Dual Boot On 2 Partition IBM Thinkpad T42

[Steve Flynn]

On 17/10/2007, Eamonn Corbally <info at eamonncorbally.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Hi,I'm an IT Consultant and desperately want to embrace Linux/Ubuntu but
> my experience thus far is miserable to say the least.
> I've downloaded, burnt and verified the Feisty Fawn 7.10 i386 DVD.
> As a live CD/DVD it is wonderful and very seductive. The install
> experience is a nightmare.
>

I found it a breeze to be honest. Let's see...

For someone who has spent over a decade using fdisk, Partition Magic, Mac OS
> partitioning and other utilities I fail to understand why the
> partitioning procedure is so non-intuitive and frankly difficult. I have
> reserved a 10GB+ partition (call it D: although it no longer is, it is free
> space and still have no joy).
> The installer falls over twice. Once during the File/Account transfer
> which I didn't choose as an option and then at 94% when it tries and fails
> to install grub reporting a fatal error. I end up with no Ubuntu install and
> my Windows MBR is destroyed. I have nothing. It is long known that the XP
> repair console utility simply doesn't work so I have to reinstall Windows
> which in XP at least retains my documents and settings.
>

I can't say if I imported anything from my existing windows installation (it
was too long ago and much Guinness has been quaffed since then) but I had no
failures. As for the install of grub generating a fatal error - it would be
helpful if you gave the exact error being thrown. I know it's not much use
telling you this now but it might give us a clue as to what the issue really
is.

I'm not sure why you believe the XP repair console doesn't work - fixboot
has never given me any grief at all (see
http://chara.epfl.ch/~fsalvi/Windows/ntfs_recovery/recconsole2.html for
pretty pictures).

Part of the problem I think is that the partitioning tool is reporting my HD
> as SCSI (sda) which it patently isn't, it is bog standard IDE.
> Originally (I've done this 4 times now) I thought it was failing because
> it was trying to install grub on an hda space when it's own partitioner was
> calling it sda. I changed this to sda in the Advanced option but it still
> doesn't work.
>

What is your disk layout (number of disks, partitions, etc). If there is
something screwy in the partitioner we should be able to work out what the
issue is, as it's worked perfectly for thousands of other users.

I'm stuck but would still like very much an Ubuntu install. I'm very
> stubborn!
>

Excellent. Stubbornness is a much undervalued commodity.

Can you offer any advice?
>

If you're familiar with Pmagic and other windows utilities have you
attempted to perform all your partitioning and formatting up front in
Windows and then using the installer to install into those pre-defined root,
home and swap partitions?

-- 
Steve
When 1 person suffers from a delusion it is insanity. When many people
suffer from a delusion it is called Religion.

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