where to look for updates on Ubuntu

[mike555]

once you get it installed try "gLabels" program , to make labels.

[Pshemas]

wow, thx guys, lot of info here .
Can't wait to try those tips. Will play with those during the weekend.

[Pshemas]

Ok, run the installer again .

Partitioning went easy and the system started. Then I wanted to turn off journaling. But as I'm no familiar with the way Linux connects devices I did not know what should I type in "sudo tune2fs" command . But I remembered I got such info when partition manager has been running. So I run installer again (yeah, I forgot I could use a dash search) just to check it (turned out to be sdc2). But as the installer has been running I thought I'll start from scratch and install the whole thing again .
So repartitioned the USB drive, waited for installer to finish , rebooted and ....

Well , now I'm getting this message upon booting "/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod" not found" .
Any ideas howto fix it? My first thought was that I should clean the mbr of the usb drive but I'm not entirely sure howto do it - and whether in fact it is needed .

As a side note - in the post by Cameron it is suggested to use ext2 for 2nd linux partiton. I'm courious - why ext2?

[Pshemas]

Ok, after another repartitioning an reinstalling the things went worse - the system won't boot from the USB at all. Also I've noticed that there 1MB of free space has been left on the beggining of the USB flash drive.
ATM will try Rescatux - maybe I'll be to fix mbr with it. If that won't work I'll see what happens if I "burn" USB Live USB.
But got to admi I'm close to giving up - mostly due to lack of time to try figure this one up.

edit: Quick update on things. I was unable to boot Rescatux (I've used Universal USB Installer to record it on one of the flashdrives) - the mbr has been modified, but I get some error upon boot. And note I used different flashdrive than the one I'd like to have Ubuntu on (well, otherwise it wouldn't make sense, would it ? ).
Ok, so I've got back to the drive I want to install Ubuntu on and tried using the USB Installer to burn Live USB . The first time I did it I was able to do it without issues. But now I can't make it bootable. So I guess that during using ubuntu partitioneer something went wrong, some sort of change has been made that prevents making this flashdrive bootable. ANy ideas ?

[oldfred]

We regularly see users with flash drives that do not work. Some are user error or the download of the ISO was not correct, some have BIOS that do not work with flash drives, some flash drives just do not seem to work, or may work on one system but not another. That may be BIOS settings but I have not seen anything conclusive.

I have Microcenter or Kingston flash drives and they all have worked on both of my older (about 6 yrs) systems.

Many suggest ext2 for flash as that does not have a journal. Ext4 has other improvements and someone did post that it was better to use ext4 with journal off than use ext2. But not sure if a big issue.

[Pshemas]

Thx Fred! Got to admit I'm getting tired.

IMO the issue is mbr/partition related , not BIOS related. As mentioned the first time I did the install it worked. Also I can select USB as a boot device.

I'm trying to figure out what I did. I suspect that the first time I did the install I simply removed the big fat32 partiton and then made 4 partitions as in the posts by Cameron.
The 2nd time I propably clicked "New Partiton Table" and this is when the problems started. The USB become completly unbootable - neither install, or LIVE USB made with "Universal USB Installer" worked.

Also I've noticed that the structure of the partitons changed - I got some free space I was unable to allocate.

I've been able to get one big partiton again by using Bootice utility and setting USB-FDD mode. The result was a tad different though - USB become bootable. But with it I can't make any extra partitions (as expected in fdd mode). So it is only viable for Live USB installer, not for regular USB install.

This result made me somewhat more optimistic. Thought that setting USB-HDD mode with multiple partitons may finally resolve the problem. Sadly it does not. I've been able to make partitions , set the boot loader installation to "sdc" , but sadly after install the system is still non-botable - so the boot manager does not install correctly.

You know , waiting 20 minutes for the system to reinstall only to see it is not working is kinda frustrating.
I hoped that maybe I could use simply some type some sort of command that would only try to reinstall boot managaer on a chosen disc , not the whole system. This would allow me to play with the settings in a reasonable way.
I found one tutorial that suggested installing mbr package and using it for this purpose. But when I try:
apt-get install mbr
I get the info that the package can't be found.... ARGHHHH.....

Will propably try reinstalling final 2-3 times . If that won't work I quit. With my current knowledge further attempts will be a waste of time.

BTW - when I got a usb-fdd mode and made a LIVE USB I used the persistance option. But either I did something wrong or simply don't get it - the settings I've changed have not been saved.

[mastablasta]

I hoped that maybe I could use simply some type some sort of command that would only try to reinstall boot managaer on a chosen disc , not the whole system. .

there is! there is even a GUI tool fo rit called boot repair: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

why are you trying to stick it on USB? just set up an empty partition in windows and install there. select to install next to windows and all partitioning and such is handeled for you. it should also be handled for you if oyu want to install it to USB flahs disk. only in this case you need to tell it to put the GRUB (bootmanager) to USB drive. otherwise it will put it on your main drive and you will need to have USB in even if you want to boot into windows.

if you want to just try it out more extensively you can use virtual box.

oh and if you want to make you own mix/setup and then distribute it to other computers you need to install it to hard disk and then make the changes you want to make and the use remastersys to create your very own version of "ubuntu".


have a look- installing (inlcudes side by side install): http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installing
virtual box install: http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/virtualbox

also have a look at community made manual (seem y signature for instructions) to learn a bit more about the OS and how it all works.

there are other interfaces besides default Unity/gnome. Kubutnu for example has KDE interafce which looks & feels preety much like windows. especially in classic view. it also has high customisation options. this goes for Xubuntu (featuring XFCE) as well. most customisations in Xubuntu can be done using right click and selecting porpperties. yup it's that easy....

[Pshemas]

@mastablasta: thx .
As mentioned earlier I want an USB install as I want to get a pocket system I could take with me. Don't need a fixed install atm .

As for GUI - yeah I know about alternatives. I'm not too fond about KDE. For me (and no pun intended, it is just my personal opinion) making a windows gui clone does not make much sense. If I have wanted Windows I'd use Windows .
In fact what drawn me to Ubuntu was Unity GUI - it is different but in a good way, IMO much cooler and more effective.
At one time I'd also like to give Gnome 3 a shot as it also looks different, with some cool functionality. In the end I think it will be a choice between Unity and Gnome for me - will see which works better for my needs.

After playing with Bootice settings I've been able to install Ubuntu on USB ! YAY!
There were issues upon boot - I got an info that dev for /home folder (partition with ext2) can't be mounted. But I was able to mount it by going into manual mode and using commandline commands .
Noticed that what previously was sdc now is sdb .
Ok, so now I'll try to tune the performance and disable journalling on sdb2. When I run sudo tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sdb2 I'm getting info that I can do it only when filesystem is unmounted. So I guess I have to boot from other disc and try this command from it, right?