First-time Ubuntu 9.10 installer

[DukeNukem_2417]

Right, I'll spare the backstory about my old PC with the SCSI hard drive and just say this: I have no idea how to get Ubuntu 9.10 to run on the thing.

I've installed it at least 3 times, and every time I try to run from the SCSI hard drive, I get "No such device: 44f4edc7-1953-4b9f-a19d-eb4ce3685fd7". And yes, that's the entire message. I try to boot from the other hard drive partitions, I get similar messages. The install never made it seem like I had any hard drive problems, I installed the boot loader to the correct drive, but when it gets to the GRUB menu where I choose how to run Ubuntu, it just doesn't work.

My question is: Do I need to format the drive and reinstall again, or is this a hardware issue?

[CharlesA]

Have you tried a newer version of Ubuntu? 9.10 is ancient. 12.04 is the current Long Term Support release and 13.10 is the current normal release.

Otherwise check what UUID that drive is using by booting a livecd and running this:

sudo blkid -c /dev/null

[DukeNukem_2417]

I may have to try that....thanks for the advice, and cool avatar pic.

[mörgæs]

I don't know what you mean by 'old', but if performance is a problem then Lubuntu is worth considering.

[DukeNukem_2417]

Well, I may have to look into Lubuntu...after I get a new hard drive. Turns out one of my attempts to wipe the hard drive before installing Ubuntu may have borked it; my tech guy said to run Darik's Boot and Nuke on it, but I'm considering just getting a new 320-gig hard drive.

[sudodus]

Attempts to wipe a hard drive seldom borks it. It may bork the file system or partition table, but it is usually possible to create a new partition table and new file systems with gparted (when booted from another drive, for example an Ubuntu or Lubuntu install CD/DVD/USB drive).

If gparted fails, you can try to wipe the first megabyte (not the whole drive), and then try again with gparted.

Can you 'see it' with parted or gparted? Post the output of this command in a reply

sudo parted -l

(at the end: space minus ell)

[DukeNukem_2417]

Parted Magic sees it, but claims that the filesystem is still messed up.

I may have to use the partition editor on that to get the thing working....

[buzzingrobot]

... I get "No such device: 44f4edc7-1953-4b9f-a19d-eb4ce3685fd7...

Just guessing here....

but that "44f4edc7-1953-4b9f-a19d-eb4ce3685fd7" looks suspiciously like a UUID string that would be found in /etc/fstab. (If you're unfamiliar with /etc/fstab, it's the file that identifies drives and partitions to the system. If fstab contains an error, there is a very good chance the machine won't boot.

One kind of fstab error could be incuding a non-existent drive. I've seen that happen in old Linux installs when the USB drive that contains the install image, and the user booted off of, was incorrectly added to /etc/fstab. In some cases, the installer would see the USB stick as /dev/sda and put the bootloader there. The drive I considered /dev/sda was actually /dev/sdb to the installer. So, when I removed the USB stick, the machine would not boot.

Current partitioning routines in installers do the right thing and ignore the USB drive. You can choose manual partitioning and be sure it is not selected.

[sudodus]

Parted Magic sees it, but claims that the filesystem is still messed up.

I may have to use the partition editor on that to get the thing working....

That might work too It might be the same or a very similar version of gparted (as the version that comes with the Ubuntu install iso files).

[DukeNukem_2417]

Indeed...if d-ban somehow fails to work, I may have to try this idea.

The fact that everyone here has been quick to reply with the advice is pretty encouraging, as well.