Kubuntu Natty alternate install - Grub & LILO WILL NOT install

[Joe_McM]

Good day ALL,

I need some help, I have been banging my head against my desktop for 2 days now trying to get Natty to install on an old system of mine to complement my main machine that I have both Win 7 & Natty on (in different Drive Draws). The system specs are as follows: Intel P3, 1 GHz processor, 1.5 Gib Ram, 1, 40 Gib HDD, an OLD ATI 9550 (I think) Video card (can easily do 1024x768 video) with 256 KB of VRAM.

OK, here's the issue, I have tried to run the installer graphically and I get a "Code 5" Installer crash that the error box claims is due to either a defective CD/DVD drive or a bad burn of the ISO. I cleaned the drive, still got the error, disassembled my main machine and put in the DVD burner from same into the OLD machine, SAME ERROR!

Reassembled my main machine, tried to download the DVD ISO (I had been using the CD ISO burned on to a DVD, don't ask why, please) from the dedicated site (NOT the torrent) but kept getting 401 errors on both Chrome & IE8. Went into Natty on main machine, downloaded torrent DVD ISO, burned it in K3B, and tried to install it graphically, and low & behold, the same error came up YET AGAIN!!

Tried to install Natty in Text mode, everything was going well until I got to the boot loader install, then it (the installer) said that it couldn't read (or install) either Grub or LILO, I finished the install and rebooted and sure enough, no boot loader at all!

Went back to the torrent (after moving the ISO from it's spot in the "Downloads" folder & deleting the .torrent file, and tried to download it again, this time making sure that the file was marked 100% done, burned it via K3B again, in the meantime I ran the disk check on the installer and it reported just 1 folder damaged.

Took the new (2nd. image) install disk and tried to install it, same issue with Grub & LILO!!!!!

Either there's an issue with the ISO image thats running around the torrent, or there's an issue with the ISO itself. I can not ascertain which (or possibly both) is the true offender.

Meantime, I have an "Almost" complete Natty install on my HDD (almost since there's no boot loader) and I'm getting Extremely frustrated (to be VERY NICE ABOUT IT) can any one help PLEASE??

Is it possible to put the boot loaders in manually (if this was Win 7 I would run the DVD and repair the install) but I am a relevant novice in all things Linux/Unix and am not sure if this is possible.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated no end , THANKS in advance (& please excuse the SCREAMING .

PS. Please DON"T tell me to try Ubuntu, the new GUI stinks!!!

[oshunluvr]

Re: Kubuntu Natty alternate install - Grub & LILO WILL NOT install

You don't say that you checked the iso and burned CD to make sure the MD5SUM is correct. This is more important than checking the burned disc for errors or having a torrent reporting that it's 100% complete.

I don't think it's even possible to use a CD image on a DVD blank.

You didn't say why you're using the alternate install disc rather than the liveCD, but I'll assume there's a good reason - the bad burn??

Anyway - I'd start with your other computer, download the .iso directly rather than as a torrent, check the MD5SUM of the .iso, then burn it (to the correct media), then check the .iso again, then boot to it in your good computer to make sure it works. This should eliminate the media as an issue.

If can boot to the live version on the other computer rather than the alternate installer you can open a terminal and attempt to install grub directly to the hard drive as a test - open a konsole terminal and type:

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

and see what if any errors you get.

Also to consider is one of your two DVD drives is bad. Is it possible to boot the older machine to a USB device?

[Joe_McM]

Re: Kubuntu Natty alternate install - Grub & LILO WILL NOT install

Good morning oshunluvr,

No, I didn't run the checksum, but I did run the "Check disk" on the DVD, just down the list from the Install and Alternate Install options, and the first disk I had reported 1 file on it as bad, so I downloaded the ISO again and it reported itself as good on all files.

Yes, it IS possible to burn a CD ISO to a DVD media, I have done it for a while now as the el-cheapo burner on my main machine won't do CDs any more, only DVDs, believe me, it does work.

The good image will boot as live on my main machine as well as on the smaller target machine I've been trying to load it on to. HOWEVER, when I try to install it graphically the installer will ALWAYS bomb out at 24% with an "[ERRNO5} Input/Output Error" BUT when I try to install using the alternate text based installer (which the disk also reports as a good image, AND I did download from one of the Kubuntu mirrors) that bombs at 85% of the "Select & Install Software" section. I told it to finish the install and, for all intense and purposes just skip the section that it was having an issue with and after it was finished I tried to boot it but no Grub. I put the 40 GB HDD that I was installing to into my main machine as a slave drive to the good install I have on there (also Natty) and compared the two, it appears that that Grub is the only app that didn't get installed, so after a good sleep (and after posting the thread) I did some research on the Ubuntu help site and found the "Grub2" documentation (wow that was some reading!!), and under the section entitled "Reinstalling GRUB2" I tried ALL 3 methods (containing the commands that you stated) listed there and the best I could get was GRUB to boot to a black screen with a GRUB prompt, it wouldn't hand off to the kernel.

Thinking that maybe there was an issue with the HDD itself I tried another and the same issues occurred.

Unfortunately the machine is old enough (circa 1999-2000 P3) that it doesn't support USB boot or I would have tried that already.

I am getting the vibe that this is not going to happen, for what ever reason be it the Mo-Bo or what ever. I think that this one is a case that I am just going to have to hang out the white flag and say "I Surrender!"

I want to thank you for your replying, you know I hear allot about the "Linux/Unix Community" and when I get one person replying to my desperate call for help (sorry everyone else if it wasn't in the proper format, I'm a newbie to this world) out of, I think it was 24+ the last time I looked over 24 hours ago (56 as of this time), that's not so great, If this had been a Windows issue I was having I would have gotten 40 or 50 posts back on it even if the suggestions were questionable.

This has gotten me to the point where instead of concentrating on getting even deeper into Linux (as I was planning on doing) I will keep the one drive I have running (for the apps that it has) and just concentrate on Windows and that's it!!! This is the first time in over 10 years as a computer pro (Windows) that I have sent up a distress flare and gotten (excluding your wonderfull attempt to help, THANK YOU VERY MUCH ) zilch back, EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING TO THE ENTH DEGREE!!

Take Care and once again THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your attempt to help, it has been very refreshing!!

Joe M.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Kubuntu Natty alternate install - Grub & LILO WILL NOT install

No offense intended toward your windows forums - but most posters here don't post replies unless they feel they can actually contribute to a solution. 50 useless responses would only serve to obfuscate the issue.

From what I've read, that error -[ERRNO5} Input/Output Error - is really too general to troubleshoot effectively from here.

If you're still trying:

A) Try installing the dvd-rom drive that created the disc in the computer you're installing to and then trying again. Could be a tracking issue between the two drives.

B) Try partitioning and formatting your target partitions for the install before you install and then don't select "format" during the install.

C) Try a totally different (non-ubuntu) distro and see if that works. I'd suggest PCLinuxOS.

[Joe_McM]

Re: Kubuntu Natty alternate install - Grub & LILO WILL NOT install

Sorry, Didn't mean to blow up @ you this morning, just chalk it up to 5 days straight of frustration, This is first time in over 15 years of playing w/computers (been playing with electronics - first as Ham - for over 30 years, been playing w/computers since early 90's) that I've been NOT able to even get an OS to load-up onto a machine > !

Yeah, I know, it's so Nonspecific that I think they leave it in as the "Catchall" error that they use when the OS just doesn't know what hit it and can't figure it out.

As to Trying:

A) the drive I have been using is (and will not be) the drive as that drive is SATA and the old P3V4X Mo Bo has no SATA on it (it came out long B4 SATA was released) BUT this drive that I am using now is the third drive I have used, I even used the drive from my other half's computer (first burning a disk that later bombed in the same manner) and put it into the small machine just to see if that MIGHT be an issue, NO Joy though.

B) OK, that's one I hadn't thought about, I did go into MANUAL partition and made sure that the drives were marked w/ the mount points & that SDA (on one try) and SDA1 (on another try) were marked as active.

C) Tried Sabayon v-5.5 (x-86) but it failed to even go graphical just stayed on the GRUB desktop wall paper w/ the text overlaid on it. I will try PCLinuxOS to see if that will work w/ that config, I tried the x-64 on my main machine awhile back (their "Full Monte" version) it worked well for a while, but like most Linux/Unix distros (Natty being a MAJOR EXCEPTION, Maverick was also like this) they DO NOT like to play nicely with the ATI/AMD graphics card that I'm running. With Maverick, it would work in standard mode (no 3-d graphics or acceleration of any kind) with the installation drivers, but when I tried to load-up the ATI/AMD proprietary drivers, the OS crashed and did so to the point that I had to do a full reinstall, that's why I've been practically jumping out of my skin w/ joy over Natty, It's the FIRST Linux Distro that I've come across (out of the install box) that has given me full 3-d acceleration without having to jump through hoops and doing reinstalls through the yin-yang.

Once again I apologize to you and the forum for the scene I made this morning, maybe in a few days when the frustration levels have gone down I'll try again.

L8R

[oshunluvr]

Re: Kubuntu Natty alternate install - Grub & LILO WILL NOT install

Nah dude, I didn't take it as pointed at me. You just seemed like you were throwing your hands up. :P

Usually, when a graphics card doesn't work on the liveCD, you need to use Safe Graphics mode or invoke the VESA driver at boot time. I'm an nvidia user myself and have been dealing with getting my cards working right for years so I'm an old hand at that - but no ATI juice here at all!

Lots of others here are though, might be worth some digging around. Anyway - good luck, keep the faith!