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Thread: dual boot installation issue

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
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    dual boot installation issue

    Hello,
    Just recently bought a new Dell Inspiron 14z on which I'm trying to install Ubuntu in order to dual boot alongside Windows 7.

    When booting from the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS live cd and navigating through the first couple of frames I get to the "Installation types" screen which is blank, with no devices listed:

    http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7...lationtype.png

    None of the buttons are click-able other than "Quit", "Back" and "Install Now". Clicking "Install Now" fails with the message "No root file system is defined. Please correct this from the partitioning menu". Currently the partitions look like:

    http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/9095/fdisk.png

    Some googling suggested that it may have to do with the RAID configuration which is currently,

    http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/1964/dmraid.png

    I'd like to do a simple install of Ubuntu, even if that means just shrinking /dev/sda3 to make enough space. But shrinking /dev/sda3 manually results in the same thing, an Installation Type screen with no devices, and then failure. The closest 'solution' I've found is:

    http://abbotm.wordpress.com/2011/10/...r-data-drives/

    I'm hoping that someone will be able to offer a simpler solution. Thanks!
    Last edited by wildmanne39; October 22nd, 2012 at 08:07 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
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    SW Forida
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    Kubuntu

    Re: dual boot installation issue

    RAID is normally part of a server and Ubuntu offers RAID support with the server install or the alternative installer. You can use the liveCD and add the RAID drivers, but they still are not part of the liveCD. Do not use gparted on RAID as it does not work as you have found out.

    These users uninstalled the RAID and made the SSD a separate drive.
    Intel Smart Response Technology & Dell XPS
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2036204
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2020155

    If you do not want to remove the RAID try the alternative installer. It is not a liveCD.

    http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubunt...ative-download

    If you are using liveCD to review drives add this:
    # Is able to search Linux Software Raid partitions (MD Raids) if
    # the "mdadm" package is installed.

    sudo apt-get install mdadm
    UEFI boot install & repair info - Regularly Updated :
    https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295
    Please use Thread Tools above first post to change to [Solved] when/if answered completely.

  3. #3
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    Aug 2012
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    Re: dual boot installation issue

    excellent,

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2020155

    worked perfectly, computer is now dual-booting correctly, etc. Thanks for your help.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
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    Re: dual boot installation issue

    I have a new 14z also and want to dual boot with ubuntu

    You say you followed the instructions at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2020155 and now it works perfectly.

    However, following those instructions, it looks like the Intel RST is disabled. However, that is a great feature when booting into windows. Is it true that the only way to dual boot with machines with Intel RST is to actually disable it?

    That would be a shame.

    Does the Intel RST RAID (fake RAID?) configuration have to incorporate the whole sda? It's been a while since I set up RAID1 on my server so I don't recall if RAID could be set up between just certain partitions. I think in Linux software RAID it can, but perhaps not with Intel RST.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
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    7

    Re: dual boot installation issue

    I just completed a dual boot setup on my Inspiron 17R SE which also has the IRST (1TB HDD + 32GB SSD). I followed the instructions on the post you mentioned however I did not follow them exactly. The real key seems to be removing the raid metadata with the dmraid command (sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sda) and I only ran it against sda and not sdb as well. In fact running the dmraid command was the only step I took and sure enough the installer was able to detect all drives and partitions perfectly.

    Now, as to your question about whether or not dual boot will work with IRST enabled, in my experience, yes it will! After reading this thread and others I was asking myself the same question. Everyone seemed to have solutions for disabling it and getting Ubuntu installed but what if you still want IRST enabled because it is a nice feature and you paid for it so why not use it. Since I didn't seem to find any answers as to whether it would still work I just took the plunge to see what would happen. Turns out re-enabling the IRST is very simple and quick once you've booted back into windows. Below are the steps to re-enable it with screenshots to help.

    To start I will assume you have run the dmraid command and have successfully installed Ubuntu.
    1. Restart the machine. You will see a post screen for the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Configuration Utility that does not normally appear. It is appearing because it has detected that there is something wrong with the RAID setup as can be seen on the screen under Status for the Cache Drive and it says it's 'Disabled'. Don't worry about this, it is normal because we have removed the raid metadata and we don't have to do anything about it here so just allow it to continue and load up Grub.
    2. Select your windows entry from Grub. Hopefully you have one, I didn't because it turns out IRST also interferes with Grub2 doing it's job to detect other OS's. Turns out the easiest way to resolve this is to just boot back into Ubuntu, run the same dmraid command again and then run sudo update-grub. With the raid metadata removed again the os-prober should be able to detect windows and you should see it from the output of the update-grub command. Restart again and select windows.
    3. Once windows is started, launch the Intel Rapid Storage Technology program from the start menu, by either typing it into the search or selecting All Programs > Intel > Intel Rapid Storage Technology.
    4. Once the program is launched, select the 'Accelerate' tab/button at the top and you should see something similar to this.


    5. Click 'Disassociate'. You will be presented with this dialog.


    6. Click 'Yes'. The association has been removed and acceleration disabled.


    7. Click 'Select device'. You will be presented with this dialog.


    8. Select the drive you want to accelerate from the drop down, in my case there was only one. Select 'Enhanced mode', this was the default on my machine. Click 'Ok'. The association should be restored and acceleration re-enabled.





    That's it. I'm not sure if a restart is required for the caching/acceleration to really take affect but that's it for the configuration. So it boiled down to really just two things to get the dual boot working on my machine:

    1. Use the dmraid command in Ubuntu anytime you need to scan for drives and partitions; such as for update-grub or when installing Ubuntu.
    2. Use the IRST program in windows to recreate the association and re-enable acceleration.



    Hope this was helpful. It worked on my machine and since you have the same setup from Dell I'm guessing it will for you too. It certainly took me several hours of frustration to figure out but then I am very new to Linux and dual booting.
    Last edited by asymptoticFault; July 31st, 2013 at 02:20 PM.

  6. #6
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    Re: dual boot installation issue

    Quote Originally Posted by asymptoticFault View Post
    Hope this was helpful. It worked on my machine and since you have the same setup from Dell I'm guessing it will for you too. It certainly took me several hours of frustration to figure out but then I am very new to Linux and dual booting.
    Saying this is helpful is an understatement! Thanks for the incredibly detailed description. I will have try to find a time when I have a stretch of free time available to try it out. Even though I am not new to Linux and dual booting (started with Slackware downloaded to floppies in 1996!), a lot of this seems to require intense concentration to not screw things up.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
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    Re: dual boot installation issue

    You are very welcome! Let me know if this works for you. I did my best to be thorough since I had just been through this same issue and wanted to get all the steps documented. Good luck!

  8. #8
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    Oct 2012
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    Re: dual boot installation issue

    Quote Originally Posted by asymptoticFault View Post
    You are very welcome! Let me know if this works for you. I did my best to be thorough since I had just been through this same issue and wanted to get all the steps documented. Good luck!
    Hey man looks like each one used a diff way to get Ubuntu installed. Can you just quickly write up the steps to get it installed in the first place (before enabling the IRST)

  9. #9
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    Sep 2012
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    Re: dual boot installation issue

    The installation process is well documented here, Ubuntu Installation Guide.

    However, I can provide an overview of the steps I took which follow those for creating a dual-boot system installed on a single hard drive. Everything is standard here with the caveat of the IRST. You will need to use the dmraid command prior to running the Ubuntu Installer so that it will be able to see the partitions on the drive because otherwise with the raid metadata in place it will see the drive as part of a raid set and ignore its partitions.

    With that in mind, here are the steps:

    1. Re-partition your drive to make room for Ubuntu. There are several ways to do this. I used the Windows Disk Management tool to shrink the main Windows partition. The process is documented here, Easily Shrink a Volume on a Windows 7 Disk.

    2. Boot into the Ubuntu Live CD. I believe it will ask you if you want to install or try Ubuntu, click "Try Ubuntu".

    3. Open a terminal.

    4. Run the command sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sda

    5. Run the desktop installer; I believe there is an icon on the desktop to launch it. There is a basic overview of the desktop installer here, Installing Ubuntu Desktop.

    6. When you come to the step for partitioning you'll select the "Something else" option. I forgot what the screens look like after this but basically you want to select the unallocated partition that resulted from shrinking the Windows partition and create the Ubuntu partitions in it. I only chose to create the root (/) and swap partitions and didn't bother with creating separate partitions for /home, /usr, /var & /tmp. Again I don't remember exactly what the screens say but I remember the installer making it very straight forward.

    7. Once you're finished creating and selecting the partitions just follow the rest of the steps and you're done.

    8. Refer to my previous post for re-enabling the IRST.
    Last edited by asymptoticFault; October 16th, 2012 at 08:03 PM.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
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    Re: dual boot installation issue

    Quote Originally Posted by asymptoticFault View Post
    The installation process is well documented here, Ubuntu Installation Guide.

    However, I can provide an overview of the steps I took which follow those for creating a dual-boot system installed on a single hard drive. Everything is standard here with the caveat of the IRST. You will need to use the dmraid command prior to running the Ubuntu Installer so that it will be able to see the partitions on the drive because otherwise with the raid metadata in place it will see the drive as part of a raid set and ignore its partitions.

    With that in mind, here are the steps:

    1. Re-partition your drive to make room for Ubuntu. There are several ways to do this. I used the Windows Disk Management tool to shrink the main Windows partition. The process is documented here, Easily Shrink a Volume on a Windows 7 Disk.
    2. Boot into the Ubuntu Live CD. I believe it will ask you if you want to install or try Ubuntu, click "Try Ubuntu".
    3. Open a terminal.
    4. Run the command sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sda
    5. Run the desktop installer; I believe there is an icon on the desktop to launch it. There is a basic overview of the desktop installer here, Installing Ubuntu Desktop.
    6. When you come to the step for partitioning you'll select the "Something else" option. I forgot what the screens look like after this but basically you want to select the unallocated partition that resulted from shrinking the Windows partition and create the Ubuntu partitions in it. I only chose to create the root (/) and swap partitions and didn't bother with creating separate partitions for /home, /usr, /var & /tmp. Again I don't remember exactly what the screens say but I remember the installer making it very straight forward.
    7. Once you're finished creating and selecting the partitions just follow the rest of the steps and you're done.
    8. Refer to my previous post for re-enabling the IRST.

    Actually I meant the steps of turning of Acceleration and changing the RAID in the BIOS and whether u did that or not Anyways You installed Linux on ur HDD or SSD?

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