Install failed

[Doug]

On 09/21/2010 02:17 PM, rikona wrote:
> Ubuntu is not starting off well for me...
>
> To preserve ext3 compatibility, I pre-formatted a disk with ext3
> partitions - 10G /, 2G swap, 900+G /home. Used a downloaded 10.04.1
> 'desktop' CD, md5 is OK, burned at the slowest speed, write verified.
>
> By choosing manual handling of partitions, I was able to preserve ext3
> for / and /home, but it insisted in formatting swap. Seemed OK since
> that would not cause any compatibility problems [and, there was no
> other choice].
>
> Looked good for a while but late in the install got a 'dpkg error' -
> it said the installer failed and I should choose another installer
> [but I have no idea how to do that during the install]. It said I
> could proceed, but that pkgs may be installed incorrectly, and that I
> would not be able to de-install them properly. I went ahead. It seemed
> to do a lot of things after that. I noticed there was a 'skip' box
> that popped up, and that the install was more than 100% done [got to
> about 125% done, or so, whatever that means :-) ].
>
> Right at the end it said it could not install the boot loader, and
> offered other disk locations to try. Nothing worked, so no boot loader
> - and, as expected, it does not boot. I now have a large, heavy
> paperweight...
>
> It's a desktop, and has been running Mandrive 2008 for some time.
> Other distros - MD2010, Knoppix, etc come up OK on the box. [Knoppix
> seems to come up OK on just about anything, though. :-) ]
>
> Given the installer problem, I am considering trying the alternate CD,
> but thought I'd get other ideas first. What do I need to do to get a
> successful install?
>
> Also, is it possible that the problem(s) are caused by trying to use
> pre-formatted ext3 partitions?
>
> Thanks,
>
>   rikona
>
>
>    
I too ran into problems installing Ubuntu, relating to partitioning.  
Something in Ubuntu is very fussy about the partition table.  I wound up 
running GParted (not the one on the Ubuntu install disk) and
after verifying that the partitioning was what I thought it was (more or 
less) and that the part that should be bootable was so marked, I did a 
Write (capital W) without actually changing the partitions.
Then Ubuntu installed without a problem.

--doug

-- 
Blessed  are the peacekeepers...for they shall be shot at from both sides. --A.M. Greeley