Ubuntu

Install Problem

Asked by Melzy

Hello. I have a BIG Problem.

I was Trying to load LiveCD, and get an Error (Some Exeption at Initramfs). Through a serch in the internet I was find that I need to add to the boot command the flag "all_generic_ide naopic nolapic" (Becouse I have a Sata and IDE)
I don't know what it doe's but it managed to load the LiveCD.
After the installation, when the computer loads it stuck on "Loading GRUB".

Now I don't have nor Windows nor Ubuntu (I prefer Ubuntu).

Please help me to fix the problem...

Shay.

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Jim Hutchinson
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Luca Manzari (manzariluca) said : 		#1

Ok, if your hdd are sata, the one on the first channel is called "sda", whereas the one on the second channel is called "sdb".
If your hdd are ide/ata, the master is called "hda" and the slave "hdb".
Probably the empty hard disk is the second one, because windows need to boot from the first hd.
So, you have to use hdb or sdb. You have to partition the drive anyway, because linux resides on two partitions at least.
That's the most simple situation:
partition 1) / (read "root") is the main data partition
partition2) swap, which is a kinda extension of your RAM memory.
More practically:
PARTITION FILESYSTEM MOUNTPOINT
/dev/hda1 ntfs /media/windows
/dev/hdb1 ext3 or reiserfs /
/dev/hdb2 swap swap
The swap has to be double than your ram (ie. ram=512MB, make a 1GB swap partition)

Hope I helped and sorry for broken english ;)

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Best Jim Hutchinson (jphutch) said : 		#2

The easiest route is to choose the second option in the partition section. It says something like "guided (use entire disk)". You have to make sure that you are choosing the empty drive here or you will erase windows. Because of the possibility of operator error, make sure you back up everything you are unwilling to lose. Luca above explains the different drive options well. You can choose the manual option but if this is your first time doing this I would advise against that unless you have a lot of experience with drives and partitions.

Okay, once you choose the right hard drive you can just let it continue. It will automatically set up the root and swap partitions. You don't have to mess with that unless you want to (then it's the manual option).

Now, with 2 hard drives there is sometimes an issue with the boot loader (GRUB). You will want to make sure it gets installed to the windows drive (assuming that it is the primary hard drive). It will be called HD0. Your Ubuntu drive will be HD1 (yes it's odd that there are two ways to refer to drives). When you do this you will overwrite the master boot record (MBR) on that drive. You WANT to do this. GRUB has to be on the primary HD's MBR or it won't load at boot and you won't be able to choose win or ubuntu. However, it sometimes gets confused with accessing the second drive. I think has something to do with the motherboard or BIOS but if you choose to boot Ubuntu and you get an error, post back and we can explain how to fix it. Hopefully you won't have this problem but I've run in to it so it's possible.

Hope that helps.

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Melzy (melz-mirth) said : 		#3

Thanks Jim Hutchinson, that solved my question.

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Jim Hutchinson (jphutch) said : 		#4

Happy to help. Let us know if you have any further issues. It's probably best to start a new question unless it's a follow up to this issue.