Ubuntu installation problems.

[None of the above]

The story so far:

Two or three years ago, I gave a neighbour a home constructed PC with Ubuntu installed. Since then, he has installed each new release by means of an update rather than a fresh installation. During the recent download of 11.04 the hard drive departed this mortal vale of tears.
I've fitted a new 160Gb HDD and burned an installation disk of the latest release. During the formatting and partitioning procedure, everything comes to a halt and a dialogue box suggests manual partitioning might be in order. I find both the terminology and principles involved in this process difficult to understand which is why I was relying on the system to do it for me. What I have noticed is that Ubuntu 11.04 is apparently seeing a 22Gb disk. I attempted to install several earlier releases in an effort to get past the problem but things came to grief at the same point. However, I did manage to get things going with Linux Mint which sees the drive as it should. Said neighbour only really requires Internet access so isn't too bothered but, having said that, he would like to return to Ubuntu if possible as he has become used to it.

I don't have the old HDD to hand, but I think it was either a 40 or 80Gb drive. I recall that Win XP was unable to recognise drives bigger than 137Gb at one point so I wonder if similar problems exist here?

I've recently bought a second hand laptop with XP that I wish to dual boot with Ubuntu, but I'm wary of attempting the job until I find out what's going on. The laptop, BTW has a 100Gb drive.

Any advice will be gratefully received.

Ta:ok:

N o t a

[MJC2]

How about running Ubuntu from the CD drive?

You could then use Partition Manager to look at the new Hard Drive.

Might give you some clue as to what is going on.

Mike

[None of the above]

Thanks Mike.

I managed to run Ubuntu from the CD all OK. Forgive my ignorance, but I take it that Partition Manager is part of the distro?

N o t a

[green granite]

A very tortuous way might be to install windows (don't bother to register it) partition the hard drive, then install Ubuntu as dual boot and then delete windows. :E

[MJC2]

Partition Manager has been part of the distros I have used.

Try System - Administration. Should be on the drop down list.

I am not a Linux geek - and I would not dream of advising other non-geeks to try partitioning themselves (it is not that difficult BUT you do need to KNOW what you are doing!!!). [If you do try it remember you will need a separate Linux Swap partition. Would recommend splitting rest of drive into at least 2 partitions - one for Linux, another one/two/three for data, backups,etc. Should be plenty of info on the internet and Linux/Ubuntu forums.]

However, just running Partition Manager will show you how the new disk is currently partitioned.

Suggest you also might do some searching / Googling - 11.04 is a very new distro, so there may be some nasty teething problem.

[Saab Dastard]

I don't have the old HDD to hand, but I think it was either a 40 or 80Gb drive. I recall that Win XP was unable to recognise drives bigger than 137Gb at one point so I wonder if similar problems exist here?

Windows XP prior to SP1 had a disk size limit of 128GB. SP1 (with NTFS partitions) lifted the limit into the terabyte range (depending on the cluster size).

This 128GB limit was partly connected to the BIOS int13H / LBA addressing that limited disks to 128GB, together with the ATA 137GB limit which was "overcome" 10 years ago so your PC must be very old indeed! I still have a few PCs that have such a limit, and they are Y2K vintage. :O

SD

[None of the above]

Thank you, Gentlemen,

There's some food for thought there. I'll investigate possibilities in the next day or two.

SD:

No, the PC is only about three years old and has only ever been used for Linux distros.
It just occurred to me that there may have been some parallel with the early XP limitations on HDD size although I was unaware of the cause behind that limitation. There are a great many things that I do not understand, this is but one of them!

Thanks again chaps:ok:

N o t a

[None of the above]

FWIW,

The PC which is/was running Mint successfully, recognised the HDD as 160Gb. (See above). With that OS running, I started Ubuntu on a 'Live CD' basis this evening and then went ahead with the full installation which was successful and now sees the drive in its entirety.
Oh, joy beyond all understanding!

But, and there's always a 'but'... the neighbour tried to get Ubuntu going on his XP laptop within Windows this afternoon. He phoned me to say that the installation had fallen over and system restore wouldn't work. A bit of digging about showed that he'd managed to partition the drive at some point but denied all knowledge of it.
I feel a re-install coming on although I might try to delete the partition before going down that route.

Said neighbour is an inveterate tinkerer, but while he has free IT support on tap I suppose nothing will teach him the error of his ways.
I wish I could get one of those scissor arms with a boxing glove on the end, beloved of slapstick comedians, so that a swift and dire 'reminder' could be administered whenever he starts to delve.

And deep breath...

N o t a

PS Thanks for your interest, Gentlemen.

ETA: XP System Restore seems to have been comprehensively buggad.
It won't work and it can't be disabled. Tried that on the basis that a re-boot sometimes works.

[bnt]

If all the data is backed up, and the disk is dedicated to Linux, then there's no reason to be scared of Manual Partition mode during installation. You can delete all partitions and start from a clean slate. You generally need three partitions, which can be on the same or different disks:

/ (root) only needs a relatively small amount of disk space for the operating system files. 16GB is plenty. Format as ext3 or ext4.
swap partition, usually at the end of the disk, the same size as the amount of installed RAM. Format as "swap"
/home is where all the user data goes. Use all remaining space - or even a separate big disk. Format as ext3 or ext4.

If you have a separate /home partition, it means you can re-install Linux later without formatting /home. In Manual Partition mode, you choose to mount the existing partition as /home without formatting it. You create users with the same names as before and they immediately have access to all their data and settings. You don't have file SID (Security ID) problems like you do in Windows. You can choose to encrypt a user's home directory if you want more security.

[None of the above]

Thanks, BNT. That makes matters a little clearer. Unfortunately, much of the terminology is somewhat opaque to me but I'm grateful for your post.
I still have a lot to learn!

Ta,

N o t a

[wjbean]

Nota:

It is and has been almost from the beginning.

There is good news. Version 10.10 does not require hard disk partitioning and will allow a full install within Windows. I am currently using this version (upgraded from 10.4) and find it solid reliable and a lot less hassle than running partition manager. ;)

I don't recommend 11.04 yet. It is still in development and has a limited interface.

Cheers,
Bill