chilisastry
October 24th, 2012, 03:13 AM
I am trying to install Ubuntu on an old computer, and having many problems. I am reasonably experienced with OS installation in general, and Ubuntu in particular, having done such stuff for over 10 years,
First, Ubuntu 12.04. While booting from the LiveCD, there is a (error) message stating (IBM system detected - correctly - and) unable to load a certain module because it will rewrite a Serial EEPROM. Booting does continue, but the graphics chip (S3) is not recognized, and it boots in low res mode. Not very useful, because I can't really use the installer screens and the partitioner in this mode. (Perhaps 384M of memory is not enough!)
Next, Ubuntu 10.04. Tried it only because I still have the LiveCD. Boots perfectly, good graphics, through to the desktop. I can go through the install steps up till the partitioning. I have two hard drives in the computer: Drive A with 3 Primary partitions (Windows, NTFS data, and Linux-Swap), and Drive B with one Extended partition containing two logical partitions (for /boot and for /) and two Primary partitions (both NTFS, for data). The partitioner only sees the first drive, Drive A (configured as the Master drive).
Note: I created the partitions using gparted (v0.7, I believe) without any problems.
Note: I can mount the Drive B partitions from the Linux Desktop. So the second disk is visible in Linux!
So, of course, I cannot install Linux on Drive B partitions like I want to.
Any suggestions on what may be the problem, and how to resolve this? Will installing Lubuntu help?
For what it is worth, I switched Drive B and Drive A (changed the jumpers) so Drive B is Master and Drive A is Slave. Surprisingly, Drive A (the Slave) is recognized by the installer, not Drive B (the Master). Of course, from the desktop, I can mount partitions from both drives.
Just an afterthought: Perhaps the problem is that the first partition on Drive B is the Extended partition. I have not yet tried making the first partition a Primary partition. Will post the results of that experiment in a day.
First, Ubuntu 12.04. While booting from the LiveCD, there is a (error) message stating (IBM system detected - correctly - and) unable to load a certain module because it will rewrite a Serial EEPROM. Booting does continue, but the graphics chip (S3) is not recognized, and it boots in low res mode. Not very useful, because I can't really use the installer screens and the partitioner in this mode. (Perhaps 384M of memory is not enough!)
Next, Ubuntu 10.04. Tried it only because I still have the LiveCD. Boots perfectly, good graphics, through to the desktop. I can go through the install steps up till the partitioning. I have two hard drives in the computer: Drive A with 3 Primary partitions (Windows, NTFS data, and Linux-Swap), and Drive B with one Extended partition containing two logical partitions (for /boot and for /) and two Primary partitions (both NTFS, for data). The partitioner only sees the first drive, Drive A (configured as the Master drive).
Note: I created the partitions using gparted (v0.7, I believe) without any problems.
Note: I can mount the Drive B partitions from the Linux Desktop. So the second disk is visible in Linux!
So, of course, I cannot install Linux on Drive B partitions like I want to.
Any suggestions on what may be the problem, and how to resolve this? Will installing Lubuntu help?
For what it is worth, I switched Drive B and Drive A (changed the jumpers) so Drive B is Master and Drive A is Slave. Surprisingly, Drive A (the Slave) is recognized by the installer, not Drive B (the Master). Of course, from the desktop, I can mount partitions from both drives.
Just an afterthought: Perhaps the problem is that the first partition on Drive B is the Extended partition. I have not yet tried making the first partition a Primary partition. Will post the results of that experiment in a day.