Ubuntu

Unable to install Ubuntu 13.04

Asked by Chris Crofton-Sleigh

Hi,

I don't know whether this is the right place for this question, but here it is anyway:

I thought I would like to try Ubuntu 13.04 and downloaded the 5th March .iso file from cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current and burned it to a DVD.

I tried to install it on an external hard drive but when I connected it to my desktop machine, the installation hung after the installer had found my WiFi network. I then tried again, using my laptop and this time it got to the partitioning stage but could not "see" the external drive.

Can anyone suggest why it will not install? The object of doing this was so that I could use zsync from time to time and, perhaps, end up with the final release at the release date.

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Anton Kanishchev (ak12-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#1

13.04 is currently in development so things may break and/or not work, hence if you want a system to do work on , this is not recommended (use 12.04 LTS or 12.10 for that purpose).

If you want to try 13.04 , and you are aware that the system is not yet stable/bug free:

Can you try to install 13.04 again on the desktop, but this time connect via wired connection (or not at all). Does it install now? You should be able to connect via your wireless after installation.

once you boot into the live cd, when the prompt comes up with (where do you want to install), select "something else".
Gparted should pop up asking what harddrive you want to use. Select your external hdd (double check, as you could wipe your current os on internal hdd if you select the wrong drive). All you really need is a boot, / (root), and swap partition. it will most likely ask you where you want to put grub. If you put it on the external hdd, you can boot the system by selecting your external hdd as first boot option in the bios.

This may also help
http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/02/20/install-ubuntu-11-10-on-external-hard-drive-with-an-ntfs-partition-at-the-end/

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Chris Crofton-Sleigh (chris-cs62) said : 		#2

Hello Anton,

Thanks for your helpful message and the link. I did what you suggested and got as far as "Something else" in the partition menu and filling in my details after that but then it said it was checking the file system and then hung. I had formatted the partition where I wanted it installing as ext4 and there is already a swap partition on the drive

I am aware that the 13.04 system is not yet stable which is why I want to install it on an external hard drive.

As a matter of interest I booted a different desktop with the live DVD and this time it hung when it had detected the WiFi card. The WiFi cards in both my desktop and the other machine both have Ralink chipsets. Perhaps that is the problem. I had switched the router off before I tried installing and that seemed to let me get as far as the partition menu

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Anton Kanishchev (ak12-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#3

That could be the problem , but i have no way to check whether that is the case. It could be the network card, there are a couple of bugs around with ralink cards causing problems...

Can you provide the output of (paste into terminal)?

lspci | grep Network

Have you tried the 12.04 installation? You could try with 12.04 to see whether it lets you partition your external hdd , while your network card is on.

Does it allow you to get to the install screen? I know this is not a solution per se , it is just to confirm that this problem is only present in 13.04 , and not any previous releases.

Thanks

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Chris Crofton-Sleigh (chris-cs62) said : 		#4

I think it might have been a corrupt file that was making the installation hang all the time; I decided to use zsync to update the .ISO file that I downloaded last week but and then burn a new live DVD. Zsync would not work and said that there was no control file so it downloaded a new one. I burned this to a DVD and tried again and this time the installation succeeded without any hitches. Perhaps the first file had a bug or became corrupt during the download. When I selected the 'Try Ubuntu' option with the first file it booted properly but then said that there was an internal failure and wanted to report it but I don't think it did.

The installation on the external drive seems to run properly apart from the fact that when I select it in the boot menu it first gives an error message:-

ata_id HDIO_GET_IDENTITY Failed on /dev/sddc

but after about ten seconds it boots. I expect that message is because I was running it on a different machine from the one I used for the installation.

Anyway, thanks for your help and suggestions

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Anton Kanishchev (ak12-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#5

No worries , good that it is working now.
 For future reference you can check the md5 sum of the cd iso and compare it to the one posted online. If the file is even slightly different it will result in a vastly different md5 sum output.

To do an md5 check all you need to do is:

1- open terminal and navigate to the directory where the iso image is saved eg. my_image.iso
then

md5sum <filename> so for this case

md5sum my_image.iso

 Also you could enable the option to verify the image that is written on the dvd , which ensures that an exact copy was written (some dvd writers are hit and miss in writing to disks, check that your lens is clean also).

The error you are getting is to do with hdparm , it is complaining when it cant find the drive information or if it has no access to it. If you want to know where it comes (and are happy reading c) from then http://ww2.cs.fsu.edu/~rosentha/linux/2.6.26.5/docs/ioctl/hdio.txt at the start of the file.