" rather than choosing to install. Then from the live desktop post the output of the following command from terminal:


sudo parted -l

BTW that's a lower case L.

Just very general instructions:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p22.html

[pauloz]

Appreciate your reply. Unfortunately this is way over the top of my head. I'll get help professionally or dispense with the idea altogether. I typed the command but it's all too confusing for this ageing brain.
Thanks for your time - pauloz

[pauloz]

Now I'm really confused.
I enquired at a local computer shop and was advised that it was not possible to dual boot my ASUS netbook with Windows XP (which it came with) and UNR 10.10. But the installation instructions on the Ubuntu website clearly state that it is possible to do so. I have plenty of HD space available as mentioned previously. Unfortunately, my knowledge of partitioning etc is abysmal and I'm reluctant to try this without guidance.
Something else I noticed was that UNR is much slower than the Ubuntu Desktop Edition, which I also tried on my netbook (both from the USB drive). If somehow, I can get the dual boot up and running, is there any problem having Ubuntu Desktop running on my netbook?
Please help if you can!
pauloz

[Quackers]

There would be no problem running desktop edition rather than UNR.
First things first, how many primary partitions (including recovery) are currently being used in your system?
It may be better to resize your D: drive (which I presume is a partition, rather than a separate drive) thus creating free space for Ubuntu to install into.

If you are at all unsure about your partition structure please boot from the live cd and go to the site below and download the boot script to your DESKTOP and then open up a terminal (Applications > Accessories > terminal) and run


sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh

This will produce a results.txt file on your desktop. Please copy the contents of that file and paste them in your next post between CODE tags. For CODE tags click on New Reply (not quick reply)and then click on the # symbol in the toolbar.
This will give a full overview of your current system.
Thanks.

http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/

[pauloz]

OK thanks Quackers - I'm out of action for 24-36 hours, but will get back to you ASAP. Appreciate your help!
cheers pauloz

[pauloz]

Hello Quackers - I hope I've done this right! Again, thanks for your time. Regards from pauloz


Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda
=> Syslinux is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files/dirs: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sda3: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Windows XP: Fat32
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

sda4: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system:
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Mounting failed:
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: Unknown
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 151,123,454 151,123,392 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 151,123,455 302,230,844 151,107,390 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 302,230,845 312,480,314 10,249,470 1c Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda4 312,480,315 312,576,704 96,390 ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)


Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdb: 2019 MB, 2019557376 bytes
19 heads, 18 sectors/track, 11533 cylinders, total 3944448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 8,192 3,944,447 3,936,256 b W95 FAT32


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 4A30C94A30C93E27 ntfs
/dev/sda2 A000B2F200B2CF12 ntfs
/dev/sda3 CCED-990E vfat PE
/dev/sda4: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdb1 F87C-A46E vfat PENDRIVE
/dev/sdb: PTTYPE="dos"

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw)
/dev/sdb1 /cdrom vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437, iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)


================================ sda1/boot.ini: ================================

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
=========================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =======================

Unknown BootLoader on sdb1

00000000 eb 58 90 53 59 53 4c 49 4e 55 58 00 02 08 26 00 |.X.SYSLINUX...&.|
00000010 02 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00 3f 00 ff 00 00 20 00 00 |........?.... ..|
00000020 00 10 3c 00 fd 0e 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 |..<.............|
00000030 01 00 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000040 00 01 29 6e a4 7c f8 4e 4f 20 4e 41 4d 45 20 20 |..)n.|.NO NAME |
00000050 20 20 46 41 54 33 32 20 20 20 fa fc 31 c9 8e d1 | FAT32 ..1...|
00000060 bc 76 7b 52 06 57 8e c1 b1 26 bf 78 7b f3 a5 8e |.v{R.W...&.x{...|
00000070 d9 bb 78 00 0f b4 37 0f a0 56 20 d2 78 1b 31 c0 |..x...7..V .x.1.|
00000080 b1 06 89 3f 89 47 02 f3 64 a5 8a 0e 18 7c 88 4d |...?.G..d....|.M|
00000090 bc 50 50 50 50 cd 13 eb 4b f6 45 b4 7f 75 25 38 |.PPPP...K.E..u%8|
000000a0 4d b8 74 20 66 3d 21 47 50 54 75 10 80 7d b8 ed |M.t f=!GPTu..}..|
000000b0 75 0a 66 ff 75 ec 66 ff 75 e8 eb 0f 51 51 66 ff |u.f.u.f.u...QQf.|
000000c0 75 bc eb 07 51 51 66 ff 36 1c 7c b4 08 cd 13 72 |u...QQf.6.|....r|
000000d0 13 20 e4 75 0f c1 ea 08 42 89 16 1a 7c 83 e1 3f |. .u....B...|..?|
000000e0 89 0e 18 7c fb bb aa 55 b4 41 8a 16 74 7b cd 13 |...|...U.A..t{..|
000000f0 72 10 81 fb 55 aa 75 0a f6 c1 01 74 05 c6 06 32 |r...U.u....t...2|
00000100 7d 00 66 b8 28 1e 00 00 66 ba 00 00 00 00 bb 00 |}.f.(...f.......|
00000110 7e e8 10 00 66 81 3e 24 7e 34 be f5 72 75 76 ea |~...f.>$~4..ruv.|
00000120 38 7e 00 00 66 03 06 64 7b 66 13 16 68 7b b9 10 |8~..f..d{f..h{..|
00000130 00 eb 2b 66 52 66 50 06 53 6a 01 6a 10 89 e6 66 |..+fRfP.Sj.j...f|
00000140 60 b4 42 e8 7f 00 66 61 8d 64 10 72 01 c3 66 60 |`.B...fa.d.r..f`|
00000150 31 c0 e8 70 00 66 61 e2 da c6 06 32 7d 2b 66 60 |1..p.fa....2}+f`|
00000160 66 0f b7 36 18 7c 66 0f b7 3e 1a 7c 66 f7 f6 31 |f..6.|f..>.|f..1|
00000170 c9 87 ca 66 f7 f7 66 3d ff 03 00 00 77 17 c0 e4 |...f..f=....w...|
00000180 06 41 08 e1 88 c5 88 d6 b8 01 02 e8 37 00 66 61 |.A..........7.fa|
00000190 72 01 c3 e2 c9 31 f6 8e d6 bc 6c 7b 8e de 66 8f |r....1....l{..f.|
000001a0 06 78 00 be cc 7d e8 09 00 31 c0 cd 16 cd 19 f4 |.x...}...1......|
000001b0 eb fd 66 60 ac 20 c0 74 09 b4 0e bb 07 00 cd 10 |..f`. .t........|
000001c0 eb f2 66 61 c3 8a 16 74 7b cd 13 c3 42 6f 6f 74 |..fa...t{...Boot|
000001d0 20 65 72 72 6f 72 0d 0a 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | error..........|
000001e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00000200

[wilee-nilee]

Your computer has the maximum allowed primary partitions as of now. In order to partition install Ubuntu, you will have to remove one, don't just do this though without some help.

[Quackers]

Hi pauloz, as wilee-nilee has stated, you already have the maximum number of primary partitions on your disc. You should not create another until one is deleted.
sda1 carries the boot flag and I would surmise that this is your C: (it's about 75GB)
sda2 is approx 150GB and I would suspect is your D: partition

Does this tally with your C: and D: size partitions in Windows?

sda3 is a hidden partition (probably recovery)
sda4 is shown as unmountable and is an EFI partition of some kind.

Depending on how much data you have on your D: partition, that may be the best choice to be deleted.
I presume that you won't want to delete the recovery partition?
And the EFI partition is probably being used by a program of some kind, so shouldn't be deleted.
Please let us know what you think.

[pauloz]

Quackers - I hope the info below will help you (I got it from Belarc Advisor). In your comments, you suggested my D: partition is 150 GB. That's not correct, it is 77.37 GB - in other words, my hard drive has been split down the middle. There is nothing on my D: partition presently. I would not want to delete my recovery partition.

Assuming I go ahead and delete the D: partition, is there a risk my C: partition will be affected? I backed up My Docs in XP to an external drive today.

Again thanks - you have been fantastic help. @ wilee-nilee - I appreciate your help too.

pauloz


Drives
154.74 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
117.66 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

ST9160314AS [Hard drive] (160.04 GB) -- drive 0, SMART Status: Healthy

Memory Modules c,d
1016 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
Slot 'DIMM0' has 1024 MB

Local Drive Volumes
c: (NTFS on drive 0) 77.38 GB 40.70 GB free
d: (NTFS on drive 0) 77.37 GB 76.96 GB free

Network Drives
None detected

[pauloz]

Quackers - to also help you, I've pasted the result of a sudo command that was suggested by kansasnoob a few days ago. Thanks pauloz


To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA ST9160314AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 160GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 77.4GB 77.4GB primary ntfs boot
2 77.4GB 155GB 77.4GB primary ntfs
3 155GB 160GB 5248MB primary fat32 hidden, lba
4 160GB 160GB 49.4MB primary


Model: JetFlash Transcend 2GB (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 2020MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 4194kB 2020MB 2015MB primary fat32 boot


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

[Shreddy_K]

Hi guys,

I'm having a similar issue to Pauloz, and am eager to see a solution. I'm attempting to install UNR 10.10 on a Asus 1015PEM using the live USB drive. The Asus (brand new) comes from the factory with four partitions:

sda1: 107GB Win7 Starter (NTFS)
sda2: 16.1GB Win7/Vista recovery (FAT32)
sda3: 127GB Empty storage (NTFS)
sda4: 21.2MB Asus Boot Booster doohickey

SO. In the installation, I have two choices: "Erase and use the entire disk" or "Specify partitions manually". Since I'm going for a dual boot, I selected the latter. In tutorials, I have seen a "Install alongside other OS" options, but I didn't have that.

I selected sda3, and set "Use as:" to Ext4. I clicked the "Format partition" box, and set the mount point to /. Then, I selected sda3 in the "Device for boot loader installation" dropdown. I elected not to designate a swap space.

I let the installer run, and it appears to have completed satisfactorily. However, I don't have any boot options upon startup. I was expecting to have two selectable volumes when pressing ESC, like I did with the live USB drive. Instead, I just have the hard drive, and selecting it results in a Win7 boot.

I went back in to the USB load, and found a 10.10 install sitting on sda3.



ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA ST9250315AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 250GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 107GB 107GB primary ntfs boot
2 107GB 123GB 16.1GB primary fat32 hidden
3 123GB 250GB 127GB primary ext4
4 250GB 250GB 21.2MB primary

Model: Sony Storage Media (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 4027MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 16.4kB 4017MB 4027MB primary fat32 boot, lba


What did I do wrong? I read on another thread that there are GRUB options that must be set, but I don't recall being asked to do so. Any advice?

[Shreddy_K]

(double post)

[Quackers]

It seems that you have installed grub to sda3. For booting the system looks at the mbr of the drive (sda). That's where grub needs to be installed.

[Shreddy_K]

Thanks, Quackers. I'll select "sda" in the "Device for boot loader installation" dropdown and report back.

[Quackers]

If you are re-installing,yes. But you can do it from a terminal in the live cd desktop.
Start gparted in the live cd desktop and after it has scanned your disc see if the ext4 partition is /dev/sda3. I presume it will be. If it isn't change sda3 in the command below.
To re-install grub to the mbr of sda

sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda
Then reboot

[Shreddy_K]

I was too late reading your post, and reinstalled. It worked like a charm, though! Thanks so much for the help.

[Quackers]

Oh dear. This forum's too slow :-)
Happy Ubuntuing :-)

[pauloz]

Hi Quackers - pauloz here again. With allocating drive space, I guess I'll have to delete the sda2 partition before I create another one. Do I highlight this then delete? Or do I use the "Change" option? Any chance you can guide me through otherwise I'm flying blind. Also, I have 5 options in "Device for boot loader installation":

1. /dev/sda ATA ST9160314AS (160GB)
2. /dev/sda1 Microsoft Windows XP
3. /dev/sda2
4. /dev/sda3 Windows NT/2000/XP
5. /dev/sda4

Which one is it? Any help appreciated.

[Quackers]

Are you in gparted? or the installer?

[wilee-nilee]

Hi Quackers - pauloz here again. With allocating drive space, I guess I'll have to delete the sda2 partition before I create another one. Do I highlight this then delete? Or do I use the "Change" option? Any chance you can guide me through otherwise I'm flying blind. Also, I have 5 options in "Device for boot loader installation":

1. /dev/sda ATA ST9160314AS (160GB)
2. /dev/sda1 Microsoft Windows XP
3. /dev/sda2
4. /dev/sda3 Windows NT/2000/XP
5. /dev/sda4

Which one is it? Any help appreciated.

Boot the live Ubuntu cd, take a screen shot of gparted and post it.

[pauloz]

I was in the installer i.e. the screen that comes up after checking the "Specify partitions manually" option.
Thanks pauloz

[pauloz]

I've finally managed to install the Ubuntu Desktop edition alongside Windows XP on my netbook after being told by a computer shop owner that it couldn't be done.

I decided on the Desktop edition rather than UNR for netbooks - I didn't like those launchers on the LHS of the screen, which won't budge for anyone - they took up too much space. Also IMHO, it wasn't as quick as the Desktop edition, which I've found quick and really crisp. I need to do a bit of tweaking for it to display OK on my netbook but so far so good.

Thanks to the guys who posted on this thread to help me out.

[Quackers]

Aha! Excellent news! I can take you off the list now :wink:
You're welcome. Enjoy Ubuntu :-)