11.04 installation got freezed at "Preparing to install Ubuntu"

[sixgallon]

Hi, I'm a new one here. I am trying to install Ubuntu 11.04 from my USB stick (2GB, FAT32). After I started up the computer I can try the system from my USB stick. But when I tried to insatall the system, after I chose "English" as the language (step 1), I got hanged at step2 "Preparing to install Ubuntu" (no response when I clicked "forward"). I waited for 20 minutes but the installation window didn't go further. I tried two USB sticks but same thing happened. While the installation got hanged up, I was able to open the directories on the desktop, listen to the sample song or even use firefox.

I have no idea what was wrong because I'm a novice. If anyone has any suggeations I appereciate them.

(Laptop Sony VGN-SR410J / Intel Core2 Duo T6500 / 4GB RAM / 64bit Windows7 Professional OS / Mobile Intel 4 Series Express Chipest family for display adapters)

[ajgreeny]

I did not think it stopped the install like that, but are all four possible partitions on your hard disk already in use?

Win 7 often seems to use 4 partitions, with boot, system, recovery, and OEM tools partitions, which means you can not add any more.

You can see what is on disk already with the command in terminal
sudo fdisk -l

[Bucky Ball]

That is an interesting and definitely feasible theory, aj.

sixgallon, one can only have 4 primary partitions on any one physical hard drive. Boot from the Ubuntu install cd, choose 'Try Ubuntu' then System>Administration>Gparted and have a look. You need to have some free space to install Ubuntu, naturally. ;)

[sixgallon]

I did not think it stopped the install like that, but are all four possible partitions on your hard disk already in use?

Win 7 often seems to use 4 partitions, with boot, system, recovery, and OEM tools partitions, which means you can not add any more.

You can see what is on disk already with the command in terminal
sudo fdisk -l



First of all thank you for your reply. Actually when I received this laptop two years ago there's only a 320GB C:\ drive. I used windows 7 build-in disk management to make a new partition for Ubuntu two days ago. In "Computer" window there are only two hard disk partitions appearing: C:\(for windows7) and U:\(empty, NTFS, prepared for Ubuntu).

And in "disk management" there are three parts in my "disk 0" - recovery partition(10G), C:\(240G), and U:\(60G). For some resons the recovery partition is labled "primary partition" while the C and U partitions are labled "simple volume". I'm not sure if it matters.

[sixgallon]

That is an interesting and definitely feasible theory, aj.

sixgallon, one can only have 4 primary partitions on any one physical hard drive. Boot from the Ubuntu install cd, choose 'Try Ubuntu' then System>Administration>Gparted and have a look. You need to have some free space to install Ubuntu, naturally. ;)


Thank you for you and aj's help. I'll try his command and your steps to have a check for my disk partitions, and see if it helps.:p

[ajgreeny]

First of all thank you for your reply. Actually when I received this laptop two years ago there's only a 320GB C:\ drive. I used windows 7 build-in disk management to make a new partition for Ubuntu two days ago. In "Computer" window there are only two hard disk partitions appearing: C:\(for windows7) and U:\(empty, NTFS, prepared for Ubuntu).

And in "disk management" there are three parts in my "disk 0" - recovery partition(10G), C:\(240G), and U:\(60G). For some resons the recovery partition is labled "primary partition" while the C and U partitions are labled "simple volume". I'm not sure if it matters.
It sounds to me as though you have all 4 possible partitions already used on the disk, but let's see what the commands I gave you show us before suggesting what to do next.

[sixgallon]

It sounds to me as though you have all 4 possible partitions already used on the disk, but let's see what the commands I gave you show us before suggesting what to do next.



Sorry that I didn't work on this problem for a while...

I tried your command and the following infromation appaers:


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xffb3e062
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1 992+ 42 SFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 1 1346 10803200 27 Unknown
/dev/sda3 * 1346 38914 301764608 42 SFS
/dev/sda4 38914 38914 1368 42 SFS
Disk /dev/sdb: 1998 MB, 1998585344 bytes
4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 60991 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 64 * 512 = 32768 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 60992 1951735+ b W95 FAT32



Seems like you are right - there are four partitions in my hard drive. Unfortunately due to my limited knowledge I don't know what to do next :(

Again, big thanks for your help!

[Bucky Ball]

/dev/sda1 1 1 992+ 42 SFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 1 1346 10803200 27 Unknown
/dev/sda3 * 1346 38914 301764608 42 SFS
/dev/sda4 38914 38914 1368 42 SFS
This is the disk you are talking about making space for Ubuntu on? sda? What are the other partitions? Are you dual-booting with Windows or just want to use this drive for Ubuntu?

And yes, there are four primary partitions there already so no room for more. You need to kill one, create an extended partition and put Ubuntu in that if you are intending to keep the other partitions. Ubuntu needs two or three partitions basic, depending how you want to set things up.

Please explain: what are SFS partitions and what is on the unknown partition?