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ubuntu install problem

auntiebling

auntiebling

megalomaniacal troglodyte
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i was following the "idiot guide to installing ubuntu" from their support pages. i'm using a USB drive, got it all formatted for boot and switched the system bios setting to boot from USB first (so it doesn't try to start windows vista which has an expired key code and i don't like anyway.) all seemed to be going well....

anyway, it's supposed to take 20-30 minutes and it isn't working. i left it all night with 3 of the lines shown below having been created. over night a bunch more showed up: any help is appreciated
 

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OH that helps.. :laughing

Run the live CD, it won't install and it boots from CD..
 
i don't have the capacity to make a CD right now, and i'm too impatient to have them send me one!

it keeps repeating the same line, with a different time stamp. something about a fault and being trapped on a particular channel. sounds like the latest Saw movie to me
 
oh kayyyy

it says

"target filesystem doesn't have requested /sbin/init.
no init found. try passing init=bootarg"

does that mean the machine has a problem, or the software isn't correct on the thumbdrive?
 
Did it ever boot from the USB drive? I.e. did you get as far as telling it to install anything?

If not, sounds like the drive was not prepared successfully.
 
udevd == device management issue.

And those read errors...it's probably freaking out because it's having a problem reading/installing from that USB stick.

Try a different USB stick.
 
first off, thanks to y'all...

Dopesick said:
IIRC, it's a hard drive formatting error.

Is the HDD in the PC formatted as NTFS ? If so I don't think Ubuntu likes that.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1167710
Click to expand...

i don't know what the pc hdd is formatted as. can i check that in the bios somewhere?

if it's ntfs how does one reformat to fat32 without having a working operating system in place?

the prep process for the usb drive makes it a fat32 format, so i smell some veracity to your theory

rodr said:
Did it ever boot from the USB drive? I.e. did you get as far as telling it to install anything?

If not, sounds like the drive was not prepared successfully.
Click to expand...

no and no

Ironbutt said:
puppy linux FTW!
Click to expand...

i have no clue wtf that is

Marlowe said:
udevd == device management issue.

And those read errors...it's probably freaking out because it's having a problem reading/installing from that USB stick.

Try a different USB stick.
Click to expand...

would like to avoid throwing money at it. the thing is 2 years old but never used
 
auntiebling said:
i was following the "idiot guide to installing ubuntu" from their support pages. i'm using a USB drive, got it all formatted for boot and switched the system bios setting to boot from USB first (so it doesn't try to start windows vista which has an expired key code and i don't like anyway.) all seemed to be going well....

anyway, it's supposed to take 20-30 minutes and it isn't working. i left it all night with 3 of the lines shown below having been created. over night a bunch more showed up: any help is appreciated
Click to expand...
Yeah, if you have Vista on there, it's formatted NTFS. If you have access to another 'puter, you can download KillDisk and that'll wipe the drive, then start over.
You might be able to wipe/format the drive with a Knoppix cd?
 
auntiebling said:
i don't know what the pc hdd is formatted as. can i check that in the bios somewhere?

if it's ntfs how does one reformat to fat32 without having a working operating system in place?
Click to expand...

Nope, the Bios usually will not tell you what format the hard drive is. If it was a Vista machine from the factory it was built in. I'd bet my ass it's a NTFS format and Linux won't be happy on that at all.

You can get a proggy called Gparted (Gnome Partition Editor) and throw it on that USB stick. You can use that, and IIRC it can tell you what hard drive, partition etc is what.

If you need a burned CD copy of Ubuntu, let me know. I can burn you a copy of it and you can pick it up from me in SJ.
 
how is it that ubuntu wants fat32, windoze does ntfs, but you can dual boot? have to do some partition voodoo?

the HDD is a replacement for the original, which was removed before i acquired it. vista was reinstalled and worked for a few weeks till the "no keycode for you" bullshit started.

i'm going to try the killdisk thing i thing, thanks!

dopesick... might be getting in touch as well
 
No big deal. Got a fresh copy of 11.x on a CD for ya. (I've got a couple actually.. LOL).
 
Some PC BIOSes (especially laptops) don't like FAT32 on a USB stick. Format the USB stick from which you want to install ubuntu as FAT16. Use the tool 'unetbootin' to make the USB installation disk because the default 'usb-creator' has issues.

During the installation, you can obliterate the PCs HD, or resize the Windows partition to make space. Create the following partitions for Ubuntu, which will make your life easier for future updates:

- / root partition, ext4, 20GB should be fine)
- swap parition (2.5 * size of main memory)
- /home parition, ext4, where all your files will be

If you update ubuntu in the future, just reinstall into the root partition, and still have your data in /home.

rsync is your friend for backup. Google it, lots of pages how to setup TimeMachine-like behaviour.
 
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