Problem when installing Ubuntu 10.10 on netbook

[fairfieldfalconsfan]

I have a netbook (Asus 1005HA) that I bought from someone on here. When I got it Ubuntu was installed on it and I kinda wanted to keep it on there and also install XP. Well I ended up wiping the whole drive and installing XP but keeping the ext4 partition and another NTFS one for sharing files between(I rearranged the partitions yesterday evening). Ok now comes the problem/question.

I started to install Ubuntu 10.10 and things were going good. I had to figure out where to put the root directory (is there one place that better then others?) so that slowed me down a bit but I figured it out. Anyways the "files copying" bar was moving along at the bottom, I was filling in the blanks that came up. Then when it got to where it was asking what the PC name should be and what my username would be I filled out the blanks and waited for something to happen. The forward button was still grayed out and at the bottom of the screen it said "ready when you are" above the text box. There was also a "skip" button that was grayed out. I saw there was a text box at the bottom but I couldn't see much because the screen isn't very tall. I think that I could see the background under the bottom of the box (means I could see the whole box maybe?).

If anyone knows what I should do from there please help me. I want to learn and use Linux and don't want to start with a very bad experience. If you need any more info I will try to provide it if I can.

Thanks in advance!

 

[MindoverMaster]

Hey mate! Good that you posted it here. I'm not all sure what you are describing. How did you rearrange the partitions? Give us a list.

That problem in Ubuntu setup is an odd one. Never had that one.

 

[fairfieldfalconsfan]

Partitions:

1st - NTFS 70 GB where Windows XP Pro is installed
2nd - NTFS 55 GB for sharing between XP and Linux
3rd - ext4 20 GB for Ubuntu
4th - 5 GB Linux Swap

All made with GParted (may have just left the Linux Swap from before not really sure).

Hope this helps. Other then this problem the netbooks running great.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Well, Ubuntu would just write over the old Swap. No problem there.

Did you try reinstalling Ubuntu after this? It didn't use grub, did it?

Glad you're happy

 

[farinha]

According to this there isn't any textbox at the bottom... Are you sure you have filled all the blanks?

 

[fairfieldfalconsfan]

I have not tried again but may on Saturday. I will be busy tomorrow. And I am not sure what Grub is. I'll have to do some googling.

It is right at step 7 in the link you (farinha) gave where the problem happens. I had all the fields filled in and there was a green check next to each of them. At the bottom it said "ready when you are" and there may have been a dropdown arrow where the box was. Not sure how the box got there. It was kinda like it was describing what I was doing. When I would type something in one of the blanks it would say something like namefield: enter: fairfield or something that looked like a command line kinda thing.

I can try to take a pic when I try it again on Saturday but it might not turn out too good cause I would have to use a camera instead of doing a screenshot.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Grub is the list that comes up after POST, that lets you choose which OS you want to run. If there was a version update, it will include the older one as well as the new. Like a failsafe.

As long as we can read it. Who knows, it could just work.

 

[fairfieldfalconsfan]

Well this makes me feel really stupid but...

I figured out that it was just that I had made the username capitalized. When I went to reinstall, I got to the "Who Are You?" page and there was a check mark by everything but the username. Then I erased the name I had put and just put an x (lowercase) then there was a check mark. I then put the username back in uncapitalized and it seemed to work. When the installion was done it said I needed to restart and I clicked the "restart now" button. It worked for a little then a bunch of things like process terminated and stuff came up then this came up:


IO error 2 by Fairfield Falcons Fan, on Flickr

After this came up I let it sit for about a minute and nothing happened. I then (probably stupidly) held down the power button until it shut off. I then tried booting up and it went straight to XP.

I then used the Ubuntu CD to get to the install screen again and it showed that Ubunutu was installed to the right place. I then clicked to cancel the install and it went to what looked like the main screen of Ubuntu but then once I turned off the CD drive it would kinda refresh(?not sure what else to call it) and the top menu would go away and come back. I got it to shut down but now can't get to Ubuntu.

Ok so summing up I think the install worked but I don't know if I need to download and install Grub to get to Ubuntu? I am assuming the answer is yes but I just want to make sure.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Grub comes with Ubuntu. I'm not sure what your trouble is. Maybe kmote can help more with this. I'll ring for him. *ring*

 

[kmote]

Well /dev/sr0 is going to be your optical drive so my guess is that either your CD drive is foobar'd or your ubuntu image/disk is. There should be a check media option when you boot to the ubuntu CD so if you haven't already, run through that and let us know how it goes.