Ubuntu
ubiquity package

Installation problem due to external hard drive

Asked by Peter Patzt

When I first started the installation my USB external hard drive was hooked to the computer. When I was trying to configure the partitions I realized that, and tried to install Ubuntu without it being connected to my PC. If I start the installation then, I doesnt find any partition to work on though, but I want to install it on my internal hard drive, that _is_ being seen by gparted. I tried rebooting several times, actually this problem first occurred with 10.4 and now with 10.10 again.
Background: I have Windows 7 on the same disk but on a separate partition obviously.
Please feel free to poke me onto a link where this problem was already solved (I searched, but couldnt find anything helping), ask more questions about my system if necessary.

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Tom De Caluwé (tom-de-caluwe) said : 		#1

Can you explain the situation a bit more? What are you trying to install (an ubuntu distro I suppose)? Are you installing a fresh distro or upgrading to a newer one? Where exactly does it fail? How come you have access to gparted?

Or am I missing something completely different?

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Peter Patzt (peter-patzt) said : 		#2

I am installing Ubuntu Desktop Edition 10.10. I booted it from the CD, get only a few clicks far and get stuck with "Allocating drive space". I have nothing to choose there (if i disconnected my ext hd) and hence get a warning to select something if I try to click on "install now". Apparently somehow the installation is fixed on /dev/sdb and doesnt even care about my internal hd /dev/sda.
I have access to gparted, because when i cancel the installation, I have a Ubuntu distribution booted from CD.
Anymore questions, please feel free to ask.

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Peter Patzt (peter-patzt) said : 		#3

And as I said I have an existing and working Windows 7 on the same disk, I hope that doesnt cause the problem.

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Tom De Caluwé (tom-de-caluwe) said : 		#4

I suppose you have tried disconnecting the drive before booting from the live cd.

What happens if you choose "Specify partitions manually?" (both with and without the external drive)?

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Tom De Caluwé (tom-de-caluwe) said : 		#5

The existing and working Windows 7 should not cause the problem.

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Tom De Caluwé (tom-de-caluwe) said : 		#6

As you can read in this bug report, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/459054, there are multiple situations causing this problem. As I think it is a bug I can't really provide a proper answer for your question, but I'd advise you to read through the previously mentioned bug report, and try the various proposed fixes.

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delance (olivier-delance) said : 		#7

Are you using RAID disk ?
Have you a mix of PATA and SATA disk ?
In BIOS option, could you check SATA option for "legacy IDE" ? From BIOS to BIOS, name change and could be something like AHCI.

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Peter Patzt (peter-patzt) said : 		#8

I finally got it working. But I am a little confused. I boiled the problem down to a broken Raid-system as dmraid -s said broken. So in the end I just erased the raid with dmraid -r -E because it couldnt be repaired by dmraid -R isw_... /dev/sda. I wonder how the raid got there in the first place and whether I did the right thing erasing it. If it is any helpful I can upload the metadata files, but they are binary.

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cfheak dhcj (dxhskq45) said : 		#13

If the partitions are not working then you can use some other methods to install the ubuntu just as mentioned in https://www.titangaragefloors.com/clear-epoxy-flooring page because some PCs do not support it in this condition.

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