Assistance installing Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS

[Chris MacDonald]

On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 12:11 PM, Donna Windom <dewdrops3 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello.
> I wiped a 40GB HDD and then partitioned it using Gdisk so that I could
> install Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS. My PC at home would not recognize the hdd.
> I removed the hdd and placed it in a computer at work that has
> multiple bays. Using the Ubuntu CD I downloaded, I was able to run
> Ubuntu from the CD and navigate using the graphical user interface.
> Then I loaded WindowsXP and installed the Ubuntu files to the 40GB
> hdd. After restarting I have the option to run WindowsXP or Ubuntu. I
> chose Ubuntu, but instead of getting the easy to navigate GUI, I get
> the following after logging in:
>
> username at ubuntu:~$
>
> Is there a way to have a graphical user interface instead of the command line?
>
> I removed the hdd with XP installed and tried to boot from the Ubuntu
> hdd, but I get a non system disk error message. I'm not sure how to
> troubleshoot this on my own because this is my first try at Linux and
> I'm not experienced using command line.
>
> Thank you for any help.
>
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I'd need to know a little more to know what happened for sure, but you
can try running this once you're logged in:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

and it will ask for your password. What this is doing is calling a
package manager (apt) to install the ubuntu-desktop meta-package which
contains the nice desktop user interface you're probably used to. If
the command then lists a whoooole bunch of packages to download and
install, it's safe to say that for some reason the installation you
did prior didn't cover the UI (why, again, I'd need more info). If you
do see a bunch of installable packages, it's safe to say 'yes' to
install, wait a bit until it's done, then reboot and you should be
fine.

If, on the other hand, no packages are suggested for installation it
may be a configuration issue. Try the above, and if it doesn't work
I'm sure the list will have other suggestions.

Chris