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gjv777
June 5th, 2013, 09:13 PM
I tried to install lubuntu 13.04 on a system with a 80 GB HD from both a USB drive using unetbootin as well as a burned cd.
The HD was unformatted at first, pre-formatted on the other tries with a 15 GB ext-4 for lubuntu, 1 GB swap and 65 GB for /home.

Al tries fail at the same point: after selecting the language and the screen for checking wether enough disk space and internet are available,
I am supposed to get to choose what partitioning type I would like to use. This screen does not appear.
Instead the next screen is shown (what otherwise would have been shown if I had chosen "Else" in the partitioning choise screen perhaps?)
showing me the option to change the partitioning. Only thing is, there is nothing to choose from. My disk is not shown, I cannot choose it from a list. Nothing.

I'm pretty sure the disk is fine, as I used it yesterday with Win XP installed. What is going wrong?

Cheers,
GJ

ajgreeny
June 5th, 2013, 10:49 PM
Are you sure the .iso file you used to make the USB or to burn the CD is good? Have you checked the md5sum against the listed values at UbuntuHashes - MD5sum (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuHashes)?

Bashing-om
June 5th, 2013, 10:53 PM
gjv777; And another thing ...

Can you boot the install medium up to and run in the "try ubuntu" mode and is the machine fully functional in this "try ubuntu" mode ?


it is all a learning experience

gjv777
June 7th, 2013, 07:36 PM
Thanks for your responses, i've done some more testing:

* Verified the md5 checksum, no problem here
* Ran Lubuntu in "Try Lubuntu" mode; this is fully functional, i'm even able to enter disk management and make partition changes to my disk!
* Went thru the crash log and found the following link in it: http://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1058415 (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/1058415) this tells me something about a raid controller detection, which is weird cos i have none present.
* Tried to install using F6 option nodmraid, still the same result

Next step: trying to install full Ubuntu, maybe it's a driver issue cos of the "lightweight" a IDE driver is missing in Lubuntu?

I'll keep you updated on the results

Cheers,
GJ

Bashing-om
June 7th, 2013, 10:55 PM
gjv777; Hey ;
I just completed a install of lubuntu 13.04 that was a challenge... what I wound up doing, after a failed install attempt, was zeroing out that hard drive (going to extreme in my case), choosing the "nomodeset" option and not accepting to install updates or 3rd party software. Third try for me was the charm; installed without a hitch. [+ google-chrome and my wife is a happy camper !]
edit: Oh! once the installer crashed when I tried to use a capital letter in the "username" !


frustrating to keep trying, lesson: do not give up

gjv777
June 8th, 2013, 01:39 PM
The full Ubuntu install gave the same result, so it's not a driver issue.
I also tried the nomodeset option, but that didn't help either
Think i'll try a different HD if i can find one, or see if a BIOS update is available

GJ

sudodus
June 8th, 2013, 01:57 PM
Welcome to the Ubuntu Forums :-)

Please tell us about the computer: Brand name (if any), motherboard, CPU, RAM (size), graphics chip/card, wifi chip (if any). It might help us give advice.

Please do the following and post the output of the specified commands, when you are running live "Try Lubuntu"! Put the output between code tags manually or mark the output and use the # icon at the top of this window


output

to get output like this


output

1. Mount all partitions that you can mount using the file browser

2. Run these commands (and post the output)


sudo fdisk -lu

sudo blkid

df

free

I think you might have a problem with too low RAM, but I don't know yet. With more information, I and other people too can suggest what to do.

gjv777
June 11th, 2013, 06:28 PM
Hi sudodus, before I read your reply i tried something different.
I attached a usb portable drive to my pc and was able to install Lubuntu without any hassle.
I figured that it might work to clone the usb disk to my hd and tried to with clonezilla.
Clonezilla resulted in an error about being unable to write to the hd.
So I stripped another pc of its hd, replaced my thought-to-be-fine hd and Lubuntu is installing right now!

I'm still curious what's wrong with the first hd, i will try to figure it out since i had been using it with XP running fine.

Thanks for all the help, really appreciate it!


Cheers,
GJ

sudodus
June 11th, 2013, 10:20 PM
If you show us the output of at least


sudo fdisk -lu

but maybe also


sudo parted -l

run when the 'maybe bad HDD' is connected, and post the output, we might be able to help you find the error.

Bashing-om
June 12th, 2013, 01:58 AM
gjv777 -and all;;
Another thought pops to mind... that disk may have embedded "Raid meta" data on it.. would't take much to install ubuntu's raid tools and see if the supposed meta data is removed.


whatcha think ?

sudodus
June 12th, 2013, 04:29 AM
Yes, embedded "Raid meta" data is a known issue :-)

gjv777
June 12th, 2013, 06:04 PM
So, here is some additional information:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2500+
Memory: 2 GB DDR2
Graphics: Geforce FX 5200
HD: Maxtor 6Y080L0 80GB

The 2 Gigs of ram should eliminate a memory issue i think

And the output of the commands while running in demo mode from a usb drive:

sudo fdisk -lu


Disk /dev/sda: 82.0 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders, total 160086528 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000ce532


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 34877439 17437696 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 34879486 39069695 2095105 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 34879488 39069695 2095104 82 Linux swap / Solaris


Disk /dev/sdb: 8059 MB, 8059355136 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 979 cylinders, total 15740928 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x069adf78


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 15740927 7870432+ b W95 FAT32


sudo blkid


/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs" /dev/sda5: UUID="85dde858-0f10-4c26-8d05-f2ab697d2f66" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="##GJV_8GB##" UUID="32E6-14EC" TYPE="vfat"


df


Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/cow 1032472 45948 986524 5% /
udev 1021344 12 1021332 1% /dev
tmpfs 206496 736 205760 1% /run
/dev/sdb1 7854048 2429364 5424684 31% /cdrom
/dev/loop0 642560 642560 0 100% /rofs
none 4 0 4 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 1032472 272 1032200 1% /tmp
none 5120 0 5120 0% /run/lock
none 1032472 136 1032336 1% /run/shm
none 102400 16 102384 1% /run/user


free


total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2064944 938012 1126932 0 131828 538904
-/+ buffers/cache: 267280 1797664
Swap: 0 0 0


sudo parted -l


Model: ATA Maxtor 6Y080L0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 82.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos


Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 17.9GB 17.9GB primary boot
2 17.9GB 20.0GB 2145MB extended
5 17.9GB 20.0GB 2145MB logical linux-swap(v1)




Model: USB Flash Memory (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 8059MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos


Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 8059MB 8059MB primary fat32 boot


I don't know how to test for Raid meta data on the disk.

GJ

sudodus
June 13th, 2013, 06:26 AM
The computer should be able to install and run any Ubuntu flavour without problems according to the specs.

It seems that the file system of the first partition /dev/sda1 is corrupted, because no file system is recognized. The size is 17.9GB and it has a boot flag. And there is a small extended partition, that only contains a swap partition, which looks good.

But the rest of the drive is not allocated.

How does this correspond to you notion of the drive? You wrote that the drive worked with Win XP installed. Did you plan to overwrite it, did you shrink it, or did you overwrite it by mistake?

Before doing anything else, you should consider some rescue operation unless you planned to overwrite it.

I will not be able to help during the next 6-7 hours, so @anyone else: feel free to jump in and help

gjv777
June 20th, 2013, 06:36 PM
The disk was cleared on purpose, no worries.
The partitions were created by clonezilla when i tried to clone the usb disk to the hd; it failed after creating the partitions, but before cloning the data.
So some sort of access was allowed to clonezilla.
then i figured that Lubuntu installer would be able to use these partitions, but again no go.
After that i listed the out put of the commands to this thread.

At this moment i am at a point i think it is wise to just admit that this is an ex-disk and discard it in the apropiate bin next to my desk..

Bashing-om
June 20th, 2013, 07:03 PM
gjv777; Hi again...
Might I suggest before throwing out that disk.

Zero out the disk with the "dd" command -> fresh state, starting all over;
--if dd squawks, need to look at the embedded data on that disk --
With the command line tools, make a new partition table and format the partitions:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingANewHardDrive
Take a look at the disk in GParted;
install lubuntu onto the preset partitions that you made earlier.

been there done that -> still using that old disk