Installing Problem

[Janherbergh]

Hi, I'm new on this forum, and to Kubuntu, even if I've been working with ubuntu for some time. I wanted to do a fresh install of kubuntu 8.10 on my dual boot sistem, but I encountered a problem. When it comes to chose where to install, and select the manual option, the install program doesn't find any of the existing partition in my disk drives. I should have a windows xp partition, an Ubuntu partition, the swap, etc. There's some way to work around this problem?

Thanks in advance

PS: Sorry for the poor english.

[aged hippy]

Re: Installing Problem

Hello Janherbergh and welcome.

.... What poor English, yours is better than that of some who have it as a first language.

It does tend to take the installer quite some time to find the drives and scan them, the bigger they are and the more data they hold, the longer it takes.

I don't have all that much, but from clicking "Manual install" to the next page takes around 10 - 15 minutes.

How long have you given it?

[Janherbergh]

Re: Installing Problem

It shows the next screen, where there are both HD's without any partition in matter of 10-15 seconds... I should give it another try and then wait for those 10 minutes to see if the program refresh the screen. Thanks aged hippy!!

PS: And I didn't realise my English was good, it takes me so much time to write, that I'm always thinking: "this is bad, sure I'm making a lot of mistakes" xD

[aged hippy]

Re: Installing Problem

I would be inclined to re-boot the CD, it sounds as though it hasn't found everything.

Your English is probably good because it takes you so long to type it out.

[dibl]

Re: Installing Problem

@Jan, did you format the partition ext3?

The other thing I can think of is, in your BIOS, there is sometimes a choice of "modes" for the SATA bus. Maybe you need to set it AHCI -- that's what I have to do on my system.

[Janherbergh]

Re: Installing Problem

Aged: I did it several times, for now, and the problem persists.

Dibl: I try it, but the outcome is the same.

After different tries I've made some more info. Both windows xp and ubuntu 8.04 detect very well the partitions in my HD's. For some reason, the install programs of Kubuntu 8.04, 8.10 64 and 32 bits, and Ubuntu 8.10 64 bits, are unable to detect the different partition on hda. All of them detect the only partition on hdb. So the problem must reside on my hda, isn't?

Of course I have the easy solution, that it is format hda and then reinstall all S.O.'s and move the info to the other HD. But the thing is that now I'm worried about why this is happening and if it's a sign of malfunction of the HD, which i must say is pretty new (about 8 moths).

The partitions on the HD are, 1 ntfs, 1 ext3, 1swap, an another ntfs for files.

[aged hippy]

Re: Installing Problem

The common thing there seems to be "64 bits."

[dibl]

Re: Installing Problem

Is one of your hard drives IDE and the other SATA?

[LinuxIsInnovation]

Re: Installing Problem

Choose "Try out kubuntu without making any changes..." option in the LiveCD. After you boot in, open Konsole and type in:

sudo fdisk -l[/b]
Post the output here.

[Janherbergh]

Re: Installing Problem

No, both are IDE drives, at least I think so. How I can be sure?

This is the outpost from fdisk

jan@workshop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
omitting empty partition (5)

Disco /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 cabezas, 63 sectores/pista, 38913 cilindros
Unidades = cilindros de 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Identificador de disco: 0x2f602f5f

Disposit. Inicio  Comienzo   Fin   Bloques Id Sistema
/dev/sda1  *      1    5099  40957686  7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2      5100    38912  271602922+  f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3      10200    10461   2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5      5100    10199  40965687  83 Linux
/dev/sda6      10462    38912  228532626  7 HPFS/NTFS

Disco /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 cabezas, 63 sectores/pista, 19457 cilindros
Unidades = cilindros de 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Identificador de disco: 0x87b887b8

Disposit. Inicio  Comienzo   Fin   Bloques Id Sistema
/dev/sdb1  *      1    19457  156288321  7 HPFS/NTFS

[dibl]

Re: Installing Problem

In your BIOS, for the IDE channel, there should be one or two "modes". Whatever it is set now, try the other one. Maybe "legacy IDE" or something like that.

Also, in the Kubuntu 8.10 installer, when it comes to the partitioning part, choose "Guided" and see if that shows you the disk partitions.

[Guest]

Re: Installing Problem

i have the same problem.. =/

the disk wont recognize my IDE HD partitions.. but it does find my pendrive fat32 partition...
=/

[Guest]

Re: Installing Problem

i had the same problem and i solved it by downloading a program called testdisk... it will search for deleted partitions on your disk that it has lost track for some reason.. and you can re-add them to your partition table... but you have to be careful.. dont change it's default boot partition or you'll have a lot of trouble finding your old grub =P (yea.. i did that the first time)

you can download and use the program from your live-cd.. it's not recomended to do from an installed system.. and make sure you have no partitions mounted..

here's the link for the program.. run it from the console =D
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

ps: if you're not sure what you're doing.. maybe this solution is not for you...