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colinsr1187
August 17th, 2008, 07:54 PM
Hello,

I am trying to install Ubuntu 8.04 on an MSI Wind. I am following the instructions on the triple boot wiki to the "T". For some reason my Ubuntu installation gets the following screen at 94%:
Unable to install GRUB in (hd0).
Executing "grub install (hd0)" failed.
This is a fatal error.

I have tried multiple times, even tried again from scratch(reinstall XP, then partition, then OS X, finally Ubuntu) I have upgraded the HDD to 320GB. Set aside 40GB for each OS. Any ideas? This is my first Linux install, so I have absolutely no clue. I have found a few other threads regarding "managing flags" in the partitions, but nothing seems to work.

Thanks.
Colin

colinsr1187
August 17th, 2008, 08:45 PM
I read in another thread to type "sudo fdisk -1" in terminal. Heres the results.

fdisk: invalid option -- 1

Usage: fdisk [-b SSZ] [-u] DISK Change partition table
fdisk -l [-b SSZ] [-u] DISK List partition table(s)
fdisk -s PARTITION Give partition size(s) in blocks
fdisk -v Give fdisk version
Here DISK is something like /dev/hdb or /dev/sda
and PARTITION is something like /dev/hda7
-u: give Start and End in sector (instead of cylinder) units
-b 2048: (for certain MO disks) use 2048-byte sectors

Of note, I only have 4 partitions...XP - OSX - Ubuntu - Shared Storage. No swap drive. Could this be the problem?

ajgreeny
August 17th, 2008, 08:54 PM
It's fdisk -l (a lower case L not 1 as you used.)

colinsr1187
August 17th, 2008, 09:38 PM
Here is the correction:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8b926d3a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 5227 41985846 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 5228 10454 41985877+ af Unknown
/dev/sda3 10455 15681 41985877+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 15682 38913 186611040 7 HPFS/NTFS
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$


Tried again to install using the LiveCD, no dice.
sda1 is xp, sda2 osx, sda3 ubuntu, and sda4 storage.

ajgreeny
August 17th, 2008, 10:54 PM
Ubuntu needs to be on an ext3 partition, not an ntfs as your partitions are, though the installer should be able to sort that if you choose "Manual" at the partitioning stage. Just make sure you get the right partition to install to sda3, if that's what you want, and let the installer do its thing. You will need to set a small swap partiton as well as the main Ubuntu root (/) partition, however, but this is easy when you choose the manual option.

colinsr1187
August 18th, 2008, 02:35 AM
During installation I am choosing Manual partition, ext3, and /. Should I choose these settings first in Gparted?

Is it possible to have 5 partitions? XP, OSX, UBUNTU, Storage, and small Swap? Or do I have to forego the shared storage and just have a swap drive?

caljohnsmith
August 18th, 2008, 03:26 AM
During installation I am choosing Manual partition, ext3, and /. Should I choose these settings first in Gparted?

Yes, you can use Gparted to format your partition to ext3 first if you want before running the installer if you like. The mount point / has no relevance in gparted since it deals only with partitions and not file systems.


Is it possible to have 5 partitions? XP, OSX, UBUNTU, Storage, and small Swap? Or do I have to forego the shared storage and just have a swap drive?

Yes, here's basically how it works:

You can have up to four "primary" partitions on your HDD, and Windows should always use a primary partition
If you want more partitions like you do, you can have 3 primary partitions, and make a fourth "extended" partition. An extended partition is merely a container for as many "logical" partitions as you want inside of it (I think the limit is 63 logical partitions).

Therefore, you could create the following:

sda1 = primary = Win XP
sda2 = primary = OSX
sda3 = extended
sda4 = logical = Ubuntu
sda5 = logical = swap
sda6 = logical = storage
So note that logical partitions sda4, sda5, and sda6 are actually contained "inside" extended partition sda3. That scenario should work for you.

colinsr1187
August 18th, 2008, 03:40 AM
Could the lack of a swap be the cause of the error installing GRUB?
I am going to reformat the drive as you advised and try to reinstall, hope this works.
Thanks for the advice.

colinsr1187
August 18th, 2008, 04:38 AM
Thanks for the help CalJohn, and AJGreeny, I successfully installed Ubuntu. Someone should post an update on the Msi Wind triple boot installation Wiki page. Might prevent the next person from going thru the hassle I did.

colinsr1187
August 18th, 2008, 04:10 PM
Sorry for the newbiness. I have set up the partitions where XP and OSX are primary, and Ubuntu/Swap and "shared storage" are logical...one problem. When I log in to XP I cannot see the storage partition. I can see the OSX. But not Ubuntu/Swap or Storage.
Again, I apologize if this is a kindergarten question.

caljohnsmith
August 18th, 2008, 04:32 PM
Sorry for the newbiness. I have set up the partitions where XP and OSX are primary, and Ubuntu/Swap and "shared storage" are logical...one problem. When I log in to XP I cannot see the storage partition. I can see the OSX. But not Ubuntu/Swap or Storage.
Again, I apologize if this is a kindergarten question.
What file system is the storage partition? Also to view Ubuntu's partition in Windows, you can use this great free program called ext2fsd (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/?abmode=1). That program allows you to access ext2 or ext3 partitions (like Ubuntu) in Windows.

colinsr1187
August 18th, 2008, 05:34 PM
Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8b926d3a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 5227 41985846 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 5228 10454 41985877+ af Unknown
/dev/sda3 10455 38913 228596917+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 10455 15681 41985846 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 15682 16191 4096543+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 16192 38913 182514433+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
msiwind@msiwind-laptop:~$


Is this setup correctly?
XP, OSX, Ubuntu/Swap, Shared

caljohnsmith
August 18th, 2008, 06:22 PM
OK, if sda7 is your shared partition, then it has an NTFS file system according to fdisk. That should show up in Windows without any additional software, but if you are having troubles getting Windows to see that partition, maybe it is because it is on a logical partition instead of primary. All my logical partitions on my HDD are not NTFS, so I don't know offhand if there are any issues with logical NTFS partitions being recognized by Windows.