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Potreaux
July 14th, 2011, 10:19 AM
I am installing Ubuntu on a machine that currently has a dual-boot Windows 7 and Fedora set up. The IT department at my workplace set the machine up, but they don't really give any Linux support beyond installing Fedora.

I'd like to replace Fedora with Ubuntu.

At the first step of the installation, I am asked to allocate my drive space and am presented with the following list of devices:

/dev/sda1 Type: ntfs Size: 209 MB Used: 70 MB
/dev/sda2 Type: ntfs Size: 451941 MB Used: 69410 MB
/dev/sda3 Type: ext4 Size: 524 MB Used: 112 MB
/dev/sda5 Type: Size: 746423 MB Used: unknown

It seems obvious to me that my main Windows partition is on /dev/sda2 and the Windows 7 loader is on /dev/sda1 since they are both NTFS file systems.

However, the Fedora setup seems strange to me. I am not sure what purpose the /dev/sda3 device serves and am a little suspicious about the lack of file system type and unkown used disk space on the /dev/sda5 device.

How should I allocate my drive space for Ubuntu to replace Fedora and which device should I select for the boot loader installation?

dino99
July 14th, 2011, 12:33 PM
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10161428&postcount=2

annu2127
July 14th, 2011, 12:43 PM
Generally it's preferable to keep ur swap partition atleast double of ur RAM space && 5 GB at the max, u can keep more....but then u will be wasting the space....& one ext3/ext4 partition is required for which the mount point should be root (/). & as u already have 2 NTFS Partitions i suggest not to disturb them until u lack on space. :)

Potreaux
July 14th, 2011, 12:44 PM
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10161428&postcount=2

Thanks. I suppose I should have stated that I know how to set up the partitions from tutorials that I have read.

Specifically, I want to get advice on what to do with the existing partitions, particularly /dev/sde3. What is this? Should I delete it and create a new larger swap space?

Potreaux
July 14th, 2011, 12:56 PM
Generally it's preferable to keep ur swap partition atleast double of ur RAM space && 5 GB at the max, u can keep more....but then u will be wasting the space....& one ext3/ext4 partition is required for which the mount point should be root (/). & as u already have 2 NTFS Partitions i suggest not to disturb them until u lack on space. :)

Thanks. My instinct was to delete the /dev/sda3 partition (the small 524 MB partition of file type ext4) and create a root partition, swap partition, and home partition. I have 24 GB RAM but am intending to set the swap at 5 GB. I have about 750 GB disk space left after the Windows partition so I can be somwhat liberal with disk space allocations for my partitions. Considering that, what would be good sizes for the root, swap, and home partitons? Particularly is there any reason to go above 12 GB for the root partition as dino99 suggested?

Quackers
July 14th, 2011, 01:36 PM
I suspect it is a separate boot partition but we should check first.

Please go to the site below and download the boot script. This will give you a zip file which should be extracted in the same directory as it was downloaded. This produces a folder which contains the script and a changelog file.
You then need to cd to that directory in the terminal (for example
cd Downloads/boot_info_script060 if you downloaded it to your Downloads folder). You don't need to do that if you downloaded it to your home folder.
Then enter

sudo bash boot_info_script.sh

This will produce a results.txt file in the same directory as the downloaded boot script. 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/

Potreaux
July 14th, 2011, 02:16 PM
Boot Info Script 0.60 from 17 May 2011


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

=> Grub Legacy0.97 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector
883141892 on boot drive #1 for the stage2 file. A stage2 file is at this
location on /dev/sda. Stage2 looks on partition #3 for /grub/grub.conf..

sda1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD

sda2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda2 has
862009720 sectors, but according to the info from
fdisk, it has 882697967 sectors.
Operating System: Windows 7
Boot files: /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda3: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files: /grub/menu.lst /grub/grub.conf

sda4: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: LVM2_member
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

vg_k6786-lv_root': __________________________________________________ ___________

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

vg_k6786-lv_home': __________________________________________________ ___________

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

vg_k6786-lv_swap': __________________________________________________ ___________

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

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

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 1199.1 GB, 1199101181952 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 145782 cylinders, total 2341994496 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 * 2,048 411,647 409,600 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda2 411,648 883,109,615 882,697,968 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda3 883,109,888 884,133,887 1,024,000 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 884,133,888 2,341,994,495 1,457,860,608 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 884,135,936 2,341,994,495 1,457,858,560 8e Linux LVM


"blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_home 5840763a-a878-47b6-a05c-9cdaffe6be38 ext4
/dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_root 33643afb-572e-4535-ba2c-d33631dc94cb ext4 _Fedora-14-x86_6
/dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_swap 4765b9fa-8632-4629-947b-5170501b6076 swap
/dev/sda1 BEF4AD6AF4AD259D ntfs System
/dev/sda2 D0B2AE11B2ADFBDA ntfs Windows
/dev/sda3 da0c1008-6cce-4fb8-b862-d65815e14520 ext4
/dev/sda5 vwQ1OX-Z2KU-wLK9-rFgP-jIUL-scIi-1hzacY LVM2_member

========================= "ls -R /dev/mapper/" output: =========================

/dev/mapper:
control
vg_k6786-lv_home
vg_k6786-lv_root
vg_k6786-lv_swap

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_home /home ext4 (rw)
/dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_root / ext4 (rw)
/dev/sda3 /boot ext4 (rw)


============================= sda3/grub/grub.conf: =============================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,2)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_root
# initrd /initrd-[generic-]version.img
#boot=/dev/sde
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.35.13-92.fc14.x86_64)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.35.13-92.fc14.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_k6786/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_k6786/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=uk rhgb quiet nouveau.modeset=0 rdblacklist=nouveau
initrd /initramfs-2.6.35.13-92.fc14.x86_64.img
title Fedora (2.6.35.11-83.fc14.x86_64)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.35.11-83.fc14.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_k6786/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_k6786/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=no rhgb quiet
initrd /initramfs-2.6.35.11-83.fc14.x86_64.img
title Fedora (2.6.35.6-45.fc14.x86_64)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.35.6-45.fc14.x86_64 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_k6786/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_k6786/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=no rhgb quiet
initrd /initramfs-2.6.35.6-45.fc14.x86_64.img
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=================== sda3: Location of files loaded by Grub: ====================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)

421.111818314 = 452.165371904 grub/grub.conf 2
421.111818314 = 452.165371904 grub/menu.lst 2
421.114984512 = 452.168771584 grub/stage2 1
421.168413162 = 452.226140160 initramfs-2.6.35.11-83.fc14.x86_64.img 1
421.152725220 = 452.209295360 initramfs-2.6.35.11-83.fc14.x86_64-nouveau.img 1
421.201613426 = 452.261788672 initramfs-2.6.35.13-92.fc14.x86_64.img 1
421.187941551 = 452.247108608 initramfs-2.6.35.13-92.fc14.x86_64-nouveau.img 1
421.129547119 = 452.184408064 initramfs-2.6.35.6-45.fc14.x86_64.img 2
421.121621132 = 452.175897600 initrd-plymouth.img 1
421.138292313 = 452.193798144 vmlinuz-2.6.35.11-83.fc14.x86_64 1
421.175708771 = 452.233973760 vmlinuz-2.6.35.13-92.fc14.x86_64 1
421.111628532 = 452.165168128 vmlinuz-2.6.35.6-45.fc14.x86_64 1

======================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc: ========================

Unknown BootLoader on vg_k6786-lv_root'


Unknown BootLoader on vg_k6786-lv_home'


Unknown BootLoader on vg_k6786-lv_swap'



========= Devices which don't seem to have a corresponding hard drive: =========

sdb sdc sdd sde sdf

=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

One or more specified logical volume(s) not found.
One or more specified logical volume(s) not found.
One or more specified logical volume(s) not found.
hexdump: /dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_root': No such file or directory
hexdump: stdin: Bad file descriptor.
hexdump: /dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_root': No such file or directory
hexdump: /dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_root': Bad file descriptor
One or more specified logical volume(s) not found.
One or more specified logical volume(s) not found.
One or more specified logical volume(s) not found.
hexdump: /dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_home': No such file or directory
hexdump: stdin: Bad file descriptor.
hexdump: /dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_home': No such file or directory
hexdump: /dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_home': Bad file descriptor
One or more specified logical volume(s) not found.
One or more specified logical volume(s) not found.
One or more specified logical volume(s) not found.
hexdump: /dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_swap': No such file or directory
hexdump: stdin: Bad file descriptor.
hexdump: /dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_swap': No such file or directory
hexdump: /dev/mapper/vg_k6786-lv_swap': Bad file descriptor
mdadm: No arrays found in config file or automatically
Thanks Quackers! From what I gather it looks like your suspicion was correct.

What is the best way to go about formatting/repartitioning my hard drive and replacing Fedora with Ubuntu?

Quackers
July 14th, 2011, 02:27 PM
Yes, sda3 is a separate boot partition. This is not normally needed, however, it appears you are using LVM (Logical Volume Manager) which could need a separate boot partition. I just don't know enough about LVM or even how to disable/remove it, so am not prepared to lead you astray :-)
Maybe you could contact your IT guy and ask whether LVM is needed and what you should do about it if it isn't.
Alternatively you could google and see what turns up.
Sorry I can't be more help than that.

Potreaux
July 14th, 2011, 02:54 PM
Well, thanks for trying. At least I learned a few things about my boot setup. It is vacation season so I doubt I'll hear from IT until September :( But now I'm glad I didn't go messing with my boot setup before I knew what was happening.