InstallProblems

[J]

On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 18:48, Karl F. Larsen <klarsen1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>        Well start with which version of Ubuntu your trying to load.

Just at a guess, but since he specifically mentions ext4 partitions,
could it possibly be Karmic or Lucid?  Yeah, the OP should specify,
but context gives a pretty good guess, or at least narrows the list of
possibilities.

>        Next, why must you load with a USB port. Does your computer
> not have a cd-rom reader?

Why not?  I do all my Ubuntu installs from USB stick.  Building a
bootable USB stick is far faster than burning disks each time I want
to try a new distro or version.

And maybe his computer doesn't have one... my netbook doesn't...
though he DOES mention pulling cables, so one would presume it's a
desktop of some sort.

>        Which way are you loading the cd-rom software to your USB
> memory stick?

As he said already in the thread:

> Step One)
> Used "ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso" to make a USB Stick "PenDrive" version
> (using Universal-USB-Installer-v0.2.exe) But that would not let me install to
> the normal USB HD unlike the older PenDriveLinux 8.10 (Based on Mandiva) that
> would take a -f option and install to "normal" USB HD (but never managed to get
> Wine to work under that flavour :-<)

>        We need a lot more information before we can help.

Yes, but not the information you're asking about.

Important things to know from the OP would be things like:

what hardware?  If a store-bought system, what make/model?  If home
built, what parts?

Has he tried the text install to see if anything more specific is printed.

WHERE does it fail?  Is it copying files?  is it formatting?

If he's booting from USB, and INSTALLING to usb, (and for now, my
money is on this one) is he installing onto the same USB device he's
running the live distro from??

So Grizzly, see above, and provide some details on the hardware, the
failure point and so forth.  The more detailed you can be the better.

I've done USB installs quite a bit, and have never had a problem on
any system.  I've installed to USB hard disk, USB stick, and even to
SD cards (though I still haven't gotten the latter to boot).

So just my opinion, but for now, without knowing what version
SPECIFICALLY you are using, my guess is wonky hardware, or you're
installing onto the same USB stick you're running the live distro
from. (in fact, this is EXACTLY what this sounds like).

The same kinds of behaviour can happen if you boot a system, then
format the hard disk while it's running (yes, it CAN be done... it's
difficult, but it can be done).

The system is mostly in memory, but as soon as you do something, or
the kernel has to do something, that involves reading data of some
sort from the filesystem, BAM... dead. Locked up, or just full of
errors...



-- 

Mike Ditka  - "If God had wanted man to play soccer, he wouldn't have
given us arms." -
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mike_ditka.html