Ubuntu Installation

Trizo

Hey all,

just wondering if someone could assist me with a Ubuntu 6.10 installation i have the ISO CD burned and have followed the online instructions the problem is they don’t follow with the installation. I get to the partition section and am clueless on how to continue.

i have screenshots of the installation , one shows the current config i have
60GB HD split 3 ways first partition has Acer stuff on it (i have an acer laptop) second partition has my Windows installation on it which i want to keep and the third partition is empty and formatted FAT32 which is where i want the Linux OS.

Basically i just want Ubuntu to use the 3rd partition nothing fancy. What should i choose from image 2?
If anyone can point me in the right direction,
Thanks for your help,

Trizo

parasite

Firstly, go back to the partition editor in the installer and create a swap partition of, say 1GB, out of the hda3 partition. Then set the mount point to root ("/") for the remaining 24 GB, and mount point ("swap") for the 1GB partition, leave the other mount points as "media/hdX"

ethernet

For Linux, you should have a root partition [denoted by '/'] and a swap partition [like more RAM, except it's a partition on your hard drive].

In your case, you say you want Ubuntu on the third partition of that drive [/dev/hda3, 25.75 GB]. This part of the installation is intended to give you the chance to prepare hard drive for partitioning and the actual installation. Just to let you know, you'll have to format /dev/hda3. I'd suggest you use ext3 if given the choice; I can't remember if the Ubuntu installer gives you the choice.

To create a swap partition [and thus have four partitions], try shrinking /dev/hd3 by 512 MB to 1 GB. You'll then have this much space to create a new partition. It does not need to be a primary partition as you won't be booting from it but it's no harm to create a primary partition. Creating a swap is even suggested by one of the Ubuntu installer screenshots you provided. When you've created the fourth partition [swap], move on to the next step of the installation.

The 'mount points' are essentially pin-pointers to your other partitions. I run SUSE Linux and I set the mount point of my WIndows partition to /media/windows -- it just helps when trying to remember what partition is what. The defaults the installer suggests will be perfectly fine, however.

Just make sure the 'reformat' box is UNTICKED for /dev/hda1 [the backup partition] and /dev/hda2 [Windows].

DO tick the 'reformat' box for /dev/hda3 [the Linux root partition, denoted by a forward-slash as I said earlier] and /dev/hda4 [swap].

Don't worry -- it's all worth it in the end and Ubuntu's package manager makes me green with envy compared to SUSE's!

Be sure to come back if you're still unsure.

Trizo

Hey guys

really appreciate your help , im going to try that now , From what i undersood i need to create another partition (From hda3) for the swap of approx 1GB and then set the remainer of hd3 to "/" root.

so it will look roughly like:

partition 1 hda1 "acer restore" 5GB
partition 2 hda2 "windows" 25GB
partition 3 hda3 "/" 24GB
partition 4 hda4 "swap" 1GB

basic windows partitioning i get but once we get into mount points etc.. im lost

Thanks once again for your help
hopefully my next reply will be done using Firefox on my Ubuntu OS.
Trizo

Trizo

Hey ,

ok i got the patition after some coaxing using the partition tool and now i have a 4th partition of 1000 MIb , im getting a strange error on the next page (screenshot attached) its saying something about FAT or NTFS filesystems.
thing is all my partiitions are FAT32 which from all my reading is the best to use ?

Any Ideas?
Thanks
Trizo

parasite

it's more a warning than an error, your linux system won't be using fat32 to run on, it will reformat it to the ext3 filesystem
You are ready to press forward with the settings as on image 3

Trizo

Hi again,
I've tried pressing forward but it won't actually go forward. The button presses but nothing happens.
Thanks again

parasite

oh right, go back to the partition editor and format the hda3 as ext3 filesystem, not fat32

ethernet

Trizo wrote:

so it will look roughly like:

partition 1 hda1 "acer restore" 5GB
partition 2 hda2 "windows" 25GB
partition 3 hda3 "/" 24GB
partition 4 hda4 "swap" 1GB

That looks well in order. Fair play.

I'll admit I've never seen such a warning before. When I install SUSE, it has always set my mount points to /media/whatever. I think the Ubuntu installer even changed the mount points to get over the problem. All the mount points in your third screenshot are fine [beginning with /media instead of /dev].

I can't make it out from the screenshot, but is the box to reformat the swap partition ticked? It should be, in addition to the root partition [/dev/hda3].

Regarding the FAT/NTFS issue, it all boils down to this: Linux can easily read and write to FAT partitions. It can also *read* NTFS partitions. In the past few months, software has been released to allow users to write to NTFS partitions. It was practically written from reverse engineering. Basically, if it makes a mistake in writing to the NTFS partition, Windows will let you know all about it -- there's a high chance of data loss if things go wrong. Maybe in another few months, things will be that bit more stable but for now, you're better off using FAT. You can, for example, open a Word document you created in Windows using OpenOffice in Linux, edit it and save it. It's a blessing.

Windows won't recognise your Linux partition in whatever format. If you use the ext3 file system for your root partition, you can install this piece of software to allow you to read and write to files on your Linux partition. Just one problem: file permissions [don't worry too much if you're the only user]. I believe permissions are inherited from the parent directory so it usually isn't that big an issue.

I think everything's in order now partition-wise. Keep at it!

Trizo

Hey guys,

many thanks once again,
i went back deleted both the hda3 and hda4 partitions made one chunck of unallocated then i split them again created 2 partitions with the ext3 filesystem it worked !!!

its says its ready to install and has listed all the settings and formatting , partitions i have done hopefully all will go well now , will let you know how i get on

Thanks
Trizo

Trizo

Oh one more thing, I meant to ask you - when I was creating the partitions, one of the file systems mentioned was Linux - Swap ... I didn't choose this but is this a special file system for the swap file? Is it faster or is there any benefits to using it?
Thanks

ethernet

That's good news.

You have no choice of file system for the swap -- it's a special one and you've no reason to change it; if you even can do.

Khannie

But make sure you do create some swap partition.

Trizo

Hey everyone,

Thanks for your help its all up and running and dual booting fine
just got the one message when i went back into windows something to do with eRAgent ?? prob something to do with the Acer recovery program i will have to look into that but otherwise everything is working perfectly.

Thanks
Trizo

ethernet

You're right -- I googled eRAgent and got this:

eragent.exe
ERAgent.exe is related to eRecovery 2.0 backup/recovery applicaton.
Manufacturer: Acer