13.04 install wont continue

[LT72884]

Ello all. I have a laptop that i am wanting to install ubuntu on. I currently have win xp on the laptop and i need to run ubuntu alongside. I have two partitions, one is for the windows OS and the other is just a data partition.
When i put in the dvd of ubuntu 13.04, it brings up a menu with three boxes labled

" At least 5.3 gb hdd space"
"power source"
"internet cinetction"

Problem is, my laptops wifi card is broken and i do not have a lan connection at all. Also, i know i have 114GB space availbe on the data drive and it says i do not have enough room.

how do i contiue the install when i cant hit the continue button because it says i dont have enough drive space or internet connection?

I know i have plenty of drive space.

thanks

[lukeiamyourfather]

The internet connection doesn't really matter, you can install without that. The hard disk space must be empty space with no partition. Is there a partition there that is just empty?

[LT72884]

hmm, no i do not think there is. Maybe i can take the D: (data) and partition it in windows to make a U: drive that is 15gb with nothing on it. Will that be an option? i do not want the entire 115GB drive taken up. i only need ubuntu to have 15GB because its only being used for its apps. all data will be saved on external devices

thanks

[Snowhog]

You have to make space available for Ubuntu, meaning, you will have to shrink the D: drive so you have un-allocated space on the HDD. That space can then be used by the Ubuntu installer, although you would be advised to use a separate partitioning program (GParted) to do this before you install Ubuntu. Just my .02 cents.

[lukeiamyourfather]

Yes, ideally shrink the partition to make room for Ubuntu. Backup anything you don't want to lose because it's a risky process. If shrinking the partition doesn't work you might need to remove the partition (after backing up stuff you don't want to lose) and then create a new but smaller partition, then copy the data back.

[LT72884]

Is there anyway in winxp to shrink the d drive down? the D drive does contain about 20GB worth of data taken up. So i have 115GB left to play with. If i could take 15gb of the 115gb and re-allocate that for ubuntu, that would be nice. Is there a program for winxp that will allow me to do that safely?

thanks

[SuperFreak]

You have to make space available for Ubuntu, meaning, you will have to shrink the D: drive so you have un-allocated space on the HDD. That space can then be used by the Ubuntu installer, although you would be advised to use a separate partitioning program (GParted) to do this before you install Ubuntu. Just my .02 cents.


Bad idea using GParted to shrink a Windows partition. You may lose data on the Windows partition. Strongly recommend that you shrink the partition with Windows Disk manager or third party software such as EASUS. You will have to make sure that there is no more than 3 primary partitions before creating your Ubuntu partition. Windows uses primary partions often and the max number you can use is 4; you need at least one for Ubuntu.GParted should only be used for Linux partitions. my 2 cents


http://download.cnet.com/EaseUS-Partition-Master-Free-Edition/3000-2248_4-10863346.html

[ajgreeny]

So we know exactly what we're dealing with please run the ubuntu live system (Run Ubuntu without installing) run gparted and show us a screenshot of the gparted window. That way we will be able to see the partition layout on your disk and the amount of space available for Ubuntu in much more detail.

[LT72884]

Ok here is a screen shot of my partitons. one primary and one logical

http://s18.postimg.org/jfqb4td21/partitions_screen_shot.png

[Bashing-om]

LT72884; Hi !

That one does not tell us much.
Do:
Boot up the liveDVD(USB) - try ubuntu - mode;
At the desktop, the top icon is the dash, click on the dash -> search box -> enter GParted -> icon is generated below. Click on the GParted icon to start that utility.
Now post that screen shot. That has all the info presently required in order to assist you.



just try'n to help

[LT72884]

DOH!. ok, so i was trying to get the gparted thing to work and in order to save alot of hassle, the logical drive i had was empty so i deleted it and left the windows drive alone. boots into windows just fine.

continued on with install. created a 2.5 gb swap partition and a 13gb partition for install using the utility that is on the install dvd. The 13gb was on dev/sda7 however, at the bottom before clicking install was a drop down menu and i think it said select the device you want to install the boot config or loader onto. cant remmebr the exact wording so i picked the main one and it said it could not because winxp was on it, so i picked the dev/sda7 one and hit continue. installed just fine but the odd thing is, when i reboot the machine after install, no grub loader. just my basic screen that has always asked me to select microsoft winxp to load. so for some reason, it did not install grub loader so i cant get into ubuntu. HAHAHAHA.

I am sorry if i did not get the screen shot you wanted but when i realized that there is no data on my partition, it would be eaiser to just delete and start over.

just missing the grub loader now.

thanks

[LT72884]

I still cant get grub loader to work. What are my options at this moment? I know it installed the OS fine because under my computer in win xp, it does not list the 113gb drive any more but if i go to disk managment, it lists it.

thqanks

[SuperFreak]

Try installing Boot Repair (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1769482&highlight=boot+load+repair). I believe it can sort you out

[lukeiamyourfather]

GRUB typically gets installed to the MBR if we're talking slightly older machines (brand new machines use UEFI). That means when picking where to put GRUB you would likely select /dev/sda (no number with it, the number specifies a partition). You can put GRUB on a partition like you did before with /dev/sda7 but it complicates things because you have to tell the Windows boot loader on the MBR to chain load GRUB from the partition. The easiest way to do that would be with EasyBCD, it's proprietary but free for personal use. If you don't want to use EasyBCD I'd suggest just installing GRUB to /dev/sda which will replace the Windows boot loader (can still boot into either from GRUB). If you want to go back later you can reinstall the Windows boot loader form a Windows install disc.

[SuperFreak]

"Boot-Repair" is a small graphical tool to repair frequent boot problems.

- repair the boot when an OS does not boot any more after installing Ubuntu
- repair the boot when access to GRUB and any OS is lost (maybe due to a Windows software that wrote into the MBR gap, or a OEM MBR lock),
- reinstall GRUB bootloader easily
- create a Boot Info Summary in 1 click !
- restore a generic bootsector (MBR), or the original MBR if it has been saved by Clean-Ubiquity

[LT72884]

GRUB typically gets installed to the MBR if we're talking slightly older machines (brand new machines use UEFI). That means when picking where to put GRUB you would likely select /dev/sda (no number with it, the number specifies a partition). You can put GRUB on a partition like you did before with /dev/sda7 but it complicates things because you have to tell the Windows boot loader on the MBR to chain load GRUB from the partition. The easiest way to do that would be with EasyBCD, it's proprietary but free for personal use. If you don't want to use EasyBCD I'd suggest just installing GRUB to /dev/sda which will replace the Windows boot loader (can still boot into either from GRUB). If you want to go back later you can reinstall the Windows boot loader form a Windows install disc.

well, when i tried to select dev/sda as the aera for the boot and to mount at /, it said it could not because of missing something and would not let me continue. The dev/sda is 250gb with one primary partition as winxp(95GB) and then a logical partiton for data (120) and then a 15gb for ubuntu

When i created the 15gb(dev/sda7) using the partition editor that the ubuntu install disk has, i had to select the dev/sda7 as the aera for boot and monut it to / because any other option i tried gave an error.

as of right now, i have deleted the partiton. winxp works fine and i have the following:

c: 95gb (primary)
d: 120gb(logical)
u: 12.5gb ntfs(for ubuntu install)(logical)
s: 2.5gbntfs (swap for ubuntu)(logical)

Thats what mycomputer says in winxp.

as of now i have winxp and thats it.

I do want ubuntu on there.

Ok so where do i go from here?

All i know is as f now, when i hit install, i hit the "something else" button and it takes me to the partition editor. From there i have to delete the S: and the U: partition and recreate them so i can format to swap and ext4 journaling fs. because if i do not delete and recreate it gives an error saying it is missing something.

i will get more info in just a minute

thanks

[LT72884]

ok im back. i wanted to get the exact numbers for you.

here is what the ubuntu disk partitioner says.

device type size used system
/dev/sda ---- ----- ----- -----
/dev/sda1 ntfs 104855 99876 winxp
/dev/sda5 ntfs 15726 3221 -----
/dev/sda6 ntfs 129474 3221 -----

device for boot loader install = /dev/sda

ok thats what it is showing. so sda5 i will have to delete and create two partitions. one for swap and the rest for ubuntu.

sda6 is my data drive for win xp.

when i delete sda5 and format the two parts, do i still leave /dev/sda as boot loader install? because last time i tried that and i get an error.

thanks

matt

[lukeiamyourfather]

Yes, put GRUB on /dev/sda, that's the most straightforward way to go. The installer might have stopped you from continuing if the partitions were as they are listed. Linux can't boot from NTFS, you'll have to use a filesystem native to Linux like ext4. Windows can still be on NTFS though.

[LT72884]

ok i will try again. my procedure will be as follows:

delete the sda partition, recreate and format it as TWO partitions, one for swap, the other for the OS. Then select /dev/sda as boot loader part and see what happenes.

thanks

[lukeiamyourfather]

Remove these partitions, the old root partition and swap partition.

/dev/sda5 ntfs 15726 3221 -----
/dev/sda6 ntfs 129474 3221 -----

Create new partitions for Ubuntu, the root partition should be ext4 and the swap partition should be formatted as swap (not NTFS). Tell the installer to put GRUB on /dev/sda.