. "no root file system is defined" does not allow partitioning

[rcGxfJH]

I trying to install ubuntu 12.04 on my second computer (did my other computer about a month ago love it!). For some odd reason that escapes my noob brain, i cant get around this. I look before posting my problem is similar to this one http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l5cTNg0gs7A&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dl5cTNg0gs7A
I can change/ edit the partitioner table. I tryed "sudo apt-get remove dmraid" doesnt help. What can i do?

[rcGxfJH]

Any one?

[heir4c]

Boot the live-dvd/usb and choose to "try Ubuntu".
When you on the desktop go via the "Dash" and look for gParted, the partition manager. What you get now?
Take a screenshot and post it here.

Also open a terminal and tik in:

sudo sfdisk -l
and post the output

[rcGxfJH]

Is there a terminal command to get to gparted? Cant get to i from "Dash" as a matter of fact i cant get to nothing from "dash" to get to terminal i am using ctr+ alt+t

[rcGxfJH]

I get nothing when i do "sudo sfdisk -l"

[rcGxfJH]

Sorry for the bad image

[VMC]

http://leekaelin.co.uk/downloads/TechSpot/Linux_Guides/Ubuntu_11_10/Ubuntu_11_10_Capture3e.JPG
(http://leekaelin.co.uk/downloads/TechSpot/Linux_Guides/Ubuntu_11_10/Ubuntu_11_10_Capture3e.JPG)
Did you add the Mount Point as above?

[heir4c]

On your photo on the right side I see: /dev/zram0
That is not a partition but a kind of swap that use the RAM with compression.
So click on that button and than you can see the other disks/partitions on your system. There you can select which disk you will use.

[rcGxfJH]

On your photo on the right side I see: /dev/zram0
That is not a partition but a kind of swap that use the RAM with compression.
So click on that button and than you can see the other disks/partitions on your system. There you can select which disk you will use.
Sorry for the long wait. So i click on it and it does not give me any options to change it to

[rcGxfJH]

http://leekaelin.co.uk/downloads/TechSpot/Linux_Guides/Ubuntu_11_10/Ubuntu_11_10_Capture3e.JPG
(http://leekaelin.co.uk/downloads/TechSpot/Linux_Guides/Ubuntu_11_10/Ubuntu_11_10_Capture3e.JPG)
Did you add the Mount Point as above?
How do i get to this or how do i do that

[rcGxfJH]

So if this is my ram how do i make my hdd show up on gparted

[heir4c]

Is that Ubuntu or Lubuntu or... that you use from the Live-dvd/usb?
I don't understand how you get in a zram.
Is it a empty disk or is there windows on it? And what computer specs have you?
Can you get anything from the terminal?
Even if you use the command: fdisk -l

[rcGxfJH]

Sudo f disk does not output noting i just opens another line to type another command
The computer: is an hp pavilion a1210 n, amd 64 athlon, windows xp media center 2005 should be on but some one be on it but someone before me installed windows7. Yes iam using alive ubuntu cd

[rcGxfJH]

* someone before me installed windows 7. I have to run gparted from terminal i can not
get to it from dash

[rcGxfJH]

Updated(not a good one) i try
sudo sfdisk, fdisk, fdisk -l, fdisk -lu and i get nothing its like
I never wrote a command in the first place it just open
another line for me to type other command its. I almost to the point of giving
Up on it

[VMC]

Updated(not a good one) i try
sudo sfdisk, fdisk, fdisk -l, fdisk -lu and i get nothing its like
I never wrote a command in the first place it just open
another line for me to type other command its. I almost to the point of giving
Up on it

From a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) , and you typed the following and get nothing?

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

[rcGxfJH]

From a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) , and you typed the following and get nothing?

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

I try it when i get home

[rcGxfJH]

I tryed no good. Nothing:confused:

[VMC]

Please download and run bootinfoscript (see my blue link below), then copy results back here between "[code]" tags.

[rcGxfJH]

How do i put things in the "code" tags

[VMC]

How do i put things in the "code" tags

Without quotes copy and paste the RESULTS.txt file contents between '['code']' and '['/code']'.
So it would be '['code']'<paste results here>'['/code']', but without quotes. Or use the hash mark "#" and then paste between the the codes.

[rcGxfJH]

I cant install bootinfoscript

[VMC]

Actually its a script. you just run it using 'sudo'. What happens when you try to run it?

[rcGxfJH]

Sorry for the long wait
[code] ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo boot_info_script
sudo: boot_info_script: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:_$ code[\code]

[VMC]

Sorry for the long wait
[code] ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo boot_info_script
sudo: boot_info_script: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:_$ code[\code]
its 'bootinfoscript' not 'boot_info_script'

[rcGxfJH]

Saids the same thing.

[VMC]

From a terminal (ctrl+alt+T), the command is:

sudo ./bootinfoscript

Make sure bootinfoscript is in your directory.

[rcGxfJH]

"Command not found" again

[rcGxfJH]

How do i chevk if it in my directory and in not how do i get it there thanks

[VMC]

Where did you download it too? Perhaps ~/Downloads. You did download it correct?

[rcGxfJH]

Yes i downloaded it

[heir4c]

(I downloaded and try the script by myself to see what you must do):


Normally it will be downloaded in your Downloads folder, so change the Directory (cd) with this command:

cd Downloads
After that command type the following commands and click Enter after each command.
Then you must unpack the tar.gz:

tar -zxvf bootinfoscript-061.tar.gz
After that you get back the "prompt".
Then you executed the script with this command:

sudo ./bootinfoscript
Your password will be asked.

Then the output of all this will be set in a file with the name: RESULTS.txt (Note the capital letters, that is important for using in terminal)
In terminal you type:

gedit RESULTS.txt

Now you can copy it and post it here.

[leeper69]

Hi I hope the folowing post from me helps let me know if it did.

[leeper69]

Hi in gparted first find your hard drive thay are listed at the top right hand corner use the arrow's to pick your hard drive it should say somthing like /dev/sda.
next left click on the unallocated drive and pick new from the drop dow box then make a primery partision as big as you think you will need. ie over 3 gig at minumum. with the ext4 file system. you dont need a lable but you can use one if you want.
next create a linux swap file about twice the size of your system memory. thi choice can be found in file systems ie ext2 etc. started by left clicking on what is left of your unalocated drive.
next create a extended partision using the remainder of your unalocated drive.
next click on the green checkmark symble at the top of gparted and the above changes will be made to your hard drive.
next start up your computer with the ubuntu dvd and start the install process when you are asked how you want to install pick manule install.
next choose your primary partision for your home drive and / as your boot point and linux swap drive as your swap drive and you should be on your way to finish the install.

[rcGxfJH]

Leeper69; gparted does not see my hdd like i said i page two i think

[rcGxfJH]

I try installing with wubi and i got l " gave up waiting for root device" message similar to this http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1127823

[rcGxfJH]

Will a new hard drive fix this?

[bcbc]

There is probably some minor partition table error. Buying a new hard drive isn't necessary, after all it works with Windows, right? In many cases, it's simply that a GPT drive was repartitioned as a MBR drive.

If you run:
sudo parted -l it will likely tell you the error.
sudo fdisk -l will usually give more info.

[rcGxfJH]

i ran
df -h an i got this

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/cow 216M 49M 168M 23% /
udev 208M 4.0K 208M 1% /dev
tmpfs 87M 712K 86M 1% /run
/dev/sr0 694M 694M 0 100% /cdrom
/dev/loop0 663M 663M 0 100% /rofs
tmpfs 216M 8.0K 216M 1% /tmp
none 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
none 216M 76K 216M 1% /run/shm

i dont know it this is how it should look. is it ok or not ?

[rcGxfJH]

Also ran
sudo parted -l and here what i get

sudo parted -l
Error: /dev/sda: unrecognised disk label

Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: Can't have a partition outside the disk!

Error: /dev/zram0: unrecognised disk label

can someone explain it to me? help me fix it? please, I cant go for another week with out a computer. Thanks for all your help so far everyone.

[rcGxfJH]

o and was GPT and MBR short for thanks

[bcbc]

df tells you nothing. Parted indicates probably a minor partition table error (partition outside the disk), but give the fdisk output as well so we can see what that says.

PS if you're asking what GPT and MBR stand for, GPT is a GUID partition table and MBR is Master boot record partition table. On Macs or newer computers they come with GPT disks. But if you switch from GPT to MBR it can leave some metadata that breaks parted (at least parted considers it an error to have both MBR and GPT on the same disk) and that often leads to the 'no root file system is defined' message you see.

[rcGxfJH]

this is what i get when i run fdisk-l

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

nothing.
thanks for the explenation

[bcbc]

So, to confirm, you can boot Windows on this same computer. But fdisk gives you nothing?

[rcGxfJH]

yes i boot in to windows 7 the computer came with windows xp media center edition 2005 but some one before me installed windows 7 and if it makes a difference this copy of windows 7 is counterfeit(someone else)every time i long in it say to me windows genueni or something like that

[bcbc]

Well that is odd, unless you have some sort of full disk encryption, but even then I'd expect some output... what does it look like from Windows Disk Management console?

[rcGxfJH]

?

[rcGxfJH]

ran gparted

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo gparted
======================
libparted : 2.3
======================
Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0 has been opened read-only.
Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0 has been opened read-only.
Can't have a partition outside the disk!
/dev/zram0: unrecognised disk label

[leeper69]

Hi reGxfJH sorry it took me so long to answer!
if you reinstall ubuntu i think you can get your system back when you get to the screen that asks you how you would like to install pick somthing else at the bottem of the list.
this wil bring up a instance of gparted from there pick the partision you had previously installed ubuntu on and hilight it by clicking it with the mouse pointer.
next right click on the hilighted partision and deleat it then click on the green checkmark at the top of gparted to apply your changes. now you are ready to install a new partision
after gparted has done its thing. next pick the unalocated partision you just made and right click on it this will bring up a drop down window with the choice new in it click on new
and a window saying create new partision wil pop up from there in the create as fild choose the type of partision if you have an extended partision choose logical partision if you
only have two partisions pick primary partision. next pick ext4 for your file system and last of all pick your mount point from the bottom box as / then apply your changes with the
green checkmark and the install will take over from there.
this should fix the problem with your grub.
ps: the reason gparted wont run when you boot your system without using the install disk is your partision is mounted and gparted needs an unmounted partision to be able to implament changes.

let me know if this helped hope i am not to late.