last seen 29 weeks 1 day agoI have tried a few Linux distros on live CDs, including Knoppix and Ubuntu. I would like to go with Ubuntu, simply because it seems easier to install, or so I thought. I am trying to install it as a dual boot on a machine with XP. It only has one hard drive, so Ubuntu's installer runs through a partitioning step, but this is where I am running into problems. It fails during the partitioning step, and I can't get any further from there. Does anyone know how I can get this to work, other than installing a separate hard drive in my computer??
Ubuntu installation question
Posted on: Wed, 04/11/2007 - 7:30pm
Use windows XP and make a new partition out of the free space on your current HD then install ubuntu on the new partition
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000
Thank you for the suggestion. I have tried to create a new partition using the disk management utility and when I right click on the drive, there is no option to create a new partition. All of the space is allocated to the primary partition, and the extended partition contains the system recovery files. Unless I am mistaken, you can only partition space that is not already allocated. I'm not giving up though!!! I just might have to break down and throw my old 10GB HD in there after all...
Thank you again for your suggestion, foambrush!
There are several free partitioning tools available that will enable you to turn the free space into a new partition, I haven't used any so I can't give any help with that sorry, the only tool I can suggest if Partition Magic 8 but its not free and the trial download won't let you do much
I believe that Ubuntu requires three partitions.
Root
Home
Swap
So the best advise, was the one given by Foambrush. Start over with the Microsoft Cd and then leave enough space on the second partition for Ubuntu and let it install automatically on that one.
There is some good links in my blog entry, if it helps.
Pay Per View on Vista
"A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days."
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Thanks for the help guys, but I am just about at the end of my rope on this one...
I decided to just install an extra hard drive that I had laying around. I thought that would be an easy solution to the problem, but now when I try to istall Ubuntu, it stops right around 15% and an error pops up that reads "Failed to create file system." I tried the automatic partition that the install utility uses as well as the manual partition, with no luck.
Ashton, I did not know about the third partition...as far as I knew it only requires a swap partition and root partition. I guess I'll have to look into that, and I'll check out the links in your blog as well. Thanks again!
oh, and alittle trick for partitioning that may not be relevent at all is to use the install software of a Linux OS with better partitioning software then abort that installation after partitioning and continue formating the partitions and installing the OS using the Ubanto CD. Mandrake has the easiest partitioning of any OS install I've done, and I've heard more experinced people then me say the same thing.
Wow, I've been away for a while...I thought this thread had died...lol.
Anyhoo, I gave up a while ago trying to get Ubuntu to install. No matter what I do, I can't get it to partition properly. I'm not really familiar enough with Linux to figure out what I am doing wrong. Actually, that was why I was trying to install Ubuntu...it seemed to be the most user friendly distro for a beginner...ugh, the frustration!!
>>>technically you can get away with just / and swap,
Busted.
I kept meaning to come back and edit that part, I was given erroneous information when I was a real "n00b" to Ubuntu.
Thanks for the clarification.
I do not feel obliged to believe that same God who endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect had intended for us to forgo their use. -Galileo Galilei
err.... I have to make a retraction too.....
Fdisk Manpage
if you are booting off a large disk it's smart to set a small /boot partition at the front of the disk because BIOS can only address the first 1024 cylinders of a disk and you want to make sure GRUB/LILO is in that first 1024 cylinders....
while we are on Ubuntu.....
why does Xubuntu keep calling my IDE drives SCSI?
its a new feature in the kernels. all IDE drives are recognized as SCSI for compat purposes
I read something that may apply here.
technically you can get away with just / and swap, but you have to remember that *nix has alot of access control at the partition level. If you want a directory to only be accessable to you, then you need to set up a seperate partition for it. Though this isn't entirely true anymore, and *nix systems can now set access control by directory or even single files. I've very little experince running *nix in an enviroment where security was at all a concern, but I do have a reference book (100 Network Security Hacks).